Interview

The Skull Vocalist Eric Wagner: We Just Wanted To Be Heavy

South By Southwest (SXSW) is a festival for discovering new bands. The Skull is only three-years old and released their debut album “For Those Which Are Asleep” just last year. However, its members, Ron Holzner and Eric Wagner have a long history in the metal scene. The two formerly played in the highly influential band, Trouble, which is rooted as far back as 1979. The Skull took its name from Trouble’s second album, which Wagner lent his vocals to. The group also plays early Trouble songs live. I caught up with vocalist Eric Wagner before the band played one of three performances at SXSW. In the following brief interview, Wagner discusses the history of The Skull, its formation, members and lyrics.

Rex_84: How has your South By Southwest been for you? Did you just come in today?

Eric Wagner: Yeah, we just cruised in. I’m waiting for this show to get started, so I haven’t seen much of it.

Rex_84: Ron was in Earthen Grave. Did Earthen Grave dissolve before you got together?

Wagner: Earthen Grave was still together when The Skull got together. We were all at a doom fest in Milwaukee—me with Blackfinger, Ron with Earthen Grave and Oly [Jeff Olsen] and his band. They came up with me and jammed a few Trouble tunes. That was kind of the beginning of it.

Rex_84: Two of your members, Matt Goldsborough and Sean Saley both played in Pentagram. Was it important you bring in members who have played in the genre of doom?

Wagner: Nah, it just happened that way. Those guys met Matt at Desert Fest in Berlin, I think, so when we needed a new guitar player, his name came up. Victor [Griffin] came back at that point so he wasn’t doing anything. When Oly left again Sean’s name came up again, so it wasn’t on purpose. It was just by accident.

Rex_84: You named the band after the second Trouble album. Why did you chose this name? Why did you chose to focus on that album?

Wagner: Well when we first got together the main premise was to play songs from the first couple albums. Go out and play those songs as we never did anymore. We just wanted to be heavy and do that shit. One day we were hanging around thinking of a name for it and The Skull came up and everybody loved it, so we kept it. It kind of fits.

Rex_84: It fits for that era.

Wagner: Yeah.

Rex_84: How do the two bands, Trouble and The Skull compare? You obviously have your own sound. Is it Trouble influenced?

Wagner: No, not really. I guess you can’t help but compare it. At one point there were three of us from Trouble that were in The Skull. It’s probably going to remind people of it somewhat. I wrote all the lyrics so there are going to be comparisons. There are going to be similarities. That’s not on purpose, either. We weren’t planning on doing anything, we were just being The Skull. We wrote new music for the album. It came out pretty good, I thought.

Rex_84: On the lyrics, is there a central idea you focus on?

Wagner: No, like always I write about what I see and how I feel at that moment in time. I haven’t really tried to write anyway over the years except for that. Just whatever is going on in my life or the life around me and just do that.

Rex_84: So your lyrics are all personal?

Wagner: For the most part, yeah. It’s all about me (laughs). Whatever, I see things. I never tried to write a certain way. It’s just whatever comes out comes out.

Rex_84: “The Skull” related Christian themes. Are there Christian ideas on “For Those Which Are Asleep?”

Wagner: I don’t know if they were really Christian themes. Back then in ’85 or whatever all the metal bands were signing about Satan, God, Lucifer and all that shit. I really was no different I just wasn’t pro that. I didn’t believe in that and I always tried to put a positive twist, but I wasn’t really out trying to save anybody; I was just exploring my life.

Rex_84: Why did you leave Trouble?

Wagner: I don’t know. I was just kind of tired of the whole thing. I’m always into doing new things. I’m always looking for new music and new writing and something different. I was just tired of playing the same songs and I didn’t think it was going anywhere. Like I said, I wanted to come up with some new music and explore different avenues, which is what I did.