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Posted by Metallifreak on 28.02.2010 at16:03:

  The Hammering Down Heavy Robert Trujillo Grounds Metallica - Part 2

On much of Death Magnetic, the bass fits in well with the kick drum and guitars, but still has its own clear, bottom presence.
That’s the trick: Having presence in a band that already has so much presence on other fronts. It’s important for our sound for me to find my niche in the middle of the madness. There’s a frequency where it all works; that’s what we try to capture live, and that’s what we’re trying to achieve with the recordings. Sometimes it’s just in your attack, or how you approach the part physically, and what statement that makes. I hit the strings right on the pickup, which gives my attack some grit. Also, I cut my tracks standing up, which I think helps capture the vibe of playing live. Early on when we were cutting the drums and playing along live, [producer] Rick Rubin suggested we stand up, and we got our best takes that way. After that, I started standing for everything, and most of what I played felt more comfortable that way. That’s something I’d never done in all my years of playing.

There are a few places where you pull out some big slides.
That’s the way I like to use the B string, like you’re a big-ass rhinoceros entering the build- ing. The B has its place—you don’t want to abuse it. You’ve got to find the perfect spot for it.

Are you playing all fingerstyle?
I use a pick when absolutely necessary. When’s that?
If there’s something really fast, I’m not against trying it with a pick. I’ll also try a back-and-forth motion with the middle finger, striking down with the fingertip pad and going back with the nail, so it’s like ta-ka-ta-ka-ta-ka. On fast stuff, I like to try both techniques to see what sounds better. Almost always, though, I’m alternating two or three fingers. That’s more of a comfort zone for me. With Metallica there’s a lot of galloping feel, and for that I use three fingers: ring, middle, then index. Lately, to give my middle finger a break, I’ll switch to my index and ring finger. For example, the descending part in “Ride the Lightning” [from 1984’s Ride the Lightning] is fast and precise: diga-diga-da, diga-diga-da, diga-diga-da. So I play a cycle with my index and ring fingers, and then play the second half with my index and my middle, so I transfer that energy back into the other two fingers. I’ve developed my ring finger a bit more for that purpose, and that’s working out really well.

Do you warm up?
I have to warm up. I start by playing pentatonic patterns with a lot of pull-offs and stuff. I do it standing up now—I didn’t before—so I’m up moving around, getting the blood going. We always jam before going onstage, and in the first few years, I’d go into the jam room before everyone else and go over new songs. Now I strap on the bass a couple hours before, start doing pentatonic scales, and just walk around with the instrument to loosen up. Then an hour or so before, I plug in and get some galloping going so the right hand can get its thing on. But I always have to warm up, especially because we usually open with something intricate or fast, like “Creeping Death.”

In the past when I didn’t warm up, my index finger or forearm would lock up on me. The first night of the Master of Puppets tour, it was really cold outside and I was a bit dehydrated, probably from drinking the night before, which wasn’t a good idea [laughs]. I was pretty scared because that was the first night we were going to play “Orion,” and MTV Europe was filming live. Luckily we travel with a chiropractor who does deep tissue work; he gave me a good solid forearm rub-down between songs. He saved my ass, man. That’s why I started thinking of ways to conserve energy in the fingers.

You’ve got these monster slap chops that you used for years with Suicidal and Infectious, but between Ozzy and Metallica, you haven’t really had the chance to use them.

It’s true! [Laughs.]
Do you miss it?
I do. With Metallica I play pretty hard, and some of my fingering technique is almost borderline slap, but just with the fingers. There’s a lot of fretboard attack and digging in, much the same way as if I were hammering down with the thumb. People tend to think Metallica fans or metal fans are very strict about what they like, so, you know, I’d better not bust out the thumb. “Seinfeld in the house,” that kind of thing. But sometimes I incorporate some slap stuff in a little bass jam I do before “Orion,” and the fans actually dig it.

I wasn’t slapping at all for a while, but in the last year I’ve been reuniting with my thumb and my slap technique, and it feels good. I use it when I’m messing around at home, recording grooves and ideas. The slapping I tend to go for nowadays is on the B and E strings, with a lot of percussive stuff going on. I like to keep it funky but heavy, with the attitude of a metal player hammering down the heavy. I love Larry Graham; I mean I’m an absolute fan. As funky as he is, to me he’s really a heavy player. He’s pure metal. If he wanted to, Larry Graham could play in Metallica.

But I’m not leaning in one direction; I appreciate all styles and players. I have equal respect for people like Geezer Butler, Lemmy, Glenn Hughes, and Roger Glover, but I grew up totally inspired by Stanley Clarke and Jaco and Marcus Miller. I think what Victor Wooten’s doing is fun and exciting. I just think it’s unfair when people compare, saying, “This guy’s better than that guy,” and so on. They’re all great; how could you compare Chuck Rainey to Geddy Lee, or Will Lee to Geezer Butler, or Victor Wooten to Jaco? It shouldn’t be done.

You must be able to count on people comparing you to Jason and Cliff.
Probably. We’re totally different players, though. Cliff was a finger player; he was absolutely amazing for Metallica. His ideas, his presence, and where he was taking the bass and taking metal, were so special. And his stage presence— he was such a physical player. He used to ask Kirk to show him Lynyrd Skynyrd guitar solos so he could play them on bass, and not many bass players were doing that back then. I thought that was so cool. And Jason’s a different player than Cliff. He’s got a great stage presence, and he was a more solid, nuts-and-bolts player for the songs that they were doing, like on the Black Album. Jason gave a lot live. I have nothing but respect for both of them, but I come from a different background. There’s a lot of R&B in the history of what I’ve done and where I came from, and that groove element is going to be there no matter what. I like to play really hard and get pretty physical with my my right hand technique. And then onstage, you are who you are. If the faces I make are something from an exorcist movie, or if I turn into a samurai gorilla monster up there, then so be it [laughs].

How did you initially approach stepping into the role and getting your hands around the catalog?
I had to be like the boy in the bubble and keep distractions away from me. When I was here in San Rafael, I was just doing homework and trying to step up and do the best I could. I wasn’t really in touch with what was going down back home in Southern Cal, and I was really not aware of whatever hoopla might have been going on around the world regarding me being in Metallica. And, you know, I got through. But over the first two years that we toured, I was constantly learning material. When we’d spontaneously jam out on tour, I’d have been working on “Phantom Lord” or some crazy song that they’d thrown at me, then they’d say, “Hey let’s play ‘Metal Militia’ tonight!” Oh, jeez. I had an A-list and B-list of songs, and that wasn’t even on the D-list! Nowadays I feel more relaxed with the madness of it all, though you do have to stay three steps ahead or more with these guys, ’cause you never know what they’re going to throw at you. We’ll get to the final days before a tour and suddenly they’ll want to record something for a tribute album, thinking it’ll only take a day. Three days later, it’s like, Crap, I gotta catch a plane tomorrow!

How do you stay ahead?
If there’s ever a hint of anything that might happen, I get on it as soon as I can, that same day. Say for instance Lemmy’s going to be at some festival in Austria, and they casually mention, “You know, we might want to do such-n-such a song with him. Maybe not, whatever.” No, I learn it that night so that when it happens, I’ll be ready. That’s the world of Metallica, and it’s not just being in the band. Even if you’re a crew member, an engineer, even if you’re working for the fan club or the magazine, it’s just all-encompassing. It sucks you in, you’re working your ass off, and there’s a lot of pride that ends up going into it.