Metallica, Lars Ulrich interview

Mark Pilkington meets up with Metallica drummer and founding member Lars Ulrich to discuss the band’s new 3D concert film, Through the Never…

Metallica. Just the very name conjures images of heavy metal excess, and rightly so. Formed way back in 1981 when drummer Lars Ulrich met singer James Hetfield in Los Angeles, Metallica have gone on to become one of the world’s best known and most successful metal bands, with bestselling albums and worldwide tours all saturated in rock n roll decadence. Now, over thirty years later, they are showing no sign of slowing down. They have just released Metallica: Through the Never, the bands first ever 3D film, which is currently being shown in IMAX theatres, along with the obligatory soundtrack which is available to download or buy. The Xtreme Entertainment Network caught up with Lars Ulrich in London to find what we can expect from the band’s latest endeavour. For those about to rock, read on…

Metallica are renowned for being in complete control all of their musical output. How important was it to have creative control when making this movie? We rarely consider other options, so compromise is not Metallica’s major strength  – if it’s got the word ‘Metallica’ written somewhere on or near it, that it comes from us. Our creative experience is something that we don’t really share with others, other than the people we purposefully let in; so to sit there and take money from a bunch of people to then have them being involved in editing and controlling the movie just seemed wrong. That of course was before the project ran amok, but that’s nothing new. I hear myself say the same shit every couple of years. It’s another chapter in Metallica’s existence and I’m sure that if we don’t make all the money back then we might in t-shirt sales seven years down the line, or whatever good comes in the wake of these projects. We’re not – much to the detriment of people around us – nickel and dime kind of guys and have never been, especially when it comes to creative endeavours; we never sit there and nickel and dime it to death because I think it’s already lost something.

Metallica concerts are never dull, and the one in the film even more so. Has all that chaos really happened to you? All the stage antics in the film are nods to the Metallica concert past. The stage collapsing is a nod to the 1996-97 Load/Reload tour where the stage collapsed to the best of our ability. Now with new technology, everything’s bigger, more ridiculous and sillier than it was 20 years ago. We have certainly had our share of Spinal Tap-esque endeavours and we’ve lived most of the silly ridiculousness at some point or another during our 32 year career.

Do you think that 3D concerts will be more commonplace in the future, what with ticket prices going up?  It’s a good question, these sorts of things always go back and forth. In America there’s been a huge backlash against 3D over the last few years but now everybody is talking about the movie Gravity, and everyone in America is all like “Oh my God! 3D is back and it’s bigger and cooler than ever!” It’s like this big pendulum that swings back and forth, now 3D is hip again for the next two weeks. Six months from now, people will be like “Fuck 3D!”

What was it like seeing yourself in 3D? A bit strange at first? I’m kind of just used to it, after Some Kind of Monster nothing scares me, after that it’s easy! So silly Danish accents and double chins and receding hairlines and all the rest of it…I’m pretty thick skinned. It’s kind of cool. I sat with an audience in LA at the Universal City after I introduced the film a week ago and watched the first two thirds of it on a big IMAX screen and it’s pretty cool. This movie really deserves to be seen on a big screen because of the sound and the whole thing.

Are there plans to take the stage show from the film on tour? We’re kind of getting away from all the theatric stuff and what we’ve been doing the last 15 years has been mostly about the configuration. I do think that there’s a chance we may tour this stage so all those shenanigans may be on tour at some point. We’re not booking this tour as we’re speaking, it may be in five years or something, right now we want to get back to making another record and doing that again. But we’ll probably tour this stage I would say. The odds of it go up every day as I hear people ask about it.

How did you decide which songs to use in the film? Obviously with an undertaking of this size there are certain songs that lend themselves to big fuck off cinema making more than others. This is not the appropriate venue to start bringing out all those obscure songs that we’ve never played live before you know what I mean? I do think that obviously there are certain songs that just lend themselves. I tried to do the best I could with – I don’t like using the word ‘hits’ – the more well known songs, to try and find the best balance. And also not being precious about it because in the post production of this movie in the last year a lot of things were moved around so stuff is sort of out of sequence and some songs are no longer in their entirety. A nip and tuck here and there. We tried to find a way to make the best movie with the songs we had.

So what is next for Metallica? Any plans for a Metallica Christmas album, Metallica the Musical, or even Lulu Part 2? Lulu Part two, just to piss everybody off. That’s a fine idea. You’ll have to wait and see…

No Christmas album? I wish! There may be a few of you that would be disappointed; it’s not anything quite at that level.

Has Noel Gallagher seen Through the Never? I haven’t asked him.

Do you think he might change his opinion of the merits of heavy metal… He probably wouldn’t acknowledge that publicly, if he liked it, but I don’t know. He probably hasn’t seen it because he would have shot me a text. But maybe he will one day and then we’ll find out.

Mark Pilkington