New Interview With Kerrang

[TremontiFan4Life]

There’s the Mark Tremonti everyone knows. He’s the one who stands onstage in arenas with Alter Bridge – face all screwed up in an epic expression as his fingers run up and down his fretboard.

After that, however, there’s still a sense of not really knowing him. Not because he’s mysterious. Rather, he’s just a very quiet, low-key, none-more-humble kind of guy. He certainly doesn’t come across as someone burning alive with regrets and anger. It’s for this reason that his new album – and second solo offering – Cauterize, will surprise you. Opening with possibly his heaviest riff to date on Radical Change, it’s a jolting experience as he starts singing of how ‘pride just dies away’.

In truth, however, away from the success of Alter Bridge, Mark’s has been a career of hard lessons in the music industry. Yes, as guitarist and songwriter for Creed, he sold millions and played all of America’s enormodomes. And yes, not only did the material he poured his heart into with Creed often get completely overlooked – it was outright attacked, in part due to the religious rock tag prompted by singer Scott Stapp’s messianic posturing.

The legacy of Creed was very much the albatross around his neck. A bitter split. A strange reunion. And, well, just some plain weirdness…

Last November Mark watched on as his old band’s legacy all but completely disintegrated as Scott Stapp made headlines around world thanks to a bizarre video claiming he was penniless and living in a Holiday Inn. He also claimed that someone was trying to kill him and that members of his own family were involved with ISIS – all of which the singer has since told People Magazine was attributed to ‘a psychotic break that was brought on by alcohol and drug abuse.’

Add to this discussion the future of Alter Bridge, and Mark Tremonti has a lot to talk about in 2015. He’s a man ready to put the past behind him. He’s also a man who’s ready to try to change people’s perceptions of him. With Cauterize, he has his best chance yet…

Okay, first thing I thought listening to this album was, ‘Is Mark okay?’

“Haha!”

It’s a dark record…

“I actually had to put a couple of songs on the record to make it not so dark! I like heavy, moody music. It’s hard to write a song like Arm Yourself and have it be a happy song. But I’m not the type of guy who goes moping around, hating the world.”

What was it about the word Cauterize that made it representative of the record as a whole?

“To be honest, I wanted to name the album Providence! It’s a great, epic song that ends the album. But then I was the only one who did!”

But the band is called Tremonti! Surely you can do what you want?

“I know! I was like, ‘It’s going to be called Providence!’ but I kept getting kicked back. You know, one angle was, ‘Hey, you’ve fought with this whole religious thing your whole career. People thought Creed was a Christian band and you had to fight that… and now you’re going to put out a record called Providence, which is a spiritual boon or blessing!? They’ll think the same thing!’ I liked the name, but in the end too many people kicked back…”

What are some of the real life experiences that have gone into the lyrics? On Flying Monkeys you sing ‘Throw the past away, yet again, hold the lie inside, until the end‘ – you should like a man harbouring a few regrets…

“Flying Monkeys is a little bit autobiographical because it’s about somebody who can’t let things go. If somebody burns you in the past, you never forget about it and take it to the grave, and that’s a person I don’t want to be. I’ve matured. In this business a lot of people have burned us. We’ve gotten burned more than anybody I’ve known. I used to hold that anger inside… but what does it do for you as a person? Nothing. It just makes you a worse person. I do have problems with it sometimes – a worst version of myself who can’t let anything go and just holds the bitterness, vindictiveness and anger.”

Dark Trip is another interesting song. Again, it sounds very autobiographical.

“It was about one of those people who had burned us in the past, and burned me individually – someone very close, in and outside of business. That’s why I say ‘How could you ever deny I loved… I welcomed you into my house’. That song’s about inviting someone behind your walls, into your home, into your business, finance, your wives are friends, your kids are friends, and then someone does something so despicable – after you’ve walked them into your life – for money. To me, it goes beyond despicable.”

