Founding Megadeth bassist Dave Ellefson had a chat to Lithium Magazine, discussing working on the new album with producer Johnny K (Machine Head, Sevendust), among other topics.
On writing with guitarist Chris Broadrick and drummer Shaun Drover, Ellefson had the following to say:
"It’s really been good, actually. It’s a much different process than I’ve ever done before with Megadeth, but it’s a collaborative environment I’ve done with other bands, so I am certainly comfortable with it. It’s really gone well, honestly. Johnny K is a fantastic producer – I’m really happy we were able to get him involved. He and Dave seem to have a good working relationship. Kind of like we came off of Rust in Peace and went right into Countdown To Extinction, that’s kind of how I feel about the new album. We came off the Rust In Peace 20th Anniversary and went right into what could theoretically be our next Countdown to Extinction, just twenty years later.
"I think my experience as a player and a recording artist and a live performing bassist have matured, and with the new line-up in Megadeth, as well. Shawn Drover is a fantastic drummer. He has a really good feel to how he plays. He intrinsically understands all of the fundamentals of Megadeth’s music as he grew up listening to our records. He seems to just ‘get it’ from all sides, and as a rhythm section that really made Rust In Peace a really enjoyable tour last year.
"(Doing the Big Four shows) there was an incredible work ethic from the band right through to the crews. Everybody was really into it. Chris Broderick plays his guitar for eight hours, and then he goes and lives his life. That’s how he is every single day. It’s amazing; that’s why he’s such a fantastic guitar player. We would sometimes run through the entire set backstage before we would go onstage to play it for an audience. Our approach was like a marathon runner… if you are required to run ten miles, then you had better be able to run twelve. You need the extra gas in the tank to be able to run that ten miles efficiently. "
For their upcoming thirteen studio album, Megadeth were unable to work with metal veteran Andy Sneap, who produced their last effort, Endgame, due to scheduling conflicts. Hear a snippet of the latest Megadeth song, Never Dead, here. The song is featured on the trailer of the upcoming fantasy action game NeverDead.
Ellefson also talked about his experiences outside of Megadeth.
"You know, in my time away I did so many different music related projects – bands that I formed and bands that I was asked to join – a ton of session work, along with a lot of my own writing. So one of the things I realized in 2002 was I was kind of dated stylistically in my playing and my song-writing, and by hooking up with some younger guys in some different settings and writing for younger bands and being a part of that, it really opened my eyes to some things - how guys tune their guitars for instance. These guys weren’t tuning their guitars in standard A4 tuning anymore, and to a large degree that really was a game changer. It was like someone threw a whole bunch of new paint into my easel for me to paint some new pictures with."
He also discussed how the band created the technically proficient style they are known for.
"It’s interesting because I grew up playing like that. I met Daveas he was first composing, and some of that stuff at first was some really slow and heavy riffs. Then the material got sped up very quickly and we seemed to start writing more and more progressively from there. I had a moment early on there where I was really glad I’d learned to play bass the way that I did, you know? Even in our original line-up with Gar Samuelson and Chris Poland, they originally came from a jazz-fusion-rock background kind of a Mahavishnu Orchestra meets The Who sound… they were a little bit older than me and Dave, and they had some different life experiences behind them coming into the band.
"But when you fused me and Dave, the metal guys, with those two guys… we had a completely unique sound. It was interesting because everyone around us had this much heavier (pauses) ‘metal’ sound… like an eighties metal sound. Sometimes I would be kind of envious of it, too. I would hear Anthrax records and they would have these great drum tones and these thick guitars, and obviously Metallica records… Metallica records would always have great drum tone with a lot of bottom end and slick guitar tones. It took us several records to completely haul our tone in. We played our stuff differently than the other guys, you know? Out of The Big Four, every one of us has a very unique sound, and I think that’s so cool about what we are doing as The Big Four on tour now – we have such a unique individuality - each one of our styles, the way we write music and the way we play. These things are likely all elements we struggled with in the early days, trying to hone our sound, and it really became the basis of our individuality.
Read the whole interview here.
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