Interview with Dion Greenwood, guitar player and composer in Dubai based metal band Triton
published 27.08.2024
Hey Dion, nice to meet you. I found your band Triton on Threads by accident and was really surprised to find out you’re from Dubai.
First of all please introduce your band. Who are the band members, how did you meet up?
Heyo! Nice to meet you too Liz. Well as you said, we are a Dubai, U.A.E based Metal Band, our current band members are Me, Hijazi Zaiton, Tomislav Vanevski, Nathan Pravin and Raeansh Negi. It all started through tiktok essentially, back in like the last few months of 2020 I uploaded this short guitar cover of Enter Sandman by Metallica on tiktok and Hijazi came across and sent me a DM on instagram saying how he was a bassist and would love to form a band and jam together and stuff, and we eventually did which lead to the true beginning of current Triton. Nathan and I were online friends and I found out that he was a singer at some point and asked if he could scream, he sent me a voice message doing so and he was in the band from that moment onwards. Tomislav was found by Hijazi through his university when he saw Tomi playing Metallica riffs and not long after he was brought into the band as the rhythm guitarist. Raeansh our newest drumming prodigy became friends with Hijazi through this Guns N Roses concert ticket competition and we recently brought him in after having him as a writing only drummer for a while.
When did you make the desicion to become a musician and what was the main reason for you to choose the metal genre?
Personally, I don’t consciously remember when I decided to become a musician, guitar was very much just a hobby thing for me in the first-ish year of playing it. For the longest time I never thought I’d be able to write with it, practice sessions would always end with me learning riffs and thinking how the hell did they write these??
And then one day it was like a switch just flipped and I wrote my first riff which went to become “Where the wolf lies”. Writing in the metal genre specifically came after Triton, my tastes were always mainly hard rock with an occasionally heavy metal song but as my tastes got heavier so did my writing, the band that truly sealed me in the metal genre was Pantera.
How would you describe your music style? Which musicians influenced you the most?
Our music style is a melting pot of influences, we like to claim the self-coined genre of „Groove-Metalcore, which is a derivative of our overall influence of groove metal with our bass players constant insistence of Metalcore, its a switch between simple (I call then caveman riffs) that make u groove and headbang mixed with somewhat technical melodeath riffs and chorus like sing-songy epics.
My biggest influences have changed over the years, it started off with Angus Young of ACDC, then Dimebag Darrel of Pantera, now it currently sits at Brandon Ellis of The Black Dahlia murder for my lead playing and Knocked Loose/Kublai Khan/Meshuggah for everything else.
Your band name got my special attention. I see the trident in your band logo. The trident is the sceptre and weapon of the sea god Poseidon (also Triton). Let us know what’s the story behind your band name.
Poseidon is actually a very direct reason for the bands name, I’m a huge Greek mythology nerd and Trident was really cool sounding but i figured it was too common. Lo and behold, I find out The Little Mermaids dad Triton also weilds a Trident and his name is really cool and catchier than Trident, so I pitched it to the band and it stuck.
How do you usually compose your songs and where do you get your inspiration for the lyrics/stories?
Our writing process isn’t really anything spectacular, one of us usually has a riff idea or a melody and we send it our groupchat and we discuss, if we like the idea it gets turned into a song, usually I flesh out the songs and it back and forth testing out different iterations and ideas with the band until we like how it sounds. Recently, we’ve been trying to write all together in a room and that hasn’t gone bad, yet anyways. My personal inspiration for lyrics/stories are usually just stuff I see around, or an idea that I hear that I’d like to derive from, sometimes it stems from personal instances, other times its YO that sounds like a sick idea lets make it work! Nate usually handles all the lyric writing though, we just sprinkle in parts that we think can bounce of it. As far as I know, Nate usually has the same inspiration pattern.
You released your fourth single „Blessed By The Grim“ last friday which is going more into the melodic deathmetal direction. Will there be more songs coming like this one or will you surprise us with more unexpected tunes? Are you working on an EP or longplayer?
Grim like most of our songs is an experiment in how we can evolve our sound, we do love ourselves some Melodic Death metal and maybe you can expect some of that on our next release, but dont expect Triton to stick to any singular sound is the most i can say without giving too much away. We have plans in place for some form of LP/EP but nothing that we can announce as set in stone as of yet.
Did you already play concerts outside from Dubai? Which band/s would you love to go on tour with?
We recently had the oppurtunity to play in Abu Dhabi for the first time in support of our friend Vish (@voiceofvish on instagram) and that was technically our first steps out of Dubai though technically still very much within U.A.E. Bands we’d want to tour with is an exhaustingly long list but the short immediate ones would be Metallica, Pantera, Knocked Loose, The Black Dahlia Murder, Trivium and MOST OF ALL our older brothers and local legends Metarust.
Going to play a concert or being in the studio many unexpected things can happen. Can you remember a funny or weird situation from your past you want to share with us?
Honestly more moments than I can count, there was this one time on stage where we werent standing in our usual positions and i kept accidentally hitting nate in the head with the headstock of my guitar (sorry nate) and I promise i feel bad but thinking back on it, its mad funny. There was also this time where the bassist for Metarust Marwan kept flashing the Heart hand signs to me while I was on stage and I couldnt stop laughing.
Last but not least what are your favorite hobbies if you want to relax and get your mind free from everything?
If I’m trying to have fun I usually make myself a nice cup of coffee and sit down at my pc and game for hours on end or watch some youtube. When I’m trying to get some peace and keep my mind free and empty I sit down with the accoustic and just jam.
On which social media channels can everyone find you?
Currently on Instagram, Youtube & Threads as @Tritontheband – our music can be found on bandcamp and streaming services like Spotify ….
Is there anything else you want to let us know?
We’ve got more coming very very soon, we’re back in our production months so expect some heaviness. And also tell all your local venues no matter where you are to look out for us and book us!
Thank you so much for your time and all the best for your future plans!
Thank you for having me!
https://www.instagram.com/tritontheband/
https://www.threads.net/@tritontheband