Former MEGADETH Bassist Talks About The Power Of The Internet

Jeff Kerby of KNAC.COM recently conducted an interview with former MEGADETH and current F5 bassist David Ellefson. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow:

KNAC.COM: How long did it take you to realize that even though music may not be brain surgery, that when something you create isn't accepted the hurt feelings can still be awfully traumatic and painful? Is venturing out still worth the risk when that happens — especially when people can slam it almost instantaneously on the Internet?

Ellefson: "Yeah, now with the Internet, everything happens really quickly. You can pretty much find out if you're loved or hated within the span of a couple of mouse clicks. At the same time, I think your past doesn't always have to equal your future. It's kind of a double-edged sword. For me, musically speaking, some people think F5 is a little bit different for me, but that doesn't mean that I have to do everything the same way in the future. There are some other things I'm doing now though like the TEMPLE OF BRUTALITY and the KILLING MACHINE record we did this past year that are pretty aggressive. Those are on the way, but the first thing up is this F5 album, and we're looking to do a few shows with that. It has been a labor of love for me, and the other guys in the band have worked really hard on it. Even though I get called to do other things, I don't want it to seem like I'm turning my back on something that I worked really hard on as well for the last couple of years. I also know that I am realistic enough to understand that when I was 18, I had nothing to lose, so I kind of left it all on the table so to speak for one cause, one mission, one era and one culture. That is something a lot of us grew up with which was the thrash-speed metal culture. Today's world isn't quite like that anymore. It is more of a 'remote control' and 'click of the mouse' type of society. People just don't invest that much into growing up with a culture anymore. I kinda just try to write some songs and put them out and maybe do some shows and have some fun with it. If it turns into something more, then great — if not, then it seems like there is always something else coming along behind it."

KNAC.COM: How prehistoric does it seem when you think about the old days when maybe you did an interview with Hit Parader or some other metal magazine, and the story might not see print for three months?

Ellefson: "Sometimes I would even forget that I did the interview. Then, I would be like, 'I said that?'"

KNAC.COM: Does that make it harder to go through any kind of controversy with chance for verbal volleying being so much quicker now?

Ellefson: "Well, I don't know. I know that when speaking specifically about music, it's cool in a way because you can record a song and get it out really quickly into the world. What happens too though is that the brightest star also burns the quickest. Whatever is out there can be reacted on immediately, but it can also be forgotten about much quicker as well."

KNAC.COM: Your burnout factor is that much greater too, isn't it?

Ellefson: "It is, and what I'm finding out is that my level of productivity has to be that much higher because of it. I just know that with F5, it took a year to put the band together. Then, there was at least a year or so more tied up in recording and pre-production. Looking back, we did pretty well to get ours out in a couple of years' time. While all that was happening, I was doing other projects as well, but what I have found is that those other endeavors tend to hit the Internet way before they are ready to be talked about. I no sooner unplug my bass and hit the airport before it's already on the Internet. It's all good though, because the Internet and all of that kind of reminds me of when I first came out to California in '83 and there was this whole underground metal tape-trading scene. There were also those little black and white newspaper type fanzines out there. I loved that when it was going on and thought it was so cool because this love of a particular type of music had actually turned into a culture."

KNAC.COM: Why do you think that metal has always been so provincial in that at one time metal heads thought that anything that wasn't hard or powerful was basically puss music and you might as well wear a dress if you listened to it?

Ellefson: "I'm with you. I hate to say that I'm kind of an… 'educated player,' but I have studied my instrument and my craft and songwriting. I think that part of becoming a better writer means stepping outside the realm of things you create. You listen to other types of music and other types of writers — you listen to Paul McCartney. How could you not? The guy has written some of the biggest songs ever. At the same time, you can listen to the latest death metal record and understand that too. I know what you mean though, when I was younger and the scene was blowing up, your head was kind of on the chopping block if it wasn't MOTÖRHEAD or VENOM. Again, that goes back to what we were talking about initially — that was the scene or the hang. That is what we were all about and what we were creating."

KNAC.COM: Can that type of devotion to a grass roots movement in music wherein it starts out slowly, but then still maintains enough momentum to supports some of its artists for decades ever happen again with society as it is now?

Ellefson: No, and I've got to tell you that it was really cool to be a part of that when it was happening. That was an era that started a couple of years before I got into it in ‘83 and went on really up until ‘93 and ‘94. That was back when KNAC was a brick and mortar radio station in Long Beach, and we were all playing Long Beach Arena. We were all playing it and living large. It's amazing how that scene all changed by the mid-Nineties. Everyone wants to say that NIRVANA ended it, but NIRVANA didn't end it. One band doesn't change it — the media and the record companies changed it. To be quite honest, I think people were looking for something else."

Read the entire interview at KNAC.COM.