Interview with Triaxis

I have been trying to get South Wales metal band Triaxis in Soundscape for what seems like ages.

I loved the bands first album ‘Key To The Kingdom’ and now 3 years down the line the band are on the eve of releasing long awaited album number 2, the quite frankly awesome, ‘Rage And Retribution’ which is to be released through Rocksector records on Mon 8th October.

The album is a hard hitting slab of melodic, catchy heavy metal and epic songwriting, underpinned with outstanding musicianship and topped off with Krissie Kirby’s powerful, goose bump inducing vocals.

We spoke to the band so they could fill us in on ‘Rage And Retribution’ and all things Triaxis.

Please introduce yourselves to our readers?  We are Triaxis, heavy metal from South Wales and we play it loudly!

Where did the band’s name come from?  We needed a band name for our first ever gig, we came up with various different ideas but Triaxis seemed to be short, memorable and something that could be chanted so it stuck. Although Glyn will come up with some wacky notion about three boys in the band and a certain male appendage!

How did you get started?  The band was founded in 2006 by Giles and CJ who started, like most bands do, by covering metal classics.  When Krissie and Owen joined, more original material started to be written and now with Glyn on board, we’re the band you see today.

What have you got going on at the moment?  We’re releasing our second album ‘Rage and Retribution’ on October 8th, through Rocksector Records, who we’ve just signed to. We’ll be touring the album when it’s launched, and we’ll be venturing into Europe for the first time. We’ve just wrapped the filming on our first music video, so keep an eye out for that. Plus we’ve got three festivals lined up for 2013 already, including a return to Hammerfest.

Favourite music and why?  Glyn – Metal because of the great diversity and energy. It is also one of the last standing genres where people actually play their music instead of programming it.

CJ – Metal, because I love it 🙂 My all time favourite bands are Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Nevermore, Iced Earth and Opeth.

Krissie – Metal and Hard Rock: I’m a huge Iron Maiden, Ronnie James Dio and Queen fan, so I like songs that I can sing along to.

Giles – Metal in all its wonderful forms. It just inspires me every day!

Favourite book and why?  Glyn – Lord of the Rings because the world and characters are just so vast and detailed.

CJ – I don’t get much time to read books these days! And I don’t have a favourite as such, I was fond of the Hobbit as a child. When I do get time to read it’s usually fantasy novels or biographies.

Giles – Lance Armstrong’s autobiography, ‘it’s not about the bike’.

Krissie – both my degrees are in Literature so I read a lot, there are just too many on my favourite list to mention, but one I read over and over is Orwell’s ‘Nineteen Eight Four’.

Favourite film and why?  Glyn – Kung pow because it will always be funny.

CJ – Too many to name, personal favourites include Evil Dead Trilogy and Hellraiser. My favourite genres are horror, sci-fi, animations, comedy and action films. No chick flicks here!

Krissie – Like CJ again too many to name, but my favourite genre is Sci-Fi, closely followed by action films.  I have a soft spot for the Star Trek films. Khaaaaannnnnnnn!

Giles – Not an easy one to answer. I love films!

Best experience in the business?  Playing amazing festivals like Bloodstock Open Air and Hammerfest, festivals that are well organised, full to the brim of excellent bands with lots of metalheads who want to have a good time. Playing for a good crowd is always uplifting.

Why should Soundscape readers care?  We take influences from classic heavy metal, thrash, prog, death and more, and have clean soaring vocals from Krissie.  We aren’t like other ‘female fronted’ metal bands. Krissie has been compared to Ann Wilson of Heart and the mighty Dio himself by Metal Hammer magazine. You have to get to a show and see us play to see what we mean!  Not only that but Glyn is from Newport and he has an arsenal of rare and dangerous weapons (just kidding)

 Tell our readers an interesting fact about the band?  Krissie appeared on ITV’s ‘Michael Barrymore’s My Kind of Music’ in 2001 and won the show. And Giles played guitar for 10 years, only taking up drums in 2006 because we couldn’t find a reliable drummer!

What’s the best and worst things about touring?  Best: playing for different people everyday and seeing new places, playing at new venues. Worst: the endless travelling, eating rubbish all the time and sleeping in less than comfortable places!

Most embarrassing thing to happen to you while in the band?  We wracked our brains and couldn’t come up with anything embarrassing, well, nothing that could be published anyway.

What’s your songwriting process?  Everyone comes up with ideas, riffs, small sections or entire songs. We then look at them as a band and introduce our own ideas and it grows from there.

What inspires you?  Music! And I think we’d all agree when Giles says the fear of not succeeding. We take inspiration from everywhere, films, books, dreams, all sorts.

Best thing about coming from Wales?  Glyn actually likes the weather.  Perhaps the best thing is when we drive back via the M50 or M4 and you see the welcome to Wales sign, it means we’re not far from home.

Who are your role models/idols?  Glyn – Jason Becker for continuing to live ten years longer than doctors said he would with a disease that ruined everything he loved.

Giles – My fiance, and guitarist in the band, CJ. Many famous drummers/musicians and sports men and women.

Krissie – Marilyn Monroe, Chalene Johnson (fitness guru) and Bruce Dickinson to name a few.

What do you think the hardest thing about the current business is?  Making it as a band isn’t really financially viable, companies take massive risks supporting a band and as such, there are less companies willing to take such risks. Which means that getting noticed, being given opportunity to be put on a good bill and get your music heard is a constant battle.

Final question, the one we ask everyone, who is your favourite Batman actor?  Glyn – Shock! I actually like Christian Bale and his death growls!

Krissie – Michael Keaton was great as both Batman and Bruce Wayne, but Bale is a close second if you can get past the husky voice when he’s in the suit.

 ‘Rage And Retribution’ will be released on 8th October through iTunes, Amazon and on CD from the bands webstore and is absolutely an album you should check out.

The band are also playing some shows on October and November, including a show at Bogiez in Cardiff on Oct 18th, so make sure you head down to witness the bands incredible live show.

Head over to http://www.triaxis.info where you will find links to all the bands pages and sites and also a link to the bands Big Cartel store when you can buy CD’s, T shirts, signed posters and lots of other merch.