Sounds like there are a few life lessons on this record…

“Hell yeah. I mean that song especially is just a good example of when you’re a young kid in a rock band, and you didn’t really go to business school and you’re trusting other people to watch things for you, you can be taken advantage of. I’m not a good judge of character, I guess because it’s happened to me a lot. I think now I’m older and wiser, it’s not going to happen to as much… I hope!”

This record is the first of two you’re going to release – any reason it’s not a double album?

“I didn’t want there to be too many songs for people to listen to. I left a lot of my favourite songs on the second album because I never wanted anybody to hear the first and be like, ‘This is the A-sides, and this is the B’. It’s not that case at all. The next album starts off with a song called My Last Mistake that hits you square in the teeth. And Dust, the title track, is the best chorus on both records. I will admit, though, that the first record has some key songs that gives it a little edge over the second.”

When will we hear part two?

“We’re seeing how this album does and see what a good pocket of time is and see what the schedules look like next year for AB and Tremonti. What I’ll probably do is record an Alter Bridge record sometime next year and then, while that records being set up for three months, I’ll go back out and tour for Tremonti! I want next year to be both bands, and this year to be all Tremonti.”

Speaking of that level of devotion, then, how much of you going solo is down to you wanting more respect as a songwriter, rather than a guitarist?

“The bane of my existence is being a guitar player who’s never thought of as a being songwriter.”

How important is it for you to address that?

“Of utmost importance to my artistic career. I’m a songwriter, that’s 90 per-cent of what I am. 10 per-cent of what I am is a guy who likes to learn tricks on guitar and turn them into songs. Songwriting to me is what excites me. From the early days in Creed, people would be like, ‘Scott, you wrote this song!’… We wrote the song. People will be like, ‘Scott, What’s This Life For? This song you wrote is so beautiful’ I wrote that song! You know? He finished some of the lyrics but, yeah… I didn’t get credited for a lot of the songwriting. So then Alter Bridge starts and I’m thinking, ‘Maybe people will understand now if they see a correlation between the two bands with the melodies and whatnot.’ But people still think it’s always the singer writing the songs…”

Myles does say when you wrote them on stage…

“Yeah, Myles is great about it. He would never ever take that away. Just people in general think it’s the singer who is writing all the songs.”

On some level, is that why you’re doing these solo records?

“I just love writing songs. But it has been frustrating in the past, just to be thought of as a lead guitar player when you’ve put all your efforts into writing songs, and a little of your efforts into being a lead guitar player. People are focusing on the wrong thing.”

Turning the topic to Creed for a moment, last year must have been very stressful with Scott. Did you find out like everyone else?

“I just saw it going down with everyone else. People don’t understand that I haven’t been a close associate or friend of Scott’s for nine years or however long it’s been? We did one record, one tour but we were on different buses, we hardly spoke during that time. It’s not like I know his personal life anymore. People ask, ‘Are you gonna do Creed?’ This and that. I’ve just gotten to the point with my life where I’ve got so much going on that I’m excited about that I don’t want to get back into anything that’s stressful or brings any kind of negativity into my life. I think I’ve worked hard enough to have other positive things to work on.”

So you don’t see Creed being a part of your future?

“You never say never but… last time it took seven years for us to be like, ‘How does it feel?'”

Did you enjoy reforming Creed?

“The beginnings of it were fun. What happened was the Alter Bridge stuff… I think Scott just thought that we’d get back together with Creed and we’d forget about Alter Bridge. He doesn’t understand how hard we’ve worked to build Alter Bridge. When you singlehandedly bring a band to its knees like he had done, and we all split up, and then you build something, you’re not all of a sudden going to just jump back to the other band and forget what you’ve built. So I think he expected us to do that. Especially me. I think he took all his frustrations on me. I think it all came down to [one time when] we were having lunch in catering. He was like, ‘Hey man, what are you doing in January,’ and I’m like, ‘I’m going to the studio with Alter Bridge, we’ve talked about this.’ He’s like, ‘Really?’ From then on we didn’t speak. On tour. On stage. Didn’t speak.”

