Simultaneously Blowing and Expanding Minds

It must be a difficult task to assume the mantle of the greatest band in the world, but Kyle Gass, the musical muscle behind the two-headed acoustic rock phenomenon known as Tenacious D, is reluctant to admit it.
“You’d think [there’d be a lot of pressure], but yet there’s virtually none,” Gass says coolly over the phone from Hollywood. “We just wait around for something to happen. There’s no pressure at all.”
However, shortly thereafter, Gass changes his tune.
“I guess there is a bit of pressure with the D, because our first album was pretty good and the songs were so strong, but it was 10 years worth of material,” Gass confesses. “Those were all our songs. For the next songs, you don’t want to try to recreate it, but at the same time, the bar is set pretty high.”
Perhaps it’s the stress of being one-half of Tenacious D, which as Gass says has become more of a corporate entity, but the straight-faced lead acoustic guitar player has recently felt the need to break out of his familiar mold. Currently, Kyle Gass and his partner in crime Jack Black haven’t had much time to work on their music together, but they haven’t let the D completely fall by the wayside. They’re in the process of writing the upcoming Tenacious D movie, which will be directed by Sifl & Olly creator Liam Lynch. Gass figures they will start shooting in June. The duo plans to write new songs for the film, but Gass mentions that, though he and Black remain good friends and he enjoys their working partnership, perhaps their pairing has become too familiar.
“We can be a bit competitive with each other, but at the root, we’re pals, and we try to make it as fun as possible,” Gass says. “Obviously we haven’t had fun in a few years, but that’s because we’ve been at it for so long. It’s kind of hard to recreate the first times you get together and try to do stuff.”
In an effort to recapture some of the same feeling of the early days of Tenacious D, Gass has been dabbling in a couple of side projects. One of which is Trainwreck, a six-piece rock and country band in which the members all play under aliases. Similar to Tenacious D, Trainwreck blends humor and music, but that’s where the similarities end.
“When I was starting it, I wanted it to be totally different from the D,” explains Gass. “I wanted us to make a group where we could sort of go back to the beginning and make our own T-shirts. I kind of miss that club band culture.”
Joining Gass (who plays acoustic guitar and provides vocals under the name Klip Calhoun) in Trainwreck are Lance Branson (keyboards / vocals), Kenny Bob Thorton (drums), Shreddy Krueger (electric guitar), Boy Johnny (bass / vocals) and Darryl Donald (lead vocals), the band’s co-founder and who Tenacious D fans may recognize from his role as Lee in the duo’s HBO series. Though still a side project, Trainwreck is starting to pick up steam, already releasing a live bootleg (available at www.twreck.tk) and currently working on a full-length studio album with producer John King of the Dust Brothers for Epic / Sony. For Gass, however, his latest project seems to be more about keeping himself interested and having a good time.
“It seems like you need to reinvent to keep it fresh,” Gass sagely states. “I mean, part of the reason for all the side projects is to just try some things out musically and goof around with something.”
He then adds with a laugh, “It’s nice to have an outlet for your mediocre material - some place to stick all those crappy ideas.”

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