[avatar user=”James” size=”50″ align=”left” /]
Just over a week ago, I had the opportunity to spend a bit of time chatting to the guitarist and harsh vocalist from none other than Trivium. We chatted about how the tour had been going, what it’s been like playing with the new drummer and what he does to warm up before a show.
Huge thanks to Kirsten at Cosa Nostra for organising and Corey for his time.
You’re coming to the end of the UK tour now, how do you think it’s been going?
It’s been really good. Tonight’s the last show and it’s been cool to play some smaller shows and play a few places where we’ve never played before. We deliberately chose to play smaller places so that fans who can’t normally make it to the bigger cities can get to see us without having to travel as far. So yeah, it’s been really cool!
After this tour, you’re heading off to Japan and Australia. Are you excited for that?
I am but we unfortunately have to head to the airport at 6 in the morning! But no, we are all really excited to get back to Japan. It’s our favourite place to travel to and it’s also our first time headlining there in 7 years. Normally we’d just play there for festivals but this time we get to play some other cities that we haven’t played in a while so we’re really looking forward to those shows.
And of course, Australia is always good fun as well. Normally, we don’t get down there this early in the album cycle so it’s cool to get that sooner rather than making everyone wait like a year to see the show.
Silence in the Snow has been out for just over 6 months now. What’s the response been like when you’re playing these new songs in the set?
It’s been great! Now that the record has been out for a while, its allowed people to digest it and get to know the songs. We’ve been playing a bunch of songs from the record on this tour and folk have been singing along to them which has been really cool. It seems that now, people know them and they enjoy them alongside all the older stuff as well.
Now that we have our new drummer, we’ve been reintroducing some older songs that haven’t been played in a while. Its been a lot of fun bringing out some old songs that we used to play a lot and also some songs that we have never played in a while. It also keeps it fresh for fans that come to see us as they wouldn’t want us to play the same shit every time!
Since I last saw you guys at Bloodstock, you’ve gained a new drummer. What’s it been like playing with him?
Its been really cool! We’ve been looking for the right drummer for a while as all our previous ones have not been brought in in the best circumstances. They’ve been brought in just to keep tours going and things. This time however, we wanted to really feel out of the right person. We spent a good 6 months looking for the right person and as well as that we hit up Mike Mangini from Dream Theatre as he used to teach at Berklee collage. He got back to us the next day and said that he knew the right guy for us.
It’s been really fun as he’s a great drummer and he’s super tight. He also can play anything from our back catalogue which is awesome and has opened up what we can play in the live shows. He’s also got great showmanship and stage presence so he’s been fitting in with us really well. We’ve also gotten some really good comments from fans saying that they really enjoy watching him play so it’s been a win win situation.
Now, last time I interviewed you, I remember you said you use Kemper and Jackson guitars. Getting onto your Kemper, what sort of profile do you use?
The profile we have is from a 5150 V3 amp which was used on the Vengeance Falls record. When we were listening back to the guitar tones we were like: “Holy crap what is that from?”. Paolo was at the studio and he let me know that it was a Kemper so that made us really interested in trying them out. We previously used Fractal gear and going direct into the PA. For what we wanted though in terms of sound however, we felt that the Kemper would work better. It also means that we don’t have to hire any gear and our tone is consistent throughout the shows.
What do you do to warm up before a show?
For guitar I normally just pick up the guitar and play a couple of scales and exercise patterns. I sometimes jam on parts from the set as well but it depends on how my hands are feeling. Sometimes in the winter, your hands are really stiff so you have to warm them up a bit more but normally during a tour you’re pretty much good to go.
I also do a couple of neck exercises and stretches to keep my body in shape from all the head-banging and moving around on the stage. I don’t really have any vocal warmups, I just yell a few times and then go do it!
Thank you for your time today Corey. It was great to finally meet you in person!
Thanks man!
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