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Can’t
Stay Out of Trouble
An
interview with Eric Wagner of Trouble
By Bob
Ignizio |
 Trouble first came to the attention of the
international metal community in 1984 with the track “The Last Judgement” on
‘Metal Massacre IV’ and their debut album ‘Psalm 9’, both on Metal Blade
Records. At the time metal was pretty evenly divided into two camps; the
more commercial sounding “glam” metal bands like Ratt and Motley Crue and
the underground thrashers like Slayer and Metallica. Trouble’s sludgy doom
metal didn’t fit in with either faction. Eric says, “At first we were
called behind the times and stuff like that. I think now looking back maybe
we were ahead of our time a little bit. I see a lot of things when I
look at magazines where bands mention us as an influence. That’s really
flattering to think that we had any effect on people. I see tons of them
now. All these bands are naming us as one of their influences. It’s kind
of bizarre to think that here little old me from outside of Chicago could be
an influence on anyone besides in a negative way.” (laughs) Trouble
released 6 studio albums and toured relentlessly until Eric and the rest of
the band went their separate ways shortly after the release of 1995’s
‘Plastic Green Head’.
Last year Trouble reunited for a few shows in Chicago,
and this summer the band (consisting of original members Eric Wagner on
vocals, Rick Wartell on guitar, Bruce Franklin on guitar, and Jeff Olson on
drums with new bass player Chuck Robinson) is scheduled to play at Germany’s
Rock Hard Festival and Cleveland’s inaugural Brave Words and Bloody Knuckles
6-Pack Weekend and Eric seems happy to be hitting the stage again. He says,
“It’s just a blast to play no matter what it is. I think the festival is
going to be great. We’re doing three shows here in Chicago to get ready.
The two main shows are really the German one for the 20th
Anniversary of Rock Hard and the Cleveland festival. We just thought that
we’d better play a couple before we go there. We’re looking forward to
everything and especially coming to Cleveland. Cleveland’s always been
very, very good to us so I think it’s going to be great. I’m just happy
that we have the opportunity and that people are out there that still enjoy
listening to us. That’s all that I can really ask for I guess.”
There’s also a new album in the works, but fans
salivating at the prospect of new Trouble material will have to wait a
little longer. Although the band has fifteen new songs written Eric says,
“We haven’t recorded anything yet, we’re just writing the songs and working
on them. We haven’t decided how we’re gonna’ do it yet, if we’re going to
sign a new deal or just put it out ourselves. We’ll just see what happens,
but the songs are almost finished. We have a few things when we’re in
Germany with record labels and probably in Cleveland also.” Eric says fans
can expect, “…some things that we never did before as far as instruments to
bring in and things like that. We’re older now, and for a while there I
didn’t’ really know if I had anything to say anymore. I’m 40 years old now,
and our fans seem loyal. They like the music that we were playing and
things and I thought, “you know what, I do have something to say.” This is
2003 and life is different, the planet is different, and this will be a
little different but it’s still Trouble.” When I asked Eric if Trouble
would be playing any of the new songs at the Brave Words show he told me,
“No, we’re not, because a lot of times in the past people have bootlegged
the shows. We didn’t want any of the new stuff to be out like that.”
Trouble got their start on influential indie label
Metal Blade Records, but Eric says, “I never really considered us metal. I
always just thought we were writing songs. I just like the heaviness of
what we do. When we first started I was always into the Beatles and stuff.
That was more my thing. Late sixties, early seventies. From The Beatles to
The Doors, Purple to Sabbath. We’ve kind of progressed over the years to
trying to do more music that came from us. Everybody’s got their
influences. In the earlier days it’s more apparent on the albums that
Sabbath and Priest and Thin Lizzy with the dual guitars were probably our
influences in hard rock. I also think we were doomier sounding, especially
on ‘The Skull’ album (1985) which I think is one of the most depressing
albums I’ve ever heard in my life. We’ve kind of progressed over the years
to trying to do more music that came from us. We never tried to write a
certain way. Most of the time it’s just whatever came out.”
Another thing that sets Trouble apart from their peers
in the eighties metal scene is their lyrics. While the band doesn’t like to
be labeled as Christian rock, there’s no doubt that many of their songs have
a spiritual slant. Eric says, “When we first started I was a nice little
Catholic boy. Metal back then, a lot of the stuff was satanic. People
thought it was cool or whatever but I didn’t agree with that. Our lyrics
had just as many Gods and Satans as anybody did, but where those people were
doing it maybe because they thought it sounded cool I took it a little more
seriously. I wasn’t really out there trying to save anybody. I was just
exploring my life. Maybe in the early days I was a little more blunt in my
lyrics, where later on I’ve tried to be a little more poetic or to paint
different pictures with words. I personally think there’s a difference
between believing in god and religion. I’m just out there exploring my life
and it’s not an easy task, believe me.”
After three albums with Metal Blade, Trouble inked a
deal with Rick Rubin’s Def American label. Along with the change in record
labels, the band’s self titled 1990 album saw their sound changing somewhat
as well. Eric says, “Rick Rubin always said that we wrote great riffs but
we didn’t know how to arrange a song. He kind of showed us how to do that
and I kind of agreed with him. We progressed in our songwriting and Rubin
kind of showed us how to arrange songs and make it to where people
understood it better. In earlier days we had no direction and pretty much
did what we wanted. At first everybody had jobs. After a while, especially
when we signed with Def American, we started doing this as a full time
thing. Other bands might not have had that opportunity to develop their
songwriting and to work at it all the time.” The collaboration with Rubin
continued on 1992’s ‘Manic Frustration’ and both albums were well received
by the band’s fans and critics alike.
Although creatively their tenure with Def American was
a good time for the band, there was some dissatisfaction with how the albums
were promoted. Eric says, “I think there were probably mistakes on both
ends. There were a couple times on the road where maybe we had no business
being on stage. You get caught up in that rock ‘n’ roll thing where people
want to party with you. We had a great time. A lot of times I’d call the
record company and say, “how come nobody’s working this record?” and they’d
be like, “well I thought THEY were going to do it”. I don’t want put the
blame on anybody, though. I don’t want to use excuses like Def American
blew it for us. Things happen.” While the two albums Trouble recorded for
Def American are currently out of print, Eric says, “That’s one thing I’m
trying to do right now. Either get the rights to them or when we get a new
deal have that company license them and release them again. Those two
haven’t been out for a while. We’ll see what happens.”
Trouble released one more album after leaving Def
American, 1995’s ‘Plastic Green Head’ on the Bullet Proof label. As
mentioned earlier in this article, the band broke up shortly after its
release. Now with things smoothed over and a new album on the horizon Eric
says, “I do think who I am is really the lead singer of Trouble. I need
those other guys. But at the time we were all mad at certain things and
each other. Even if this is my last opportunity at a Trouble album I want
to go out that we were all friends instead of how it ended before. I’ve
known these guys for most of my life now and we are probably at our best
when we are together. The reason why we’re doing this new album isn’t’ so
much because I want to but because I have to. It’s in my blood, it’s who I
am. The only way I can express my feelings is with my music. Otherwise it
just builds up inside and I just blow. So I need to get my pen and start
writing again.” No doubt Trouble fans world-wide are glad to hear that.
Visit Trouble''s website.
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