Matthew Kiichi Heafy (/ˈheɪfi/HAY-fee; born January 26, 1986)[1] is a Japanese-American musician, best known as the guitarist and lead vocalist for heavy metal band Trivium.[2] He was also the lead vocalist for the band Capharnaum, along with Trivium's former producer Jason Suecof. In 2017, Heafy was voted sixth on the Ultimate Guitar list "Top 25 Greatest Modern Frontmen".[3]
Early life
Heafy was born in Iwakuni, Japan, to a Japanese mother and an American father. His father, formerly a member of the United States Marine Corps, is half-Irish and half-German.[4] Heafy has a younger sister, Michelle, who is now a YouTuber.[5] Although Heafy was born in Japan, he only lived there for one year and does not speak Japanese fluently; however, he uses some basic phrases when he performs in Japan.[6] His family then moved to Orlando, Florida, where he currently resides. Heafy attended Lake Brantley High School. He completed his senior year while also touring in Europe and graduated in 2004.[7][8] During those years, Heafy lived a straight edge lifestyle.[9]
Heafy learned to play the tenor saxophone in years leading up to becoming more serious on guitar at the age of eleven. At that period he was mostly listening to pop punk bands and even auditioned for a local one called "Freshly Squeezed" by playing the Blink-182 song "Dammit." However, following his audition, he never got a follow-up call back. He also cites being introduced to heavy metal by his classmate, David, who gave him a copy of Metallica's self-titled album.[10][11]
Heafy does not know formal music theory and is almost completely self-taught. He does know how to read sheet music, but can only apply it on the saxophone. However, in 2015, he started taking formal training for the guitar.[12]
"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."[11]
Heafy still often uses the same first Gibson Les Paul he got from his father, but only in studio settings. For live performances he uses his signature Epiphone Les Paul that is modeled off of his Gibson.[13]
Following his guitar performance at the school's talent show, Heafy was asked to try out for Trivium by the band's original singer Brad Lewter. Originally, he was accepted as lead guitarist, despite being only 12 years old (other members were 15-16 at that time). Lewter, however, quit the band in less than a month due to creative differences over the band's future musical direction. The drummer Travis Smith persuaded Heafy to do vocals, even though Heafy himself was unsure of his singing voice at that time. The band started looking for an external singer to fill in the position but had trouble finding a suitable candidate. Eventually, Heafy agreed to become a full-time lead singer for Trivium also keeping the position of lead guitarist for the band. He taught himself growling and screaming, especially doing so during the band's early years. However, he admitted using the techniques incorrectly most of his career, which ultimately caused severe damage to his vocal chords in the years leading up to the band's performance at Rock on the Range in 2014, where he blew his voice on stage. That same year, he started taking vocal lessons from coach Ron Anderson, following advice from M. Shadows of Avenged Sevenfold. In 2016, Heafy returned to performing unclean vocals live with the same frequency as he did before his injury, citing Anderson's lessons as a source of help and improvement.[14] He claims that the new technique is actually easier than normal talking.
With the release of Trivium's fourth 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, others with no screaming at all, and many songs that fused the two as with previous records.
In Trivium, Heafy sometimes shares lead guitar duties with Corey Beaulieu, although he is responsible for recording the rhythm tracks on the albums.
After Ember to Inferno, Heafy jokingly played in the post-hardcore genre, releasing one song titled "Head on Collision with a Rosebush Catching Fire" under the name Tomorrow Is Monday.[citation needed]
On December 4, 2020, Heafy released a collaborative 5-track EP with American YouTuber and musician Jared Dines.[15]
On January 21, 2022, Heafy unveiled the first single, "Tamashii no Houkai", from his black metal influenced project Ibaraki. The song features Ihsahn of black metal band Emperor.[17]
Ibaraki's debut album, Rashomon, was released on May 6, 2022, which features Nergal of Behemoth and Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance, in addition to Ihsahn.[18] The album's lyrics were inspired by Heafy's Japanese heritage, drawing from Japanese mythology and folklore.[19]
In 2014, Heafy contributed to DragonForce's sixth studio album titled Maximum Overload. He performed backing vocals in three of the album's ten tracks: "The Game", "Defenders" and "No More".
