- Mon, 2004-09-27 12:11
Megadeth one of hard rock's most revered acts, released their first new album in 3 years - The System has Failed in September and we caught up with Dave Mustaine to talk about the difficulties Megadeth faced and how his new material is some of his best yet.
“I like music because… it drowns out the noise of the committee in my head.” Dave Mustaine - Megadeth
ILM: Happy birthday for last Monday 13th, how did you celebrate?
Dave: I went out to dinner and got some interesting little gifts. I’m not a greedy person where I expect a lot of stuff. So I enjoy the good things in life like a nice cup of coffee and hanging out with the kids. I can’t tell you ironic it was that the last second of my birthday was one second before my new record was released in the States. So next year I’m going to have to figure out how to get my record released ON by birthday.
ILM: You must be very proud of The System Has Failed, not just because its an awesome album, but because you were told you’d not get your arm back to its former glory? Can you give me your own description of it?
Dave: It’s funny because when the doctor told me my arm wasn’t going to heal, and said I’’d get 80% use back in my arm but would never be able to play the same again, for a second I was scared, but then I thought you obviously don’t realise I’m a fighter. I’ve been a fighter ever since I was a kid – being a little skinny redhead I got picked up a lot, and I didn’t win all the time, but I certainly never gave up. This whole thing was just another in a series of challenges and I wasn’t going to take it lying down.
The album is good old classic Megadeth, and the guitar-playing is at the level I think I was at my best in the period around Rust In Peace and Countdown To Extinction. And the singing is like my best period too, which was around the end of the last record because I continued to get better singing-wise. It had nothing to do with the performance, but the way I was singing, so I think I’ve got better at singing and guitar playing over the last couple of records. I kind of lightened up a little bit and just laid back.
ILM: Which track did you have the most fun making?
Dave: I think probably stuff like Kick The Chair and Die Dead Enough, because in the end it was so fast to play, it was just really good to be able to play that again. So for me it was really fun to play that fast and heavy again. Guitar-solo wise, my favourite solo on this record is definitely Kick The Chair.
ILM: You’ve experienced the highs and lows of being in a band, with a clash of opinions, Marty not wanting to do metal and all that malarkey, so what advice would you give to rock bands coming through?
Dave: Just be true to yourself. If you’re a heavy band and you’ve become successful through being heavy, certainly don’t kid yourself and reinvent yourself to do something different. I think what hurt Megadeth the most was, we were making beautiful progressions from one type of music to another, but when we tried to be something we weren’t it really confused people.
Why reinvent yourself if what you’re doing is great? I’m not saying be a band like ACDC or Motorhead where the records are very similar with your music direction and you don’t make too much experimentations. Those are two bands that I love, I’m not saying anything negative about them at all, but with Megadeth we took some risks in experimentation the way that Led Zepplin would take risks (although please don’t think I’m comparing us to them in anyway, because I’m not). They made some fantastic music which changed from one type of music style to another from the songs, but it was always Led Zeppelin. There was only one song that Led Zeppelin made ever that I wasn’t completely thrilled hearing and that was Hot Dog, but every other song they ever made I can find something very enjoyable about them.
My advice to a band would be follow what your dreams are and do what you’re the best at. An example in Sports would be Michael Jordan who went from playing incredible basketball to baseball – and he sucked at baseball. It was so horrible it wasn’t even funny. And I think it’s because there are quite a few athletes in America who do dual sports, but because you’re good at one thing it doesn’t mean you’ll be good at two, and the saddest thing is when you’re so good at one thing that you believe that you’re entitled to do something else. It was excruciating to watch Michael Jordan play baseball.
ILM: You wrote every note on this record, so it is pure Megadeth. Can you describe the Dave Mustain song writing/music making process?
Dave: It’s pretty fun for me, because I listen to what I’m doing and if it makes me happy I know that it’s gonna be good. But the thing that was really weird with the last couple of records was the pressure from the label, and the management and other band members, saying let’s write a song like this, because Countdown was Number 2, so the label wanted me to do it again. I mean if it was so easy to just do it again everybody would do it.
It was hard. I started to get really frustrated, you can see from the pictures around that period, I’m not a happy kid. That’s why I the MD45 project after Euthanasia, I didn’t want to be part of this ‘write this hit record on tap’. I didn’t know I could do it the first time. It was a matter of timing. So when they said do it again, I didn’t think that I can.
ILM: You’ve written so many songs, how do you know what’s going to be right for the album and where do you like to write?
Dave: Now if I like it it’s in, but when I first started writing songs, I didn’t have a lot of fans. I had people interested in what I was doing because I smoked pot and they knew after I’d finished we’d be getting loaded. Then there were people who were interested when I got into Metallica, and others who, as soon as I left Metallica, they wanted to know what was going on. So when I started writing music for myself, that’s when I enjoyed it the most. This new record was one of the first records I’ve written in a long time, just for myself, without other band members telling me to listen to their song or words or music, or we’ve got to write a song for TV or radio. That sux. It’s like telling a guy to get an erection on command, I mean some guys can do that, but not many.
ILM: Can you describe your favourite place on earth?
Dave: It’s being with my family, no matter where we are. I really like sitting down to dinner with my family. We were brought up very poor and my mum and dad got divorced when I was a kid and we didn’t eat very well or very often, so when I can see my family eating it makes me feel really good, providing for them. I really like that.
ILM: What are your favourite tracks to chill out and unwind to?
Dave: Anything by Crowded House
ILM: Your favourite tracks that make you smile?
Dave: One that’s making me smile lately is When I’m 64 by The Beatles, because I imagine when Paul wrote that song he never imagined it would come true.
