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Ensafa Hijab
Heafy is Japanese from his mother and Irish from his father. As stated in an interview, he was born in Iwakuni, Japan, and only lived there for one year. His family then moved to Orlando, Florida, where he currently resides.[2]
Heafy learned to play the saxophone in years leading up to becoming more serious on guitar at the age of twelve.[3]
Heafy attended Lake Brantley High School. He completed his senior year while also touring in Europe, and graduated in 2004.[4] He currently plays a custom Gibson 7-string guitar.[5] He used 6-string guitars for Trivium's first two albums, utilizing standard tuning and Drop D tuning on Ember to Inferno, and solely drop D tuning on Ascendancy.[6] On Trivium's third record, The Crusade, he returned to standard tuning and performed some songs on 7-string guitars. On Shogun, Heafy used 7-string guitars almost exclusively, with only two songs using a 6-string. For Trivium's fifth studio album "In Waves", Heafy returned to using solely 6-string guitars and used drop C# tuning similar to the drop D as seen on Ascendancy.[7]
Heafy does not know formal music theory, and was almost completely self-taught. However, he does know how to read sheet music, but can only apply it on the saxophone. "Self taught for quite a bit of it, did lessons on and off for maybe two or three years, but I do not know anything formal music on guitar. I do on saxophone though…but that doesn’t help me on guitar."[3]
On January 10, 2010, Heafy married Ashley Howard[8] in Orlando, Florida. The wedding was attended by close friends and family.
Matt still often uses the same first Gibson Les Paul he got from his father, in both a live and studio setting.[9]
Recently in an interview Heafy stated, "A lot of people have been asking about the hair. I cut it off and donated it to Locks of Love, which is a foundation for kids with cancer and leukemia. So they make wigs out of real hair. This is the first time I had short hair I guess since I was like 17 or so. So it feels good, I've been sweating a lot less than I used to."[7]
Trivium
Matt Heafy unofficially joined Trivium at the age of twelve, but became the official frontman after Brad Lewter, the previous vocalist of Trivium, quit the band shortly after Heafy joined. Heafy assumed responsibility for vocals and the majority of the songwriting. Matt's debut with Trivium included his compositions of "Fugue", "Demon", "Requiem", "Sworn", and "The Storm". He has also composed the songs and lyrics for Ember to Inferno and Ascendancy.[citation needed]With the release of Trivium's 4th album, Shogun, Heafy greatly expanded his vocal range; from very melodic singing to hardcore screams. In 2011 Trivium's fifth studio album "In Waves" was released with a greater emphasis on songs rather than skill with the album featuring the full range of Heafy's vocal talents with some songs being entirely composed of screaming and others with no screaming at all, and many songs that fused the two as with previous records.
In Trivium, Matt shares lead guitar duties with Corey Beaulieu though he is responsible for recording the rhythm tracks on the albums.
Musical influences
Matt Heafy cites musicians James Hetfield, John Petrucci, Yngwie Malmsteen, and many others as his primary influences. His style was mostly influenced by bands such as Metallica, Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Slayer, Pantera, Dream Theater, Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, Poison the Well, and later on In Flames, Children of Bodom, Arch Enemy, Dark Tranquillity, Opeth, Dimmu Borgir, Fozzy, Dark Funeral and Anorexia Nervosa.[7]Guitars
Heafy has been endorsed by Gibson since Summer 2009, but before he was endorsed by Dean after he and Corey Beaulieu were both given Dean Razorback prototypes in 2006. In summer 2009 Gibson made him a custom 7 string Explorer, which is now a production model but only available in black. He has been seen playing an artist signature model on the Dream Theater "A Dramatic Turn of Events Tour", which is a Epiphone Les Paul in both 6 and 7 string versions.- Les Paul Black 6 String and 7 String
- Les Paul In Black, White and Silverburst
- Explorer 7 string in White.
- Hummingbird Acoustic when needed.
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