LifeMinute was recently invited into the home of MEGADETH leader Dave Mustaine, his wife Pamela and their daughter Electra to hear all about their visionary wine brand House Of Mustaine which uniquely blends music, culture, and fine winemaking, get a fabulous tour of their beautiful house, and, of course, get the scoop on the latest MEGADETH news. Check out the full chat below.
Asked what music does for people, Mustaine said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “It depends. If you believe all of the colloquies about music, there’s all kinds of sayings and stuff. The one that comes to mind first with your question is music soothes the savage beast. And I don’t know who coined that phrase, but it’s pretty accurate, depending on the type of music. Now, if you play modern metal with the guys that can’t sing and they do the screaming bit, that’s really understandable to me, ’cause they can’t sing and they’re making the best of what they can do.”
Mustaine continued: “There was a period in 2000 where we had these bands called — I think it was ‘nu metal’, and they didn’t do any solos. Well, why didn’t they do any solos? They couldn’t do solos. And thank God that genre went away. People started to learn how to do solos. I would say, if you’re in a ‘nu metal’ band, you probably would be challenged even playing ‘Johnny B. Goode’ [1958 rock and roll classic by Chuck Berry]. So I’m glad that went away.”
Asked if there are any newer bands that he particularly likes, Mustaine said: “Well, I like some of the older music because new stuff — I mean, all the good chords are taken. And if you think back when I started 40 years ago, the music playing field didn’t have millions of kids sitting at home doing guitar riffs into their computer and then posting it online. There’s good and bad with everything, and when people do things for their own art, that’s great. But when you start seeing these manufactured records that bandmembers didn’t play on, that’s fraud. So, I like bands that really play what they do.
“One of my favorite guitar players is one of the simplest guys in the world — it’s the guy from PINK FLOYD, David Gilmour,” Mustaine explained. “He could do more with one note than some of the guys playing nowadays can do with 12. And it’s just a matter of feeling — feeling. The guitar, you’re touching it, so it’s an extension of your spirit, your soul, and how you make it sound. If it’s like [makes farting noise], that kind of stuff, well, you probably haven’t bonded with the instrument yet. Playing a violin — violin has gotta be one of the most dreadful sounds ever when you’re learning it, because the sound of it and rosin the bow and all that stuff is almost as bad as having someone practice on a wind instrument, like a sax or a clarinet.”
Earlier this month, it was announced that the next MEGADETH album will be released via Mustaine‘s Tradecraft imprint with the Frontiers Label Group‘s new imprint BLKIIBLK.
MEGADETH is once again working with Chris Rakestraw, a producer, mixer and engineer who previously worked on MEGADETH‘s last two albums, 2022’s “The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!” and 2016’s “Dystopia”.
The upcoming MEGADETH album will be the band’s first with new guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari, who joined the band a year and a half ago as the replacement for Kiko Loureiro.
Mäntysaari stepped in September 2023 for Loureiro, who announced earlier that month that he would sit out the next leg of MEGADETH‘s “Crush The World” tour in order to stay home with his children back in Finland. It was later revealed that the now-38-year-old Finnish musician would continue to play guitar for MEGADETH for the foreseeable future, with Loureiro seemingly having no plans to return.
Mäntysaari was born in Tampere, Finland and began playing guitar at the age of 12. In 2004, he joined the band WINTERSUN. He has also been a member of SMACKBOUND since 2015.
Photo credit: Ryan Chang
Source: blabbermouth.net
