Interviews

John Floreani - Trophy Eyes Remove Armour For Knight and Day Festival

Walladmin

Heavy Metal Wordsmith

Feb 28, 2022

7 min read

Yes, Knight and Day Festival was literally two months ago, but life got in the way of getting this interview out. Until now that is! Trophy Eyes have released three singles over the past four months ('Nobody Said', 'Bittersweet' and '27 Club'), with no large body of work announced, but it's clear they're working towards something exciting.

Ebony Story caught up with John Floreani of Trophy Eyes on day two of the festival (our AfterFilm here) to find out how he's feeling about playing live for the first time in years.

"I haven't moved or danced or even raised my voice in two years. I had to spend two days in a studio in Melbourne practising and I had to learn how to scream again."

Looking back on their set, it seems no time had passed and he and the band took to the stage extremely comfortably and like no time had passed. They played new songs among the old, and it brings up the fact that many Trophy Eyes fans are divided on their "new music" compared to their "old music". Almost with each new Trophy Eyes release, there's always that one person who comments on social media saying something along the lines of, 'Not as good as Chemical Miracle'. This isn't something that the band overlook either, with John tweeting the following in December.

Chemical who? https://t.co/fSRiDMinYa

— John Floreani (@JohnFloreani) December 15, 2021

To which we asked whether the band feel the need to "one up" their career defining album.

"I have so much to say on this topic. Chemical Miracle is a great album and a defining album for Trophy Eyes' career, and people attach a part of their lives to that sound, that era, that time, that piece of music. And so anything you do after that, they're not 18 or 21 anymore, and their life has changed and when you write another record they go 'Oh it's not as life defining as that record'. The fact is the music didn't really change that much, but the reason I tweeted that was to that small pocket of fans who that's their favourite thing... enjoy it, it'll be there forever. I'll help you enjoy it, that's my gift to you and I'll never take it away.

But this next thing we're writing now is like regardless of any of the things we've done this next thing has moved me and it's in demo stages in the moment, like the few of the songs I've been writing, I've cried. I feel like we've really touched on something else entirely."

We're all excited for the future of Trophy Eyes, and like John said, Chemical Miracle will be there forever. In fact, you can see them perform it from start to end at UNIFY Gathering 2022. But until then, watch the full video below.

Interview by Ebony Story