"WE'RE GONNA HAVE OUR FIRST BLASTBEAT!"
Extreme members mean extreme measures for the new Megadeth album – but before all that, what the fuck is this cruise about?
hello Dave. How’s life in Nashville treating you? “It’s really good, thank you. Out here in the country, it’s a considerably slower pace and you can really look at life and appreciate it a hell of a lot more.”
Has your new environment helped towards making music? “Well, since we just won our first Grammy [Best Metal Performance in 2017, for Dystopia’s title track] I would think the answer to that is a big yes! I think it probably did. We’re doing better now than I think we ever have. I love the line-up that we have right now, too. My guys are all great players.”
What stage is the new album at?
“We’ve just started. Obviously I’m in the south and the other guys live in the southwest, so they have quite a journey to come out here to the studio. Dirk [Verbeuren, drums] just came out for four days and Kiko [Loureiro, guitar] came out for a week. Junior [David Ellefson] has been working out of his house. We’ve got all the material and we’ve just got to piece it together. I think you’ll like it. We’re staying in the same vein as Dystopia but it’s probably going to have a lot more speed.”
That must be down to Dirk [former Soilwork drummer], right? Any blastbeats incoming?
“Yeah, we’ll no doubt have our first blastbeat on this record! We’ll see how Dirk feels about that after he has to play a blastbeat every night for the next 10 years… Ha ha ha!
But he’s amazing. I haven’t heard drumming like that since Gar Samuelson [drummer on Megadeth’s first two albums]. I can’t tell you how excited I am to be playing with someone like that, because the possibilities are endless.”
The first Megacruise kicks off in October. What should fans expect from it?
“Because it’s me, you have to know I’m gonna do it better than anyone else, or at least I’m gonna try. First out the gate, we’re the first ones to do it on the West Coast. So we’re going out to Catalina, down to Ensenada, back up to San Diego and then back to LA. We’ve got some cool, fun things, like a Mariachi metal band. We’re going to grab a couple of cover bands that have Megadeth repertoires and have them do karaoke. Then there’s the incredible line-up of bands. It’d be great to get Exodus, Slayer and Metallica on there, too, but [growly radio announcer voice] that boat isn’t big enough for the four of us!”
There’d likely be no Slayer regardless, though…
“My guitar tech, Willie, is standing in for Slayer’s guitar tech and I asked him to ask the guys in Slayer if they’re interested in doing another Big 4 show. Somebody has to say something, right? There’ll be no more Big 4 shows ever when they retire! We’ve never done a Big 4 show in the Bay Area. It would be a great way to say farewell to these metal legends, and where better to do it than in California, where the band’s from?”
I don’t think you’d struggle to sell tickets for that…
“No, I don’t think so! Ha ha! I’m just trying to get word from Anthrax and Slayer to see what the reason is for not doing it. Is everyone booked? Can’t we slide a show in somewhere? And if there’s no Big 4, let’s do another Clash Of The Titans!”
With a new album, the Megacruise and your ongoing radio show, is next year going to be insanely busy?
“Any more or less insane than any other year? Probably not. Right now we’re probably in the most enjoyable part of our lives. It’s never been this good.”
THE NEW MEGADETH ALBUM LANDS LATER THIS YEAR. THE FIRST-EVER MEGACRUISE SETS SAIL OCTOBER 13 – SEE WWW.MEGACRUISE.COM