For how long?

“The whole rest of the South American tour…”

You didn’t speak at all?

“Didn’t speak at all… except one argument. He yelled at me one day but that was it. So… yeah. It was very awkward. I’ve got friends who don’t know any better in Orlando who’re like, ‘Why don’t you get Creed back together? You can go out and play for thousands and thousands of people!’ And they don’t understand how complicated it is.”

It speaks a lot of your character that you’re turning down a no-brainer financially?

“It’s definitely not a no-brainer. It’s a lot of history there.”

Do you wish Creed could work?

“I’m proud of what we did back then, that’s not to say I’m not just as proud of what I’ve done since. I think I’m a better songwriter, better guitar player, better everything. I’ve worked hard over the years. When I hear those old songs, I like the core or the essence of the songwriting, the passion we had back then. But I feel like we were just kids.”

On to Alter Bridge… Where are you heading next?

“We got on the phone and discussed plans. Myles had just got off tour – he’d been on tour forever. He’s a maniac. I don’t know how he does it. I think his dog gives him the cold shoulder when he gets home now. We came to the conclusion that we need to get together for a week here and there before the end of the year to start the wheels rolling on the next album.”

And as for Tremonti?

“Now it’s a matter of people spreading the word, we have our little diehard group of fans that get it and love it. It’s still a little baby band but hopefully one day we’ll play Wembley with Tremonti! Maybe three years from now we can give it a go!”

[cesargil]

Good interview.

Sad about Creed, but Alter Bridge is coming anyway. Creed is over and it's simple to understand reading what Mark told Kerrang!.

[austin.]

Is Tremonti saying he wrote Dark Trip about Stapp? I'm yet to hear the song. Or any other cauterize song :p

[fix]

^ I don't think it's about Stapp but some management/label guy, because he talks about him being greedy and taking advantage financially.

[Ubik]

I like that Mark's sick of being referred to as a guitarist rather than a songwriter, and Myles always says he's a guitarist first and a singer second. I bet, deep down, Brian really thinks playing bass just prepares the ground for his eventual singing career, and Flip would really just prefer to be eating peanut butter but "bills are bills man".

[Fish Tacos]

"When you singlehandedly bring a band to its knees like he had done"

Haha, I know that it's pretty obvious to everyone so it isn't like he's not stating facts but that just made me lol...

[Andy92]

I think Dark Trip is about gurthie.

[Vlad]

I think Dark Trip is about gurthie.

I remember watching an interwiev of him in 2005, he did talk about someone betraying him, talking about "snakes" who stab you in the back for money.

Found it.

[youtube]http://youtu.be/2D_qHMNGWfg[/youtube]

[TremontiFan4Life]

call me stupid but who is gurthie?

[Andy92]

call me stupid but who is gurthie?

Enjoy.

http://www.thealterbridgenation.com/for ... =13&t=2447

[TremontiFan4Life]

oh fuck me...what the fuck was that

[SHEAKENBAKEN]

oh fuck me...what the fuck was that

The Great Gurthiepocalypse of TheAlterBridgeNation. A grave (also very humerous) time in the history of this place.

[Andy92]

It's the best thing that ever happened here after wolfie.

[austinjhnsn]

can someone explain wolfie too?

[Andy92]

He "found a leak" for Full Circle.

[TremontiFan4Life]

lmao I remember that, that was some funny shit

[ToNsOFuN88]

He "found a leak" for Full Circle.

Elaborate please lol

[Andy92]

He said he had the album to mess with people, and it escalated into a lot of comments and PM's lol. I tried to find the thread in the archive forum, but I didn't see it. Harder now without the search function.

[nagpo]

and Myles always says he's a guitarist first and a singer second.

He really thinks this? Strange. When I think of Myles I think of his voice. And even in both of the bands he's in now he's not the lead guitarist.

[fix]

What the f... was that gurthie thing hahaha! Thanks for the ABN history lesson.