Matt Heafy
| Matt Heafy | |
|---|---|
Heafy performing at Rock im Park in 2014.
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Matthew Kiichi Heafy |
| Also known as | Matt Heafy |
| Born |
January 26, 1986 Iwakuni, Yamaguchi, Japan |
| Origin | Orlando, Florida, United States |
| Genres | Heavy metal, thrash metal, melodic metalcore, technical death metal, black metal, power metal |
| Occupation(s) | Guitarist, vocalist, musician, songwriter |
| Instruments | Guitar, vocals |
| Years active | 1998–present |
| Labels | Lifeforce, Roadrunner |
| Associated acts | Trivium, Capharnaum, Mindscar, DragonForce |
| Website | trivium |
Matthew "Matt" Kiichi Heafy (born January 26, 1986) is a Japanese American musician, best known as the guitarist and lead vocalist for the American heavy metal band Trivium. Heafy is also the lead vocalist for the band Capharnaum, along with Trivium's former producer Jason Suecof.
Heafy was born in Iwakuni, Japan to an American father and a Japanese mother. His father, formerly a member of the United States Marine Corps, is half-Irish and half-German. Although Heafy was born in Japan, he lived there for only one year. He does not speak Japanese fluently; however, he has mastered some of the basic phrases and uses them when he performs in Japan. So he does with German as well. His family then moved to Orlando, Florida, where it currently resides. Heafy attended Lake Brantley High School. He completed his senior year while also touring in Europe, and graduated in 2004.
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, he was not accepted for unspecified reasons. 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 was 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.
"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."
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