Heavy metal has its share of iron men. The road warriors who carve out three-quarters of their year trekking across the globe melting faces, who uproot from house and home for a near-permanent exile to a recording studio.
Fresno, California's Trevor William Church likely has them beat.
Founder of NWOBHM revivalists Haunt and doom metallers Beastmaker, Church has fast become one of the more admired and accomplished singer-songwriters in the genre. And yes, he likes the term singer-songwriter.
"I really prefer to be the singer-songwriter type, but playing heavy metal," Church told Metal Injection ahead of Haunt's second studio album If Icarus Could Fly. "I don't want to play folk, indie music, so calling yourself a singer-songwriter in that form is kind of fucking lame. But when you say you're a singer-songwriter but you're doing old school metal and hard rock, that's pretty fucking tight."
At the time of the interview, If Icarus Could Fly had yet to be released on digital streaming platforms, yet Church was nearing completion on what would be a third full-length album for Haunt.
Little surprise. Church has been dizzyingly busy in the past year. Since May of 2018 Church has released two EPs and two full-length albums for Haunt – a project that sees him write every lyric and play every instrument in his own studio – and a staggering 11 EPs for Beastmaker, with an mind-numbing 10 of those coming out from June-December of 2018.
But that's his process. Anything else seems strange, he admits.
"Are you working on new music? Because if you're not working on new music every day, it's really hard to say you're a musician. I don't know other peoples ways of doing things," Church admits. "I want to be in the studio writing as much as possible, playing as many instruments as possible."
With Beastmaker, which Church shares is put to bed for the time being, the process was a little more diplomatic. But with Haunt, it's entirely his baby. He has been there and done the collaborative process in prior groups where he served as guitarist, but with Haunt, Church's love letter to a bygone era of metal, he has free reign to experiment in every facet of an album's conception.
"I have that DIY ethic behind my band. I'm recording all the music myself and writing all the music myself. It really allows me to move quickly, because I'm not waiting on other people," he says. "When you really think about how many albums that is, you really have to understand that is how my process is, because if it was a collaborative thing where there's opinions, it could take a long time. I've been in bands similar to that where it was really hard to get a song done. You'd almost have to badger the singer."
That DIY work ethic has been apart of Church's musical makeup from jump street. The early beginnings of Haunt – which includes guitarist John Michael Tucker, bassist Taylor Hollman and drummer Daniel “Wolfie” Wilson – who have performed alongside the likes of Municipal Waste, Toxic Holocaust and at Psycho Las Vegas, embodied that make it happen yourself philosophy.
"I put it out on bandcamp alone, no label, no nothing," Church recalls. "I had my logo done up so everything looked appropriate. I already had a live band and some following with Beastmaker. It seemed like a really good idea. I've just been so inspired in being able to release music in this new way of being free of record contracts and make enough money off of music platforms like bandcamp to run my recording studio. To think that happened all within a year is kind of crazy. I think Haunt has something unique to it."
Admittedly, the business of music has always been in Church's blood. Born in Walnut Creek, California, he is the son of Bill Church, bassist for Sammy Hagar led 70s rockers Montrose.
He grew up a skate kid, addicted to the Californian skateboarding circuit, an avid reader of Thrasher Magazine and frequent buyer at San Francisco's Concrete Jungle. It was that scene that introduced him largely to heavy metal, coupled by the support of his well-travelled father, who had no qualms with picking up the latest heavy LPs for his eager son.
"There's always been music around me, my whole life," Church says." My dad had no problem buying me Black Sabbath when I was like six years old. He did not care. My mom really cared. She really got upset when I came home with a Slayer cassette when I was seven. She thought I needed to see a therapist. She said 'this is satantic! It says South of Heaven on it!' And I'd say so what, I like to skate to this."
Citing Metallica, Iron Maiden, Misfits and hip hop pioneers NWA and Public Enemy as some of his earliest influences, Church first 'messed around with guitar and drums' at age seven. Fast forward to 2019 and the newfound father burns into the summer season with more inspiration and material than time, hell bent on capitalizing on an output and creativity few could only dream of. And he's aiming to do things quicker, if you can believe it.
"With Icarus I thought that I needed to learn how to do an album way faster than three months. I need to be able to write it and record it quicker. I got tired of hearing it. Imagine listening to "Burst Into Flame" 20 times a day for three months. When I got to Icarus I was able to write it, record it and have it done in one month.
"You've got to think about it, we're going into album three. Haunt started as a studio project, so it's always going to remain a studio project for me. I'm writing and playing all the instruments. For me, I have to hear the songs completed. I can't have a fragmented song with some vocals. I need to hear the whole thing. That's my process."
Predominantly touring in the western United States, Church admits the studio is his happy space these days. Time on the road, as costly and at times gruelling as it is, is time taken away from that creative process. So tour dates, including gigs in Europe and a can't miss Halloween showcase with Angel Witch, are chosen carefully.
"With those tours, it has to be something that's reasonable," he admits. "We usually do two weeks tour, and usually do the west coast. We were on a big tour with Municipal Waste, but people have to remember too, this is our first year. This time last year Haunt had played its first show. It's only been one year.
"It's definitely where my passion is," he adds of studio life. "I like to play shows, and I'm not saying I dislike it. but it seems nowadays you can get your art to people without having to play Tuscon, Arizona on a Tuesday night. I've already done that. This ain't my first band. I've had the experiences of what goes on in the underground heavy metal community when you're on the road. It can be awesome, sometimes places shock me. But generally… I'm not a road dog anymore. The festivals that want us, yeah we'll be there. But in terms of hitting the road it's mainly going to be west coast stuff."
The final word goes back to Church's thoughts on output, which has been the focal point of each and every interview with the rising artist in recent months. He's blunt, but in a charming and laid back Californian kind of way. Get at it, get busy, is his message. Smoke if ya got em'.
"Why is it so hard to write lyrics?" he asks. "You fucking listen to it and you come up with words. This isn't fucking rocket science."