In 2015, Heafy contributed to the metal supergroup album Metal Allegiance. He provided lead vocals and additional guitars on the track "Destination: Nowhere". He also contributed on guitar for the track "Triangulum I. Creation II. Evolution III. Destruction".
In 2016, Heafy appeared on the album Arktis by fellow musician Ihsahn.
In October 2019, Heafy was a featured guest-vocalist on an acoustic version of "Stabbing in the Dark" by Ice Nine Kills.
On December 4, 2020, Heafy appeared on a 5-song collaborative EP with youtuber Jared Dines titled "Dines x Heafy". The music video for the song "Dear Anxiety" was also released on the same day.[23] Heafy and Dines had previously collaborated on a cover of "Better Now" by Post Malone.[24]
On July 16, 2021, Heafy provided guest vocals on Powerwolf's re-recording of "Fist by Fist (Sacralize or Strike)" on the deluxe version of Call of the Wild.[25]
Heafy appears as a guest vocalist in Funcom's Metal: Hellsinger,[26] and has provided two songs for "The Awakened King" expansion of Remnant 2.[27] He's acting as composer and sound designer for the upcoming game Martial Arts Tycoon.[26][27]
Heafy has been endorsing Gibson since Summer 2009. Prior to that, in 2006, he endorsed Dean after he and Corey Beaulieu were both given Dean Razorback prototypes. In 2008, his signature model, an ML shape with a graphic of the Japanese Rising Sun, was released. He stopped using Deans in 2009 after some disagreements. In summer 2009 Gibson made him a custom 7 string Explorer, which later became a production model but only available in black right-handed models.
In 2013, Epiphone released his artist signature model Les Paul in both 6 and 7 string versions. He had previously been seen playing his signature models on the Dream Theater "A Dramatic Turn of Events Tour".[30] In 2017, Epiphone released a new signature model called "SnØfall", which drew inspiration from Trivium's 2015 album Silence in the Snow. This model is available in 6 and 7 string configurations and features an exclusive custom Alpine White finish along with white Phenolic fret board. In 2022, Epiphone released his signature Les Paul Custom Origins with his signature Fishman Fluence pickups and in black and white, 6 and 7 strings and right and left-handed configurations.[31]
On January 9, 2010, Heafy married Ashley Howard in Orlando, Florida.[32] The wedding was attended by their close friends and family. The couple have twins: a daughter and a son, born on November 6, 2018.[33] Matt returned home from tour to be with Ashley while she gave birth while the tour finished with Howard Jones and Johannes Eckerström performing guest vocals on various songs and YouTuber Jared Dines filling in on guitar.
Heafy has been confused for The 1975 frontman Matty Healy on multiple occasions due to the similarities of their names. In January 2023, Heafy made the news by responding to a Cameo request from a user that mistook him for Healy.[34]
Twitch streaming
Heafy is a gamer and practitioner of Brazilian jiu-jitsu. He does daily live streams on his Twitch channel "matthewkheafy", which consists of playing video games, running guitar clinics, vocal warm-ups, showcasing his Brazilian jiu-jitsu classes, and playing Trivium songs and acoustic covers.[35]
Metal Allegiance - lead vocals and additional guitar on "Destination: Nowhere", additional guitars on "Triangulum I. Creation II. Evolution III. Destruction" (2015)
^Meisenkaiser (February 23, 2004). "Interview: 2004-02-23 Trivium". metalinside.de (in German). Archived from the original on May 20, 2017. Retrieved May 20, 2017. [...] Die High-School-Party-Szene interessiert mich nicht. Ich bin straight-edge. Keine Drogen, keine Probleme, keine Verbrechen. Musik ist alles. (The high school party scene does not interest me. I'm straight-edge. No drugs, no problems, no crimes. Music is everything.)
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