Tremonti

The Alter Bridge guitarist and his band play dates in June and July.

Former Creed/current Alter Bridge guitarist Mark Tremonti is back with A Dying Machine, the fourth album from his self-titled solo band. Accompanied by a companion novel, it’s their first ever concept-based record.

Although it’s also very melodic, A Dying Machine reflects your passion for thrash metal. How big a fan of that genre are you? Thrash was what opened the door for me as a music fan. Metallica’s Master Of Puppets turned me into a fanatic, and I sought out the nastiest stuff I could find. To this day I still love speed metal.

The new album is based on a sci-fi tale of humans and fabricated beings called ‘vessels’. Can we presume that artificial intelligence interests you?

It was never on my radar until

I wrote the title track, which was about a man and a synthetic being. Almost immediately this big story laid itself out before me. The book goes along with the album so that people know what I’m talking about.

For the book, you collaborated with fantasy author John Shirley, who is also a musician and has written lyrics for Blue Öyster Cult. How did the book-writing process work?

My agent suggested John, and right off the bat it felt like a great fit. He asked me questions about the story and made suggestions, and then put pen to paper. It was like writing a song – our ideas were pooled.

Would you ever try such a massive undertaking again? I’ve already begun thinking about it. I’ve left the conclusion open-ended… just in case [laughs]. Is Wolfgang Van Halen, son of Edward and a past collaborator, joining Tremonti on these dates? No. For the past couple of years he’s working on his own project, so Tanner Keegan will be playing bass.

Alter Bridge frontman Myles Kennedy is currently working solo too. Is there a ‘return to work’ date for Alter Bridge? Myles and I are due to get together to write in the spring of next year, and I hope we will get the bulk of recording an album done by the summertime.

Alter Bridge’s orchestral shows at the Royal Albert Hall last year were quite something. The second night was probably the best time I’ve ever had on stage. The first night was great, but there was lots of pressure. It was a different format and we were being filmed, and those were very long sets. All it needed was for one thing to go wrong and that was it – disaster. But the second night we had everything nailed and things went like clockwork.

“Metallica’s Master Of Puppets turned me into a thrash fanatic.”

When might those recordings be released?

In the autumn. It’s a matter of releasing it far enough away from the next studio record. We’ve already approved the edits and video comps, and the cover art is being prepared. DL