Geared Up: In Virtue Singer & Guitarist Trey Xavier Discusses His Revv Amplification Generator 120 MKIII

Undertaking a unified, well-thought-out, deliberate approach, In Virtue has returned with their new album Age of Legends. Released on November 21st, the album kicks off a new era for the band. Still led by guitarist and singer Trey Xavier, the band has not released an album since 2012’s Embrace the Horror. So much has changed since then, including Xavier taking over lead vocals in 2015. Also at that time, he decided to move to Los Angeles and start afresh with a new band lineup. Xavier eventually discovered the right combination of chemistry and technical savvy with keyboardist Alex Nasla (The Mourning, ex-Witherfall), guitarist Rami Khalaf, and bassist Jamie Hush. Their sound is shaped around a combination of hard rock and metal. It’s heavy, fast, melodic, and definitely groovy.

Age of Legends tells a haunting tale of a Sisyphean struggle and the pursuit of redemption. Not just conceptual in meaning, the album’s sound was assembled with a vision in mind. It’s driven by thunderous riffs, infectious grooves, and cinematic layering. It all comes together to create an intense experience, which acts as an introduction to the next generation of In Virtue. With the band retooled and revamped, there are many stories yet to tell.

As you might expect, recording Age of Legends involved a lot of instruments and techniques. Trey Xavier joins us today for a Geared Up interview, discussing the Revv Amplification Generator 120 MKIII amp and fielding some other gear-related questions.

What one piece of gear do you use to obtain your signature sound?

Trey Xavier: “The Revv Amplification Generator 120 MKIII amp is, in my estimation, the greatest amp ever made. In my day-to-day recording, I use a lot of different stuff, lots of amp sim plugins and stuff, but when it’s time for the Trey sound, the In Virtue sound, that’s the only amp there is. It’s a completely original high-gain amp design; it’s not like another derivative of a 5150 or a Plexi, it’s a completely unique flavour of high gain that’s just perfect to me. I often will use the Airis Effects Parallel Boost with it as well; that’s probably my favourite boost pedal.”

How did you come to possess this amp? Vintage shop, regular shop, borrowed money, gifted? Give us the details.

“I was very fortunate to kind of get in on the ground floor with Revv. I met them at the first NAMM show they did, and I offered to help them out with a review on my channel of one of their amps, the Generator 7-40, which was a smaller version of the 120. It was so good that I didn’t want to send it back, so I bought it from them. I wound up trading it back to them for the 120 MKII, and then when the MKIII came around, they sent me one for a video as well, and it’s wild that they somehow made it better. Being the Gear God has its perks, I suppose.”

Do you have a special way that you recreate your album (guitar/vocal/bass) tones in a live setting, or is it more just plug-and-play?

“I’m very lucky that the units we use for our live production, the Line 6 HX Stomp, has a really excellent model of the Revv amp in it. I’d love to have the budget to be taking a real tube rig on tour, but for us, it just wouldn’t be worth it. Maybe someday the touring industry will get back to a place where it’s possible, but I’m also insanely grateful to be living in a time when the tools are so great and compact.”

What was your first ever instrument?

“My first guitar was an old nylon-string classical that my mother gave me, which she had from when she was a hippie in San Francisco. I eventually left it on the floor by accident, and she stepped through it, so now it’s a planter.”

In Virtue ‘Age of Legends’ album artwork

Which company do you think has provided the most support to you as a musician? Any sponsors who deserve a shoutout?

“Definitely Revv, I’m pretty lucky to work with the brand that makes the best amps of all time and have also been very supportive of my career as a YouTuber and of the Gear Gods site. And Kiesel Guitars have really spoiled me with some truly outrageous guitars, definitely my favourite guitars out there and the ones I play the most, and the ones I play in In Virtue. I used my Vader to record all of the rhythm guitar tracks and a lot of the leads on Age of Legends.”

What’s the worst thing you’ve ever done with a musical instrument?

“This will make some people angry, but hear me out. I once smashed a guitar for a video that never saw the light of day.

“If you go back on my (YouTube) channel, I did a video about playing a guitar underwater. That’s a pretty worthwhile scientific endeavour, and judging by the number of people who watched it, it’s something people wanted to know. But the acoustic guitar, as you might imagine, did not survive the ordeal. I bought it cheaply off of Craigslist, knowing that this would likely be its final journey, and when it came out of the pool after being in there for hours, it was cooked.

“So I had plans to do a different video, a comedy bit about how the G-string on a guitar is so hard to keep in tune that it caused me to quit guitar entirely and become a dentist instead. We filmed the bit of me smashing it, but I never got around to filming the rest. Personally, I don’t feel bad about it; it was already destroyed, but it’s definitely not making music anymore after that.”

What setup did you spend the most time idolizing as a kid growing up?

“John Petrucci, no question. It was the first time I ever even considered the tone of my guitar or where it came from; before that, I was just using whatever practice amp I had and not caring about it. I think I bought my first Ibanez because of him, but I never did get myself a proper Mesa MKII C+. I’ve used loads of different amp sim versions and other things like it, but the only other physical tube amp I care to own aside from the Revv is the JP2C, which I have played, and it’s magnificent. I love the ‘liquid laser beam’ lead tone you get out of it.”

What was the first rig you ever bought that felt like you had “arrived” as a musician?

“Maybe like 13 years ago, I put together a big old rack monstrosity that had a Mesa 50:50 power amp, a Randall RM4 modular preamp system, and a TC Electronics G Major II multi-effects unit. It took me a long time to piece it together and make it work, and I thought it couldn’t possibly get any better than that.”

What setup do you think serves musicians like you the most in the style of music you play?

“For me, more than anything else, convenience. When I’m writing and recording, I need things to sound good fast. Nothing stifles my creativity more than getting bogged down in some technical nonsense that isn’t making music. So, having a good set of plugins or analog sounds that are inspiring and that you know how to use is number one for me.

“Typically, for me in the studio, that involves some Neural DSP plugins because they sound good immediately, and they have lots of good presets, and live, it’s about automation, so I don’t have to do any pedal tap dancing. Then later, I can do some reamping through the Revv and get the god-tier tone once the initial inspiration has kind of fizzled, or I’ve gotten the real final performances.

“It’s really a crazy good time to be a musician in terms of gear and sounds. You can be fussy about high-end analog if you want, because there are loads of that around, or you can care very little because most plugins, even free ones, can get you wildly good tones, and the knowledge about how to make things sound good is immense and freely accessible.”