Matt Heafy

Matthew Kiichi Heafy (born January 26, 1986) is a Japanese-American musician, best known as the guitarist and lead vocalist for heavy metal band Trivium.

He was also the lead vocalist for the band Capharnaum, along with Trivium's former producer Jason Suecof.

He completed his senior year while also touring in Europe and graduated in 2004.

During those years, Heafy used to live a straight edge lifestyle.

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.

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.

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.

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.

However, in 2015, he started taking formal training for the guitar.

"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."

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.

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.

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.

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 2017, Heafy was voted sixth on the Ultimate Guitar list "Top 25 Greatest Modern Frontmen".

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.

Heafy has a younger sister, Michelle, who is now a YouTuber.

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.

His family then moved to Orlando, Florida, where he currently resides.

Heafy attended Lake Brantley High School.

On December 4, 2020, Heafy released a collaborative 5-track EP with American YouTuber and musician Jared Dines.

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.

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.