Alter Bridge Mark Tremonti Interview: My Champion, Kirk Hammett Hardwired Solos & More
5. Tremonti III Details, Growing As A Guitarist & Outside Influences
S.T: Going forward you've got the next Tremonti solo album too. How's that coming along?
M.T: I'm gonna get writing April 7th for this one, the guys are gonna come by and [start putting things] together. I'd say I'm about 40% of the way on the writing process to get the record out, I just need to get the headstart with the guys and put together what I've worked on so far, then go back on tour and get the record done throughout the year.
S.T: In terms of expanding yourself as a guitarist, do you feel you've at least dabbled in every major technique you'd want to use, or are there different areas of guitar playing you want to look into?
M.T: Ah man, there's like an infinite amount of stuff I want to look into, there's just not enough time to do it. I've been playing a lot lately, really focusing on guitar playing more than ever, just trying to learn as many tricks and licks [as I can].
When I write songs, I try to be in my own bubble and not have any outside influence, just do my own thing and not follow any theory or technique. Just kinda try to 'invent' something instead of picking it up from somebody else.
With guitar lead stuff I like to learn as much as I possibly can from other people, then I try to assimilate that into my playing and try to make it my own style.
S.T: How much do wider influences affect a song, or the parts of a track that have already come together? Do you ever look to movies or books etc. as outside influences you can carry across into the mood and feel of a track in any way?
M.T: Sometimes if I'm writing a song and I had just maybe watched a movie or read a book, sometimes those themes might find their way into a song.
On the first record, Burn it Down was just after I'd seen The Salton Sea (2002), about this guy who had a drug binge for days and days, not sleeping and- I dunno if you remember that movie, but I wrote that song about that.
Not that it was one of my favourite movies of all time, it was just kinda on my mind at the time 'cause I'd just seen it, right when I was writing the lyrics to that song. It was kind of like, the mood of what I was playing kind of fit that.