THE CLOSE of 2019 marks a major milestone for Flirt FM's heavy metal show Cranium Titanium, which first took to the airwaves of the student/alternative station in October 2009. To mark its first decade, the show's presenter Trevor McCormack talks to the Galway Advertiser about where CT has come from and where it is going.
Trevor began Cranium Titanium during his student days in NUIG as "something to keep me busy, a hobby" where he would play classic metal by Megadeth, Metallica, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest. By the time he had completed university, Trevor elected to keep the show going, and as it has progressed over the years, it became a very different beast, one much more focused on the thriving underground, cult, and alternative metal scene both in Ireland and abroad.
"It began with me playing the classics," Trevor tells me during our Thursday afternoon interview. "Then a couple of people introduced me to more underground metal bands and that encouraged me to keep dipping my toe out a little bit further each time, so that today, the show has gone from me loving bands like Metallica – and I still love Metallica [here he pauses to lift his sleeve, revealing a tattoo of the snake from the cover of Metallica's Black Album] to exploring more the underground and non-label bands, especially in the Irish scene.”
It has also been a decade in which music has undergone one of the greatest upheavals in how it is consumed and disseminated. In 2009 it was all CDs and downloads. Today it is streams and vinyl, and bands have much greater access to the means of production. Trevor ponders on these changes.
"The biggest change I've seen in that time is to do with record labels - bands don’t really need them anymore," he says. "Bands are being more creative in getting themselves out there. It’s brilliant they can be so accessible these days - social media has played a major part in that - but it also means the market is saturated. There is so much stuff, and there is varying levels of quality, but it’s great to see bands just going ahead, and if they have the passion, and are into it enough, they can go on do it."
Another key factor in this, Trevor argues, is the fact that metal is a community, almost a way of life. "Metal fans are aware it is not the most accessible form of music," he says, "you need to put in the effort and the passion. If you have the passion you will keep following it, you don’t require a label to do that. A lot of bands are opting to go label free. Words That Burn were on a label and this year released their album Pirate independently, they also have great PR with Overdrive, a lot of bands go with a PR person or group rather than a label, and really that’s all they need."
'Therapy? are the band that started all this off. I remember hearing ‘Nowhere’ on the radio and was just blown away by it'
Trevor notes with satisfaction that Galway boasts a very strong and healthy metal scene. “We are very lucky to have Ten Ton Slug, Ilenkus, Black Shuck, and Na Cruithne," he says. "The Galway metal and punk scene is very, very strong. Ilenkus did that famous video walking down Shop Street. That blew up! Ten Ton Slug are doing mighty! They are smashing it the way they put themselves out there. I’ve seen Irish bands play Bloodstock before, and once they’ve done it, they say ‘That’s that done’ and go back to Ireland to play small clubs. Once Ten Ton Slug did it, and Bloodstock is a massive festival, they kept that momentum going, and got gigs around Bloodstock and in England. Since then they've gone on to play major metal festivals across Europe. They have driven forward the whole time."
Trevor’s own journey into metal began during his schooldays in the mid-1990s when he was introduced to Antrim trio Therapy? “Therapy? are the band that started all this off," he says. "I remember hearing ‘Nowhere’ on the radio and was just blown away by it. Then someone gave me a copy of Troublegum. I remember listing to the songs on it and going, ‘They’re way too evil for me!’ so I made myself a little edited tape of all the ‘non-evil’ songs."
Two years later he discovered Annihilator – and this time there was no trepidation over any ‘evilness’ within the music. “I heard the title track from Annihilator’s Refresh The Demon back in ‘96 when I was cramming in my homework before school the next morning. It starts off like ‘Pop Goes The Weasel’. It was on the radio and I wondered, ‘What the hell is this!?!’ By the end I was thinking, ‘This is phenomenal!’ I went and bought that album. It got me into heavier music and opened me up to black metal and death metal."
That was the first decade of Cranium Titanium, and Trevor has plans to expand and develop the show across 2020 and the years ahead. “In 2013 I started doing live, phone-in interviews, and it’s become a staple of the show. I’ve interviewed Ten Ton Slug, Soothsayer, Soulfly’s Max Cavalera, Jeff Waters from Annihilator, Michael Starr from Steel Panther. I’m going to start podcasting the interviews and have them on YouTube as well. I also have a website, Metal Radio Ireland, which is a hub for all metal shows in the county. I want to do more with that. I also do an end of year Irish metal poll, which I want to expand as well. I’ve also started looking into setting up a fully licensed online metal radio station. I’ve been exploring that with IMRO. It’s something that is definitely achievable."
Cranium Titanium broadcasts every Monday from 8pm to 9pm on Flirt 101.3 FM. See Flirtfm.ie/shows/cranium-titanium and also www.metalradioireland.com
