Trivan (Croatia)

Interview with Vanja (guitarist, songwriter & band founder)
https://www.facebook.com/trivan.band

The shores of Croatia are not always quiet. Sometimes they echo with black metal. Trivan captures that stormy feeling through raw, unsigned art. Vanja creates every piece of the project with a clear vision. Fresh off the release of the single “Crowned with Dread and Power,” the band is charging toward a major milestone. The debut album Eternal Shore drops in late February 2027. Read our conversation with Vanja about the dark path ahead and the music that shaped it.

MR: Hello Vanja. Can you introduce TRIVAN to our readers and tell us something about the very beginnings?
Trivian: TRIVAN is a black metal band from Zagreb that Ivan Bertović and I started in 2018, together with a school friend on drums. Then COVID came and everything stopped again. There were lineup changes and quite a lot of empty space between the first idea of the band and what TRIVAN eventually became. But that interruption turned out to be useful because I had time to realize that I did not want to make just another band that plays black metal. I wanted there to be a reason why TRIVAN exists. As the songs started to take shape, the philosophy of the band also started to develop. At some point I realized that the songs I was writing were not random and that they spoke about my own life much more than I had initially thought. That was when TRIVAN really gained its own identity for me.

MR: Instead of standard genre labels, how would you describe the DNA of your sound to someone who has never heard TRIVAN?
Trivian: I would say it is dark and atmospheric music, but at the same time I want it to have weight and a strong guitar character. Black metal is the foundation, but I also grew up on classic heavy metal, and I never stopped loving a huge riff just because I later started listening to more extreme music. That is why TRIVAN has the coldness and atmosphere of black metal, but also the weight of death metal and that older heavy-metal instinct that a riff should actually do something to the listener. I am not interested in sounding like a particular scene from a particular year. If one day somebody hears a song without seeing the band name and thinks, “This somehow sounds like TRIVAN,” then we have found our own sound.

MR: Many black metal artists draw from folklore, isolation, or anti-religious themes. What philosophy or concept anchors TRIVAN’s universe?
Trivian: The central idea in TRIVAN is getting to know yourself. Especially the parts of yourself that people would rather ignore. “Dark Malicious Desire” is exactly about that. Like in old cartoons where a person has an angel on one shoulder and a devil on the other, except that in our world there are dark fairies pulling you toward certain desires, weaknesses, addictions and destructive impulses. The point is not simply to kill or erase that darker side. While you ignore it, it gains more and more power over you. Only when you admit that it exists and understand how it works can you learn to control your relationship with it. And that leads directly to what Trivan itself means to me. It is the place you reach when you are completely alone with yourself. Everything becomes quiet, there is no audience, no social media, no masks, and only the naked truth remains. That is when you have to admit what hurts, what you fear, where you are weak, what you truly want and where you have been lying to yourself.
The name TRIVAN itself came from the ideas of “triviality” and “vanquish,” meaning to defeat those trivial things that can quietly begin to control our lives. So the philosophy of TRIVAN is not “follow this.” It is the opposite. Question. Doubt. Think.

MR: Your next single, “Crowned with Dread and Power,” is finished. Can you reveal more about the track?
Trivian: It is actually no longer only an upcoming single because it is already available on our Bandcamp, while the wider official release is on Friday, September 25. Conceptually, it is directly connected to “Abyss of Crawling Shadows.” “Abyss” is the song about the moment when you fall into the pit. For me that pit became real after the death of my dog Amon, who had been with me for almost thirteen years. He developed lung cancer and, in the end, I had to put him to sleep. At that point grief, depression, helplessness and pain stopped being things I was only writing about and became something I was living through. “Crowned” comes after that. It does not say that the darkness disappeared. It is about the moment when you stand back up inside it. And the “crown” is not power over other people. It is power over yourself. Pain and fear can still exist, but they are no longer your masters. For me it is a song about discipline after collapse, strength after helplessness, and accepting that some experiences turn you into a new person.

MR: Your debut album Eternal Shore is planned for late February 2027. What core message or atmosphere do you want to leave with the album?
Trivian: The most interesting thing is that I never planned to write an autobiographical concept album. The album simply happened to me. I have more than twenty other songs waiting, but every time I decide to finish an older song, something will happen in my life, and a completely new song will come out of it and suddenly need to go ahead of the older one. So, life practically arranged the album by itself. “Dark Malicious Desire” is about meeting your own darker side and your weaknesses. “Blackened Heart’s Pledge” came from a period when, because of a scholarship, I had to maintain the status of top student, and I allowed that pressure to consume me to the point where I neglected myself. The song became a vow that I would never again allow an external status or goal to take over my life that completely. “Dance of Death” deals with conformity, mortality and the fact that in front of death we all end up equal. “Abyss of Crawling Shadows” became the real fall after Amon’s death. “Crowned with Dread and Power” is getting back up. And Eternal Shore is the end of the whole journey. I scattered Amon’s ashes on a beach where we used to spend time together, and my wish is that one day my ashes will end up there too. No coffin, no monument. Just the sea, the waves, dogs, sunrises and sunsets. So, the final message of the album is not darkness. It is peace.

