We had a chat to Mark Tremonti from Alter Bridge on a dark, hot Orlando night a couple of weeks ago. You saw the abridged version, but here it is in full!
This is going to be your 4th album, how do you feel youre at, at this particular point in your career and how the album sits?
I think Alter Bridge has built up to this moment. I think we keep trying to improve on what we were doing and hopefully every album shows that growth and hopefully this is our most experienced record.
How do you think as a band things have changed for you over the span of those four records, has whats influenced you changed, have you changed from what you set out to do initially?
I think that when we first got the band together we were still kind of in that Creed mindset where we were playing it a little safer and we only really had one guitar player. When we went to the Blackbird record we specifically tried to not sound like our past and tried to recreate ourselves. When Miles added his guitar onto the record I think that was really the birth. I think our second record was really the birth of our new sound. And then Alter Bridge - we got much more experimental with it and it turned out to be a very dark record and with this record we wanted to make like a high energy recordmake the songs unpredictable with the arrangements and the key changes and time signatures and everything we could.
There seemed to be a bit of a breakthrough between AB3 and whats leading into Fortress now. Do you feel like thats given you a little bit more freedom now to explore some of those different things or do you feel that youve got more expectations on you as Alter Bridge?
I think once we wrote the song Addicted To Pain, me and Myles kind of agreed that that could be our lead-off single. From that point on we could be as experimental as we wanted, cause we had our first single written. Our fans enjoy songs like Black Bird and the more drawn out, long, complex songs and the heavier stuff because Isolation was our biggest radio success so we knew that Addicted To Pain was right up that alley. With the rest of the record, we wanted to make it experimental. Make it bigger, better, harder and a fun record to perform live - that was a main concern of ours as well.
You guys are almost emerging as the champions of the modern rock sound because I guess that there are a lot of bands that become influenced by certain styles or they become part of a genre that only lasts a certain amount of time, whereas that sort of hard rock is really sort of quite timeless. How do you feel about being touted as being a band thats now a leader in that genre?
Its a great compliment. I feel like we play very classic routed rock and roll music in our style mixed with some heavy metal stuff but we find it hard to find other bands to tour with a lot of the time. Were not so metal that we can tour with the Metallica types but were not so alternative that we could go with the 30 Seconds To Mars of the world were kind of between. Its hard to find bands to tour with cause theres not a lot that are super similar to what we do. On this next tour were going out with Shinedown and Halestorm. Its going to be great because I think vocally its just going to be an amazing night.
When youre pioneering something thats almost classic it puts you in a very interesting position.
Yeah, absolutely. Were just trying to make the best songs out of what were influenced by when we were kids and what were still influenced by, but not try and sound too much like anybody else. Like I said though its just kind of hard to try and find good bands to tour with that match our sound. But its a good thing; I dont want to sound like a bunch of other bands.
Its both a blessing and a curse I guess. Youve just gotta be persistent to break through dont you, but when you do it becomes a great reward. So speaking of classic and modern artists, what are some of the more contemporary modern artists that youre listening to at the moment that might surprise some of your fans?
Modern artists? You know I like all the metal stuff that is out there right now its amazing. I love Lamb of God and I love Opeth and that whole scene but then when I was doing my solo tour with the Tremonti band I was in the lounge of the back of the bus and they were playing bands like Periphery and Twelve Foot Ninja and Monuments and Animals as Leaders and all this stuff was just blowing me away. So experimental, with the time signatures that they put in the songs are just amazing and stuff like that, its good to keep hearing new things like that, its just going to help you grow as an artist.
Sure well speaking of, I know this is sort of going back a little bit to what we were saying before, but last time you were in Australia you did some shows with Steel Panther which was an interesting but effective pairing because everyone had an amazing time. Are you looking forward to coming out and doing Soundwave again?
Yeah, absolutely. You know those Steel Panther shows they were fun because we love those guys and we get along so well. I think it was kind of a bummer for the crowd to go from the most fun band in the world to the most serious band (laughs). We thought it was going to be a good pairing but when you get up there you watch how fun the Steel Panther show is, its almost a bummer to try and play people a serious more ah moody song, it kind of ruins the fun that everybodys having.
Who do you find your key influences are as a guitar player?
I think that changes every day. Im always just trying to keep on learning from many different players. But thats only on the lead side of things, but as far as a rhythm and the writing goes I try and stay in my own little world and teach the band things on my own. I mean I dont want to sound like anybody else, but as far as lead player Ive been influenced byI could go all along but Ray Vaughan all the way to James Hetfield or Kerry King when I was a kid or nowadays Carl Verheyen Im really into him right now and Labyrinth four. I think Joe Bonamassa is one of the greatest guitar players and Derek Brooks is really inspiring me but sort of very different to what I do, thats what inspires me about them.
Is there anything that youve been on doing on this particular album technical wise that has differed or evolved or that you started out doing One Day Remains and has now sort of evolved through various albums?
I tried to do a few things on this album, but I also wanted to steer clear of a few things. I had come to rely on a bunch of legato ideas and I felt like Ive used the legato stuff too much now so I had to go and get some stuff. Ive gotten into some finger picking/chicken picking kinds of ideas and Brad Paisley has a real cool trick that he does a lot that Im digging that. Youll see on this record. Then I wanted to use my fingers a little bit more for the leads for different tone and sing these solos in my head before playing them, to give it more of a melodic approach and not so technique driven but have it tell a story.
Ok great well Ive just got one more question for you, what makes you a MANIAC?
Well Im a maniac when it comes to the collecting of guitar amplifiers. Ive got studio that is jam packed and then Ive got a guest room and all the furniture is guitar amplifiers cause I cant find any more room for amplifiers Ive got them all through the hallways. Ive got a problem, Ive got an addiction I need to talk to a therapist about it.
So are we going to see you on hoarders and its just like guitar amps everywhere? (laughs)
Oh gosh theyre everywhere, and guitar world magazine is coming down to do an in-studio feature at my house around our rehearsals and they want to see my amp so I think theyre just gonna be shocked with what they find.
Is there anything youd like to say to the fans that are looking forward to seeing you play on Soundwave this summer?
Were looking forward to it ten times more than they are. We cant wait, we had a blast last time and we look forward to trying some new material there
As we look forward to hearing it. Thank you very, very much for that I enjoyed speaking to you and look forward to seeing you when you get out here!
Great, thanks so much. Take care.
