Trivium

Paolo: “I was reading up on this backstory about these Japanese American troops in World War II that had some of the most brutal battles, and meanwhile their family was in America in Japanese internment camps. The federal government rounded them up because they looked like the enemy that they were fighting. And I’m like, ‘This is insane to think about – these guys are literally dying and fighting for a country that’s locked up their families at home.’ The whole thing is, what does it take to prove you’re one of us. And that is powerful to us. If my family was locked up, I wouldn’t fight for the country, and that was really inspiring to read about those stories. But I didn’t think it would be easy to translate that, so we boiled it down further: what would it take for you not to hate someone? Would it take them dying for you, or their family dying, or being locked up? But I think the core of it is how hard it is to change people’s minds when they hate something, or when they hate someone.”