DAVE MUSTAINE Talks About The Current Metal Scene, Drugs, Politics

Planet-Loud.com recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

Planet-Loud.com: Congratulation on the new album, Dave. What did you want to achieve with it?

Mustaine: I just wanted to do something that, for me, really represented where we are at as a band at that particular time. The songs were written before I met the rest of the guys who make up the band now and so we worked on them and developed them into making a good record. The thing is that the record industry is changing so dramatically that, who knows, by the next record there might not even be a record industry. It may all be downloads.

Planet-Loud.com: Funny you should mention that, there is a British band called ASH who have announced they are stopping making albums in the traditional way instead just issuing tracks and releases as and when they record them. Could you see other bands following suit?

Mustaine: Absolutely. I could see a lot of bands doing that because, for most people, if you don't have the clout, the record industry is the evil empire. We are in a position where we are a toenail away from being back in the clouded area because of bad-boy behavior in the past. We have always been able to be in that area where the record industry worked with us. I don't know what I would do if I had to have gone through my career in the way that some of these bands are treated nowadays. When I first started, you made a record and it had eight songs on it — four on each side. Now each record has nearly fourteen songs on it and that's damn near two records and it takes time to write songs no matter how good you are. What that band are doing is giving people music and a choice as to when they have it. They're also giving them value for money as well when it comes to the end product. I would go as far as saying they are definitely setting a standard for bands in the future which can only be a good thing in this industry.

Planet-Loud.com: Quality control at its best..

Mustaine: Right, if you don't have that all the songs just start sounding the same and when they start sounding the same it's easy to start writing that shit and just changing the lyrics and pray that your audience is stupid or you become a song writer and you have three or four people singing your songs but just with different words. At one point there were so many people doing that like Diane Warren, Desmond Child and people like that. I can't understand how you can go into a studio with somebody that doesn't understand metal and write a metal record. When I did "Cryptic Writings" and "Risk" with Dan Huff is because his guitar playing floored me. Little did I know that was just him learning a guitar solo and that guitar playing didn't emanate from inside of him. It was just something that was like a coat to be worn and taken off when he'd finished. I respect him as a guitar player but there are players out there who can kill it playing metal but they're not made from the same cloth — when they get onstage you can tell.

Planet-Loud.com: What bands do you like at the moment?

Mustaine: Well you already know about the TRIVIUMs and DRAGONFORCEs and those bands but I try to get the bands before they make it big – when there is a buzz starting up about them. There is the band PRIESTESS and a band we took out on tour with us called IN THIS MOMENT. We went out with ARCH ENEMY and they were stunning – she's stunning, got a great voice and her band are just quality musicians. I also did something with Cristina from LACUNA COIL and that was awesome too. Having said that, I don't want it to be made into something about "guy metal band takes out metal band with girl singer" thing. It was always about the music.

Planet-Loud.com: Having travelled the world, are there any places you've seen where things have improved?

Mustaine: Argentina is one. Spain has improved, Eastern Germany has improved for sure. That was fucked going in there. Those roads were like driving over tree stumps and all those old cars — that situation is a plus. Moscow is another place that was a pretty fucking scary place but is pretty normal now and the economy is booming there. The Middle East is pretty fucked up right now and it makes it really difficult to travel around that area. Turkey is supposed to be a lovely place but it is next to Iraq. What you gonna do? What happens if you're playing in Turkey and the Kurds invade — "This next song is called… *BOOOOM*"

Planet-Loud.com: What was it like touring places like that?

Mustaine: Serbia was one of those places. When we played there we went to the Parliament building and the whole side had been blown out by tanks. If you've travelled the world enough then you will see some remnants of a war from some age. One of the important things is that these kids were doing anything to make money to come and see us and we'd be like, "Hey, we're Americans, sorry that you're living in a bombed out country and we're taking your money.." All we could do in return was make sure these kids were given a really good time with us.

Planet-Loud.com: Regardless of where you are from when you get on a stage that goes out of the window.

Mustaine: Right and you know what, because we travel so much as musicians I see us as global citizens rather than being from one place. Sure, I'm a patriot and I love where I live and our country used to be a good world power but because of some bad decisions over the past two decades, we've lost that standing and people are scared of us. Just because my country has got an administration that is making decisions I don't necessarily agree with, it doesn't stop my love of going to another country and playing my music. One thing I've been watching is a lot of programs on the Falklands War and it makes you realize that there are so many wars that have gone on that so many of the young people don't know about. These were wars that were fought to give people freedom.

Planet-Loud.com: What is the secret of longevity?

Mustaine: At some point you go beyond being flavor of the moment so you get some legitimacy and, so long as you don't sell out, you go into a place where you gain stature and from that point it's all down to how you present yourself as to whether you become an elder statesman for the music. By all rights I shouldn't be here. I'm just a punk rocker with long hair from L.A. who surfed — with all the partying I did I shouldn't be here.

Planet-Loud.com: Speaking of the partying... any regrets?

Mustaine: Well, the thing is that you can't be healthy doing drugs. It wears you down. It's hard being up here as it is without drugs as well. I've got a nerve problem in my neck from all the headbanging I've done and it hurts a lot. I had full scans to see what the problem was at a university and it scared me because I thought I wouldn't be able to move my head again. What made it worse was that I had done this because I was high and I didn't know how much pain I was putting my body though. I was waking up and wouldn't feel a thing so I'd just carry on.

Read the entire interview at www.planet-loud.com.