Trivium Guitarist Corey Beaulieu on COVID-19, the Return of Live Music + More

2020-04-28

Trivium – Story by Anne Erickson

Corey Beaulieu of Trivium speaks with Anne Erickson about the band’s new album, “What the Dead Men Say,” and a changing music business amid the coronavirus

True metal fans know they’re in for a treat when they get a new Trivium album. The Orlando, Florida, band has been crafting fiery, guitar-driven heavy metal since the early 2000s, and helped usher in a new era of modern trash metal.

Trivum releases a new album on April 24, “What the Dead Men Say,” offering a diverse range of original metal tracks. Guitarist Corey Beaulieu spoke with Anne Erickson of Audio Ink about the new album, how the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is changing the music business and more. Read the full interview below, and listen via the Audio Ink podcast.

Anne Erickson Congratulations on Trivium’s new album, “What the Dead Men Say.” It marks Trivium’s ninth studio album. How would you say this album different from the rest of Trivium’s catalog?

Corey Beaulieu: We wanted to make a record that takes everything we’ve done in our career and puts it into one sound. This record, I think, takes from the last record and builds off it. We wanted to take the previous record and what worked so well and build off that foundation. We wanted to take it further and add more elements on there to make the record its own unique thing but also not have it be a departure from what we set into motion on the previous record.

Do you have a favorite song off “What the Dead Men Say?”

It changes, since there’s a good variety of song styles. Definitely one of my favorites is “Amongst the Shadows & the Stones,” and also “The Defiant” is another really killer one. It changes, because there are some longer, crazier songs and then some more straight-forward songs, so there’s a little variety in there that depending on your mood, it can very.

Let’s talk coronavirus. How are you seeing the coronavirus pandemic impact those in the music business who rely on touring income and tours to make a living?

Live touring and concerts and stuff like that– the music industry was the first thing that got totally shut down. The live touring and music and sports went from, “Hey, we’re here,” to nothing a couple hours later. I remember hanging at home and watching basketball on TV, and the next thing you know, some report came up that players were sick, and the next thing you know, the season is postponed. I was like, what happened? We kept our eye on it, because we had shows a couple weeks ago in Asia, and we canceled way before anything was mass canceled across the board. We knew it wasn’t getting any better and that area of the world we were supposed to go to was not the spot to be in. It snowballed with travel restrictions and wasn’t going to happen. We’re another one of those bands in that wait and see mode, where have to sit on a bench a while before we get back into the game. It’s a bummer.

Who do you think it hurts most in the music business?

It definitely hurts bands, especially smaller bands that were relying on the tour income to keep the band going, For us, we hadn’t been touring for the last year, so we didn’t have a lot of stuff we had to cancel, but I feel bad for the bands and especially their crews. The crew people who work for bands, their whole income is off touring and going from working with one band and jumping on with another. When you take all the touring out of the equation, there are a lot of people out of work.

Trivium has a great tour on tap for this summer with In Flames, Lamb of God and Megadeth. The tour is currently scheduled to launch in June. Do you know if it’s still a go at this time?

It’s supposed to start at the end of June, and it’s all up in the air with government regulations and city regulations… Management is keeping eyes on everything and talking to government people, and I know certain cities have no mass gatherings until a certain date, and that can conflict, so who knows. As of right now, the tour is still as is, but there’s always a possibility that it could get moved, just because it’s coming up to the tour pretty soon, and the fact that nobody’s working and able to buy tickets, that could cause an issue with a lot of different things, so we’re hopeful. Either way, if for some reason it gets moved, we’re still going to play those shows, we’re just going to come at a different time, so people don’t have to worry about the show being completely taken away. They might have to wait if it does get changed. We’re kind of taking it day by day, seeing how everything unfolds and gets handled. Especially here in the States, it looks like it’s probably going to get worse before it gets better, so who knows what to expect. It’s kind of out of our hands at the moment. Fingers crossed, and wish for the best.

Do you think touring and concerts will change forever after COVID-19, or do you think it will go back to the way it was?

With music and sports and even just being able to go out whenever you want to do something like go to the movies or the mall, everything is closed down and there’ nothing to do, so I hope when things get back to normal and there aren’t restrictions, there’s a newfound appreciation for live entertainment and live music. Just being able to go out and socialize with people. Hopefully there’s will be that appreciation when you have something taken away that maybe you took for granted.

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Anne Erickson

Meet the expert - Author, writer and editor Anne Erickson is a Detroit-based reporter and radio host. She has written for the USA Today Network, Consequence.net, Blabbermouth.net, and many more. Anne holds a master's degree from Michigan State University. Contact Anne at anne@audioinkradio.com.