Trivium will be releasing a reissue of Ember To Inferno on December 2nd, and fans everywhere are excited. Their début record was only a preview of the great things to come from this band, and since it’s has been out of print for several years, this will be some fans first opportunity to own the record for the very first time. I recently got to speak with Matt Heafy about the upcoming reissue, what the record meant for him, the band’s career since its release, and much more. Enjoy the chat below!
Metal Mark: Hey Matt, it’s always good to hear from you. How’s everything on your end?
Matt Heafy: I’m doing well man. We are wrapping up another busy year for the band, but it’s been a good year, so no complaints at all.
MM: You guys are wrapping up 2016 with a special re-release of your highly sought after debut record, Ember To Inferno, on Friday. The initial release was over thirteen years ago, but for you personally, does it feel like that much time has passed?
MH: Yes and no (laughs). When I first received the final packing for the re-release, it did feel like light-years away, but then when I read all the stories that come with the special packaging, it felt like it was just yesterday. It kind of put my mind right back to where we were as a band in a weird, but cool way. The original “Red” album was recorded in a converted bedroom/studio of a local dude from Orlando, and I remember every moment of recording it, so to hear it again with all of the extra tracks is really special for me. It’s incredible to think that I’ve been doing this for that long, and am still successful. Trivium was the first band I ever joined. This has been my job, if you want to call it that, for almost eighteen years now, and that’s just insane to comprehend sometimes. It’s awesome.
MM: It’s pretty nuts, because some people go from band to band trying to find success, and you’ve had great success with the first band you ever joined (laughs).
MH: It’s wild. That’s another cool thing about re-releasing this record, because I get to go back and listen to the material, and do interviews about it, because we never did an interview for this record thirteen years ago. When Ember To Inferno first came out on Lifeforce Records, it was impossible to find. The distribution wasn’t what we thought it should have been, no interviews were done, only three European shows were played, it’s pretty crazy to think about nowadays. Luckily soon after it was released, the guys at Roadrunner Records caught wind of us, and the rest, as they say, is history.
MM: If you can go back thirteen years, when you were writing this record as a teenager, do you remember having a certain direction for this album?
MH: When we were writing this record, I remember playing what we liked, and how important that was for us. We never thought this record would get us noticed or signed, we just wanted to put out a great album, so we just went in and did it. That confidence was something unheard of by a young band in Orlando back then, but we still have it today, and I think it’s very important. Just like we do now, we practiced a lot when we were starting out. We wanted to be prepared for anything. We wanted to get better each and every day. We wanted to play the music we love, because that’s what our idols did, so we put in the work for it.
When we did the “Blue” album, that was something we did by ourselves. That was a record we sold at local shows, where three to seven people made up the crowd. We would sell one copy, to an aunt or uncle(laughs), but luckily our webmaster got it to the people at Lifeforce Records at the right time. They hit us up, and after being with them for a little bit, like I said earlier, Roadrunner Records showed interest. They said they liked the material, but didn’t think we were ready, so we put the time in and wrote some new material, and that’s where the “Yellow” disc came from. Once they heard ‘Like Light To The Flies’, ‘Blinding Tears Will Break The Skies’ and ‘The Deceived’ at their headquarters, they asked for a visual representation of the band. We had a very DIY attitude back then, so we shot a video for ‘Like Light To The Flies’, and they signed us after that. That’s what they were looking for at the time, so we made sure that’s what they got. That drive and confidence was present back then, and it’s still there today, and it’s the backbone to what Trivium has always been about.
MM: I do remember hearing this record when it came out, and going holy shit, this is something special. Listening to it now is even more fun, because you can hear the different styles of your sound that you’ve perfected over the years on every album since. Are you still kind of amazed that you wrote some of this stuff when you were only seventeen years old?
MH: Absolutely. I definitely was more of a shredder and a lead guitar player back then. I was listening to it the other day, and was trying to learn it again, and it was tough. I don’t know, I must have been logging in way more hours on the guitar than I am now, but that also drives me to get better today, which is awesome. It’s cool to look back at the early releases, because as you said, you can hear kind of where we were going as a band, even with how young we were at the time. A song like ‘Thrust’ shows the blueprint for songs like ‘Dying In Your Arms’ or ‘Until The World Goes Cold.’ Songs like ‘Lake Of Fire’ and ‘The Storm’ have the fast, shreddy parts, with the crazy solos that we still have in our sound today, so it’s cool to look back and see that the initial formula for what Trivium started out to be is still evident in our music today.
MM: When a lot of band decide to re-release a record, they also decided to remaster it as well. Was that ever a thought for you guys with Ember To Inferno, or were you pretty set on releasing it as it was?
MH: We definitely thought about it, but then we got in fan mode, and decided against it. As a fan of music, I feel like remastering a record takes away that special moment in time. I know a lot of bands that have lost their masters, have had to do it, but we had our copies, and we wanted fans to hear it as it was. This was exactly who the band was over a decade ago, and it was a special time for us, so we didn’t want to lose that innocence and rawness on the record that propelled us to where we are today. There was a reason that Roadrunner signed us after hearing this material, and with the re-release, fans who have never had the chance to own or hear it finally get that opportunity. It’s pretty cool.
MM: I know you’ve been playing some of these older tracks live on your recent tours. Since this record wasn’t distributed as much as it should have been, do you still look out and see fans eyes open wider when this material is played?
MH: Definitely, and that’s the main reason we wanted to re-release it to the fans. We’ve thrown in a few tracks at these shows, and have had fans come up to us asking if it was new material. It’s not their fault for not knowing, because this record is impossible to find, but now it won’t be. I know you can find tracks here and there on YouTube, but this packaging puts it all together, and showcases where we came from as a band in a beautiful way.
MM: I know you have one last European tour in support of the Silence in the Snow record, but do you have plans to have a tour around this re-release?
MH: Not at the moment. Who knows what the future may hold, but we are focused on making this last run in Europe a special one. The fans over there have supported us since day one, so we always want to give them a show when we go there. After this run, we are going to take a little break, and then see what the future holds. This Ember To Inferno re-release is just something special we wanted the fans to have, because they’ve asked for it for so long. We’ve thrown in some of the tracks on the current runs, but I don’t see a full run of just this material in the future. We have too much in our catalog now, but like I said, it’s a cool release to show fans who we were at that time, and give them the chance to own it for the first time.
MM: Very cool Matt. From the début record to now, the rise of Trivium has been fun to watch, and it seems like you’ve learned a lot since the early days. For the last question, knowing what you do now, what advice would you give that seventeen year old Matt Heafy for the future?
MH: You know what? I would tell him nothing. All of the mistakes and the missteps that we’ve encountered as a band in our career up until this point are just as important as anything else we’ve done as a band. They’ve shaped us, not only as a band, but as humans as well. They’ve made us stronger people, and therefore the band has gotten stronger because of it. So I wouldn’t give him any advice, because that one piece of advice could alter Trivium from what we’ve become today, and I’m pretty happy with where we are in 2016.
