Producer Greg Fidelman - who helmed the new Metallica album Hardwired… To Self-Destruct, recently spoke with Soundworks Collection about his time spent with the band on their latest studio output.

However, this was not the first time Fidelman had worked with Metallica. Greg also worked as an engineer and mixer on Death Magnetic and was the co-producer, engineer and mixer on Lulu, the band’s collaboration with the late Lou Reed. He also oversaw the band’s live soundtrack to their first-ever feature film Through The Never.

The entire interview can be heard via the SoundCloud audio player below; an excerpt has also been transcribed.

How did the writing process this time compare to previous sessions?

Greg: "This record, I think, is a little bit more… the overall creative stuff is a little bit more specific James and Lars, the two of them. Not that they shut people out, but that's just the way it sort of went. So I think that's a little bit different than the last few records. But I don't know… There was sort of like a lack of marching orders, for lack of a better word, although I think those words had been used several times in the conversations I had with them. There was sort of a freeness of it - it didn't have to be progressive or overcomplicated; it didn't have to be super simple, AC/DC-ified, or whatever you wanna call it. It could just be whatever it was and whatever we thought it needed to be. I think there was a little more friendly collaborating on this. There certainly was moments of not friendly collaborating. But I think it was a healthy… maybe a little healthier as far as bouncing ideas off each other when it comes to… sort of everyone combined."