MR: Releasing the album in late February feels deliberate. How does the cold, dark energy of late winter fit the themes of the record?
Trivian: Honestly, I do not want to invent some huge mystical meaning around the date if there isn’t one. (Laughing) Late February is first a realistic target based on the pace at which we are finishing the material. But symbolically, late winter really does fit. It is still cold, everything looks dead and stripped down, but somewhere under the surface change has already started. That describes the album quite well. After everything that happened, you still carry the marks of it, but you are no longer in the same place. Something new is already beginning to grow.

MR: Black metal often relies on atmosphere more than clean production. How do you decide when a song is raw enough, and how do you capture that feeling without a huge studio budget?
Trivian: I do not believe atmosphere means that a recording has to deliberately sound bad. “Raw” is more emotional than technical for me. If a riff needs to hit, I want to hear it hit. If the bass is carrying something, I want it to be heard. If the drums are driving the song, they need their own power. Production should not polish the life out of a song, but I also see no point in deliberately making something sound worse just so it can be called authentic. We work with people we trust and try to find the balance between clarity and dirt. The atmosphere must stay alive.

MR: Many black metal projects are solitary or work in very tight creative circles. Does complete independence allow you to be more honest than working with a larger team or producer?
Trivian: TRIVAN is not a solo project, and I think it is important to say that clearly. I am the founder, guitarist, composer and usually the person driving the concepts and lyrics, but there are other people whose contribution to the band matters. Ivan has been with me from the beginning, we have other band members, and we also work with people outside the band on production and other parts of the process. Independence matters to me because it protects the core idea. Nobody outside the band tells me that I need to change a song because it would be more commercial with a thirty-second chorus, or that we should change our identity because something else is popular now. But that does not mean I want to do everything completely alone. A good collaboration can make a song better. The only important thing is that the collaboration does not take over the identity of the band.

MR: You have total freedom, but also total responsibility. What is the hardest part of handling mixing, mastering, distribution and everything else while trying to preserve the artistic vision?

Trivian: The worst part is that you constantly have to switch your brain between completely different worlds. (Laughing) One moment you are playing guitar and trying to pull something emotional out of yourself. Ten minutes later you are discussing WAV formats, artwork, deadlines, distribution, radio stations, EPKs and explaining to somebody where an MP3 needs to be sent. Those are completely different types of energy. And when you work independently, logistics can very easily start eating the time that should be used for music. But the positive side is that you learn how the entire process really works.

MR: Black metal has a deep history of underground gatekeeping. Does being unsigned and independent help, you remain closer to the underground spirit, or simply make it harder to discover?
Trivian: Both. Independence gives you enormous freedom. Nobody can decide for you what you are allowed to release, how you should sound or who you should work with. But of course, there is another side. You do not have a huge infrastructure behind you. You must build the contacts, radio, interviews, promotion and distribution practically from zero. Still, I am not against labels just because I want to look underground. If a label or distributor comes along tomorrow that understands the band, respects TRIVAN’s rights and can genuinely help, of course we will talk. For me underground does not mean rejecting every opportunity. It means not selling your identity simply because an opportunity appeared.

MR: Have you ever received label offers that you turned down because you did not want to compromise your autonomy?
Trivian: We have had different contacts, expressions of interest and discussions, and we currently have several as well. But we have not signed a contract with anyone and TRIVAN remains independent and unsigned. We released the singles ourselves. We are open to additional distribution for the singles if somebody offers something meaningful, and after we finish the album, we want to have more serious conversations about who might eventually take part in its release or distribution. I do not look at it as “label bad, independence good.” I look at the actual relationship. What are they offering? What do they want in return? Who keeps the rights? Is there exclusivity? What can they genuinely do for the band? If the collaboration makes sense and TRIVAN keeps its identity and control, we are open to talking.

MR: If your music were the soundtrack to a real landscape or historical event, what would it look like?
Trivian: For me it would be a landscape rather than a historical event. The sea before sunrise. It is still dark and cold, but somewhere on the horizon you can already see that the night will not last forever. Behind you there is a forest, or some kind of road that you have already walked along. You are no longer the same person who started that journey. Not everything has to end with a huge victory and fireworks. Sometimes it is enough to simply stand there after everything and realize that you are still alive. That feels very close to TRIVAN to me.

MR: If someone is listening to TRIVAN for the first time, what environment and headspace would best suit the experience?
Trivian: Alone. Preferably in the dark. With headphones. And without multitasking. (Laughing) Not because I think our music needs some kind of ritual, but because if the whole idea of TRIVAN relates to the moment when the outside noise finally becomes quiet, then it makes sense to give the music a few minutes without checking notifications every ten seconds. You do not need to understand every symbol or know the whole history of the band. Just listen. If something connects with you, then you can dig deeper afterward.

MR: Thank you for taking the time to do this interview. Would you like to add anything for our readers?
Trivian: Thank you for giving us the space to talk a little deeper than the standard “what bands influenced you and when does the album come out.” (Laughing) If there is one thing I would like to leave people with, it is the same thing again. Question. Doubt. Think. You do not have to believe me, TRIVAN, an ideology, an authority or anybody else simply because somebody tells you that you should. At the end of the day there is a moment when you are alone with you and there is no audience left to perform for. If our music brings somebody even a little closer to that moment of honesty, then for me it makes sense that it exists.