Over the weekend, Metallica got in their first full concert performance of the year, albeit pre-taped and delivered to a drive-in theater audience across the U.S. and Canada thanks to the current pandemic. But might there be more performances coming while the music industry adapts?
Bassist Robert Trujillo recently told the Oakland Press, “Obviously these are crazy times, and it takes a lot to take that first step, and I feel like we’ve done that. We have some ideas about how we want to pursue making music together. We’re going to put something together and it’s going to be exciting musically, and maybe there’ll be another performance or two — not exactly sure when or how or what, but there are things in the works.”
He continued, ”We’ll get through this stuff now and start figuring out what’s our next step towards creativity. [The possibilities] go on and on and on. That’s kind of where we’re at.”
As for that drive-in show, which the band filmed at a nearby winery near their home base, Trujillo stated, “[That] really brought us together. And It was a huge step forward to actually be together in person. Obviously playing without a crowd was a bit strange ’cause we’re spoiled with great crowds. We literally played to crickets. You could hear crickets in-between songs, so this was for the wildlife, you know.”
Behind the scenes, Metallica have also been writing for their next album. Frontman James Hetfield revealed over the weekend that he had written “tons of material,” while guitarist Kirk Hammett stated in an Uproxx interview that he had “over 600 ideas” compiled in the last three to four years.
He added, “It’s taken me a couple of months to go through it all. But they’ve been sent into the big musical idea bank, and we’re starting to talk about going through all that stuff, and exchanging ideas, and just starting to get the ball rolling towards creating some new material.” However, the guitarist also cautioned that he felt the band members needed to be in the same room to really create the magic of their music.
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