Edwin Outwater: The Conductor Behind Metallica's ‘S&M2'

The artist opens up about the unique collaboration, what he took away from the experience and teases future work with the thrash metal giants

- DAVID BRITTO

For metal giants Metallica’s second iteration of their epic collaboration with the San Francisco Symphony, S&M, hits like “Master of Puppets” and “Enter Sandman” received orchestral arrangements all over again. As the band thrashed their way through on stage, one figure stood out for his precise movements, symphony conductor Edwin Outwater.

As seen in the film S&M2 — which captured the September 2019 concert but only released in India in January — the sequel to S&M saw Outwater keep the 70-odd members of the symphony on their toes throughout the performance.

Outwater – who was tapped in May last year to be part of S&M2 – grew up around the music industry. He says, “My grandmother was the personal manager of [America jazz singer] Ella Fitzgerald and my father worked for Warner Bros. Records.” Growing up in Santa Monica, the conductor was into a lot of rock and jazz music before he got into classical music which he puts down to the public schools in the beachfront city for having “an excellent classical music education program.”

The artist admits that he did enjoy listening to Metallica from time to time, but it wasn’t until he was chosen for S&M2 did he take a deep dive into the band as well as heavy music. He says about his findings, “The Big 4 [American metal outfits Metallica, Megadeth, Anthrax and Slayer], earlier stuff like [British bands] Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden as well as modern thrash bands like Power Trip who I really like!”