All of sudden, I started listening to prog - kind of by accident.
I wasn’t ever into prog music until about five years ago. There are a lot of flavors, but metal wasn’t really one of them.Ī It was important to have a different vibe and a different approach.Īnd you are absolutely correct on the prog side.
I was feeling jazz-fusion, Return to Forever, Phil Manzanera, your buddy Joe Satriani. Q But not only does it not sound like Metallica - “Portals” isn’t even a metal record. But that’s the 5 percent that is kind of instinctual - it’s kind of like bred into me. Just by proxy of who I am, as a member of Metallica, some of it is going to be reminiscent of that. I should say, OK, I thought 95 percent of it does not sound like Metallica. (“Portals”) doesn’t sound like Metallica. Q One of the most striking things about “Portals” is just how much it doesn’t sound like Metallica.Ī I made a very conscious to have this music stand alone. Who know? We might put out an album that is a love letter to ‘70s funk and hard rock. I know that in the future, going forward, the Wedding Band is probably going to be refurbished at one point.Ī Not just a covers band. So, maybe the Wedding Band goes on tour and plays the stuff on the solo album. And it’s a pretty beautiful thing.īecause of this, I think it’s going to probably have a little influence on my other band - the Wedding Band.Ī The attitude with the Wedding Band, again, is the sky is the limit. It’s always bewildered me when bands say, “Oh, we don’t have any songs.” I’m like, “How can that even happen?” That’s one thing I’ve never been in shortage of - musical ideas. There are chords in this music that I would never think about using in Metallica. There’s a little jazziness here and there. Q You cover an impressive amount of musical territory on “Portals.”Ī With this music, the vocabulary is wide open. (Ray Chavez/Bay Area News Group Archives) Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett performs during CBS Radio’s The Night Before! concert at AT&T Park in San Francisco, Calif., on Saturday, Feb. But things are different now and thank God.Īnd because things are different now maybe that’s why this kind of just showed up. It’s a great thing, because it wasn’t always like that and that’s been well documented.
So, the time is right for this kind of thing.Īs far as how everyone (in Metallica) feels about me putting out a solo album, I have the full support of James (Hetfield), Lars (Ulrich) and Rob (Trujillo) - and management. I’m older, somewhat wiser, somewhat more responsible. I feel like a lot of the limitations that were around me - way back when - just don’t exist anymore. Q Sounds like this is not just a one-off project for you - that, instead, it could be just the start of something.Ī I would say most definitely it opens the doors to a lot more possibilities. Metallica performs a show unlike any other in its storied career It’s given me a lot of confidence, going forward in the future with doing more stuff like this. Because it was such a great experience for me - creating this music, collaborating with people and being in the driver’s seat for the first time since practically my days in Exodus - it’s kind of opened my eyes up to a new musical experience for me. I guess it’s one of those things that the universe sort of meant it to happen. And two, I’m not that guy (who says), “In three years, we’re going to do this and it’s going to be great” – because I can’t be bothered. 1 - I don’t take myself that seriously, so to even want to put out a solo album. Q Let me start off by saying, “wow.” Your solo record is really great.Ī Thank you, bro! It just kind of unfolded in front of me over a period of time, you know? I am just as blown away from it as anybody else. I recently had the chance to chat with Hammett about his first-ever solo effort as well as briefly catch up on Metallica and his cool covers side project the Wedding Band.
It’ll be available across digital platforms as well as on CD and, best of all, as a Record Store Day exclusive ocean blue vinyl EP (that comes with a download card as well). “Portals” is being released by Blackened Recordings on April 23 - aka, Record Store Day 2022.