INTERVIEW: Mark Tremonti – Tremonti

Time rests for no man, it is also a word that does not feature in the vocabulary of Mark Tremonti. Whether it is ALTER BRIDGE, working alongside PRS to develop his own custom amplifier or his own project TREMONTI he always finds a way to keep himself occupied. We caught up with the man himself to get some insight on his newest release and fourth album A Dying Machine to dig deeper into the concept he has developed and what the future holds.

You have just released your new album A Dying Machine. How do you feel the response has been so far?

Mark: It’s been tremendous! A lot of love and support so far.

At what stage in the process did you decide to go down this route of developing a concept album?

Mark: When I wrote the title track I really fell for the story. I loved the concept of that song by itself so when I finished it I wanted to continue it onto the next song. At first I thought maybe I’ll just write about three or four songs and have like a miniature story but when I got that far I’m like ‘let me just keep chasing this record down’ and I did.

Once this decision was made do you feel at any point that you had to tailor the music to fit around the concept or did it develop naturally?

Mark: I definitely tailored the music around the concept. I tried to tell the story and use my imagination to see where the story would go and what kind of characters could play out. Most of the time I was just sitting in the bus going to bed and I’d be thinking about what the next song could be about subject matter wise and I’d create them piece by piece until the song was done and I’d move onto the next one.

For the benefit of the readers who haven’t heard the album yet what does the concept entail?

Mark: It takes place at the turn of the next century and these beings called vessels are created. It’s the first time a synthetic human brain has been lab grown. You can pretty much fashion a human being any way you want, the way they look, the way they act. You as a creator are called their Primary and you have control over them. As years go by these vessels find a way to not have to obey anymore and that’s kind of where the story goes.

You also decided to develop a novel to coincide with this release, how did you find this process? Do you think this may be the beginning of your career as an author?

Mark: I’ve absolutely loved it! Just as we speak between interviews I’m still going over the copy of the novel. I have stacks of old versions of the novel. It’s gone through about 11 revisions so far. This is the last one. Next it gets formatted and printed. I’m going to be kind of sad when this part is done as I don’t know if I’ll do another book at any time. If this is a success I definitely will. I’ve had so much fun doing it it’s sad to see it coming to an end.

At what stage in the process did you feel you needed assistance in bringing the novel to life?

Mark: This has been a bucket list item for me for over ten years now and I have got many books on how to write novels, how to piece it together, books on grammar, how to create characters, this and that. I’ve prepared for this but it was moving too slowly and I thought there is no way in the world I was gonna get this thing done in time so I thought I’d partner with someone to move it along. I just so happened to have an agent here in the United States that is part of UTA that have a literary agency so it was the perfection connection for me. I interviewed people and I must have went through about nine writers before I found John and just looking at his background he specialises in future technology and where technology is taking us. He does TEDX talks, he is really good at when I tell him a piece of a story he can help me explain it in a more scientific, realistic way.

What did you find that you didn’t particularly like about the other writers? Were they not fitting your vision for the project?

Mark: They were all great writers. It’s just like writing a song or finding a band member, you wanna find that voice that you feel suits the songs your writing. The batch of writers stuff I would go through, all their resumes and chapters of their books but when I came across John’s stuff it was a perfect fit and I’m so glad I went with John. I’ve had a lot of fun working with him and I can tell he has enjoyed it. We’re both very proud.

How have the new tracks been received on the road? Any particular songs which have been going down really well with the crowd?

Mark: Probably my favourite song to play now is A Dying Machine, it’s such an important song to me. When I play it I get emotional as it’s the core of this record and it’s what started the journey. I love playing it live. Bringer of War we played once and it went down really well. Everyone is familiar with Take You With Me with it being the single. We’ll just keep adding song by song as we go. When we go back out there we have plans to play As The Silence Becomes Me pretty much straight away and maybe Throw Them To The Lions. 

You have an incredible voice and I’m glad that TREMONTI has provided that outlet for you. Do you feel that with this opportunity you feel less inclined to take up vocal duties for ALTER BRIDGE? It was great for you to be the focal point in Waters Rising.

Mark: I’d love to continue doing that. It’s great that when I’m out with ALTER BRIDGE that I can stay on top of my vocals too when I’m not on tour with TREMONTI. If I could do that every now and then that would be great.

How do you find juggling the writing process for TREMONTI and ALTER BRIDGE? Do you ever put a riff in the memory banks for use with another project?

Mark: The only time when one song won’t work for one band is if it’s too speed metal driven then it has to become a TREMONTI song. The rhythm section in ALTER BRIDGE isn’t really suited for speed metal, it’s more a groove, I mean there is definitely a heavier side to ALTER BRIDGE but it’s not the speed metal kinda thing. Those guys aren’t really that into it. That’s one of the main reasons I started this band in the first place.

With Myles working on 1,001 projects do you feel this benefits you with regards to allocating sufficient time to the touring/album cycles with TREMONTI?

Mark: Yeah, we just plan ahead and we are planning to head into the studio next year with ALTER BRIDGE and then I’ll get out of the studio and go right back out on tour with TREMONTI when that record is being set up. It takes about four months from once you’ve written an album to be able to release it so that’ll be a good time for us to get in one or two last tours this record cycle before we get into ALTER BRIDGE mode which will be late next year.

How did you go about creating your signature amp (PRS MT15)? I’m not very knowledgable about the equipment side of things but the fact you can get such a powerful and distinctive tone from a 15W amp is very impressive!

Mark: I’m an amp fanatic! Right now as we speak I’m surrounded by stacks of amplifiers, I love them all. When I designed the amp I wanted to get everything I love about my amps and put it all into this small little unit. Now when I come here and I play guitar I just plug right into it and I love it. It’s got the best of all my favourite tones just tucked into this lunchbox amp!

TREMONTI have a few UK dates quickly approaching as well as the opportunity to support IRON MAIDEN on some European dates. For anyone attending these shows what can they expect from your performance?

Mark: To see four excited guys getting up there and doing what they love!  We’re gonna do the best we can, we’re very passionate about what we do.

In the early days of TREMONTI you said you weren’t really keen on the idea of being a frontman. Do you feel your confidence has grown a bit more over the years?

Mark: It comes and goes you know, now I’ve been off the TREMONTI touring for a while I get a bit nervous again but we’ve done five shows so far since we’ve recorded this record and they’ve all gone great. It takes a little bit to get back into the flow of things as a frontman. It’s something you can’t practice when you’re at home so the only way you can do it is just by getting up there!

Thanks for your time Mark, I’ll leave you with one more question. Do you have anything you would like to say to the readers of Distorted Sound?

Mark: Thanks for keeping track of us and hopefully you dig the new record and that you come to see us play. We’d love to see you there.

Thanks Mark! Best of luck for the tour.

Mark: Thank you so much.

A Dying Machine is out now via Napalm Records.

Like Tremonti on Facebook.