Alter Bridge Mark Tremonti Interview: My Champion, Kirk Hammett Hardwired Solos & More

4. Collaborating With Myles On Each Album Over Time

S.T: Just after The Last Hero came out and I talked to Myles, he mentioned a lot of the album's overall influence came from watching a lot of the news footage of the time, Donald Trump's campaign and everything surrounding the election. Did that conceptual lead mostly come from Myles, or was it something you both came together on?

M.T: When we're putting things together and I'm throwing melodies on the table, we'll all usually have something [to bring]. For instance, Show Me a Leader, I had that lyric, "Show me a leader that won't", and he kinda runs with that theme, and develops the whole rest of the lyric.

When I write parts, I put some of the lyrics in there because I know that the parts that go together might not have the same themes. I don't want to work too hard on the lyrics until the song's arranged, and once it gets arranged, Myles usually finishes up on the majority of the lyrics, because he's the singer. You wanna have your singer believe in what he's singing, y'know! (laughs)

That being said, there's been a lot of songs where I've had a lot more lyrical ideas I did, especially on the first album. As time goes by it's just better to have your singer, and he's such a brilliant lyricist, I'll throw out melodies that have key rhymes - "You've got poison in your veins" or "show me a leader" or something like that, and then he'll finish it off.

Like "This side of fate", I think mine was "This side of face", for example.