“As for the rhythm tracks, my Uberschall got mixed with my ‘Rev G’ Dual Rectifier – which is one of the most common from the ’90s era ones. It’s a great amp for what it is, but I need an amp that sounds like it’s a bully, something that just ruins all the other amplifiers! The Ecstasy is more of an elegant thing. “I prefer a bit more of a modern palm-mute chug sound.
“Though I still have it, the Ecstasy doesn’t really suit my playing these days,” admits Tremonti, who released his own signature, the MT 15, through PRS in 2018. I remember doing a playthrough of it on Instagram, and a lot of people said it was their favourite solo from that record.” And actually the track as a whole is one of my favourite Alter Bridge songs in general. It tells a story rather than just blasting you from beginning to end it’s more of a journey. I’m really into leads that start half-clean with a slightly overdriven sound that gets boosted as the solo goes. I didn’t want to fail that song because I always knew it was going to be important. “I knew it needed an extra-good lead and I think what I played really ended up serving its purpose.
“The Blackbird solo was the last one I wrote right as the album was being made, so the pressure was on!” Mark laughs. I’m really into leads that start half-clean with a slightly overdriven sound that gets boosted as the solo goes Mark Tremonti The song is one of the band’s most enduring anthems, and it’s the duality between the two very different players that exemplifies the power of their partnership.īrand New Start is another one I love. The leads start with Kennedy before Tremonti takes over for the second half, both of them sticking with tasteful bluesy lines from the F# minor pentatonic scale. The solo section from the title track is also one of Tremonti’s proudest achievements. Those influences are where a lot of those fingerstyle intros came from.” And I didn’t know it at the time but Myles pointed this out, Frank Hannon from (Californian band) Tesla ended up being a huge factor in that stuff, too. “I grew up listening to Metallica and learning stuff like The Call Of Ktulu, so that’s where it all came from. I had that part lying around for a few years and wanted to use it in a song. When I pick up a guitar to test my clean tone, nine times out of 10 I’ll be playing that. The fingerpicked verse in the title track is probably my favourite guitar moment on the record. “Looking back now, it’s one of the best records I’ve ever been part of. Looking back now, it’s one of the best records I’ve ever been part of Mark Tremonti It felt a very real moment – we were all together, locked away and fighting for survival.
“I remember writing some of the solos as the bass was getting tracked. “The control room was the family room and I was in the bedroom right next to it,” Mark recalls. “When we had something like a whammy bar dive,” Mark says, “he’d find the coolest tones by mixing all these crazy pedals to make it roar.”Īfter tracking drums at Blackbird Studios in Nashville, the group ended up recording the bulk of the album at a house on Virginia Beach – a good 40-minute drive away from the distractions of local bars and restaurants. Recalling the Blackbird sessions, Mark describes the producer as something of a mad scientist, working from within a jungle of chaos, surrounded by towers of pedals and amp heads in the control room, with no shortage of equipment to help bring their ideas to life. The creative chemistry was so strong that he would go on to produce every Alter Bridge album thereafter, as well as all of the solo releases from both Tremonti and AB frontman Myles Kennedy. We honestly didn’t know if we’d survive as a band back then Mark Tremontiįor this, the band’s second album, they chose to partner up with producer Michael ‘Elvis’ Baskette for the very first time. We were desperate to continue, and luckily we had all the time in the world to write and prepare.” We were without management or a label, so it was a very in-between phase, just four guys trying to hang on to their career. “We fought with our initial label and had to argue to get out of the deal when we felt we weren’t getting the support we needed. “We honestly didn’t know if we’d survive as a band back then,” he says. But when guitarist Mark Tremonti recalls the making of Blackbird, he refers to this period as the group’s “darkest moment”, and perhaps the only time it felt like their future was truly in question. It was the album that paved the way for Alter Bridge to become the arena-conquering giants we know today.
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