MEGADETH Bassist LOMENZO: 'I Take The Responsibility Of Being In This Band Very Seriously'

SDMFworldwide.com recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH/ex-BLACK LABEL SOCIETY bassist James Lomenzo. A couple of excerpts follow:

SDMFworldwide.com: So you're in town with MEGADETH. Let's start with some background on how you got the gig and how it came to be.

James: Okay. A buddy of mine who worked over at the guitar company ESP recommended me to Dave [Mustaine]. I called him up, after we had been hanging out having lunches and such and he said, "Are you looking for another gig?" and I said "Yeah, sure." Alan Steelgrave's his name. He said there's this band that I think you'd be great for, they're one of the pioneers of heavy metal." I said, "Oh, MEGADETH." He said, "No, I can't tell you who it is." I said "OK, what do you need?" "Let me get a CD of some of your music and I'll pass it on." "To MEGADETH, right?" "No, I can't tell you." "Alright, I'll get you a CD put together for MEGADETH." So I got it put together and he sent it off to Dave. I guess Dave liked what he heard and we got together and had a little pow-wow and it just moved from there.

SDMFworldwide.com: So did it start with a jam session? Did you go into a room and play or was it a meeting of the minds over a couple cocktails?

James: It was actually one of the strangest auditions of my life. I was asked to meet Dave and the brothers Drover in their manager's office and to bring an amplifier and a guitar. I didn't have too many small amps at the time so I packed up my car and moved with my dolly into their office off Sunset Plaza and set up. Dave showed up not too long after I got there and then the Drover brothers showed up. I assumed that Dave would have a guitar or they would have instruments or something like that, but no. It was just an office! So I'm sitting there and the secretary is there and we ran through some of the songs that I had boned up on — some of the more popular MEGADETH tunes. I played a few things and Dave was like, "Yeah, I get that…that's 'Symphony of Destruction'. Could you play me some stuff like you did on the CD I heard?" I remember saying that most of that was on a six-string bass so instead of having the extra strings, I used extra volume. I cranked up the amp and played a little bit and he thought it was good! He went on to say, "I'm looking for somebody to join MEGADETH who's been doing this for a while. Someone who can get in there and handle themselves relatively well and I know you have experience. So why don't we give it a try?" And so with about three weeks to learn the set we shoved off to Dubai and played a show.

SDMFworldwide.com: When you came back from the Middle East did Gigantour 2006 start up immediately?

James: Before we did that we jumped off to England and started recording the new album.

SDMFworldwide.com: Was that a process where you ran through recording all at one time or because of the touring situation it had to be broken up?

James: Our intention was to go out and blast the record out. But as we moved into it we realized that there were different places we could go. It's a relatively new version of MEGADETH. We were feeling out how we would do it musically. We got the basic bones of most of the songs laid out there in England. We got most of the tracks there. It became apparent that we had the luxury — because of Gigantour interrupting the recording if you look at it that way — to go back and listen to what we had done and analyze it and think about it. It moved in a really great creative direction where we were able to go out and play some gigs and then get back to thinking about music and then take that back to the studio to work on it. It was definitely all a positive experience.

SDMFworldwide.com: When we saw you on Gigantour, this version of the band was still new. Did touring help pull the band together? Playing live had to help tighten up the band. Did that come across in the studio?

James: I think there's something to that. Both when you're on tour and when you're in the studio, especially when we were out there at SARM Studio in Reading. We stayed in the mansion that was right off the studio facility itself. So we lived together and that kind of thing will bring you together or it'll just drive you apart. Fortunately everybody's really cohesive in this band. We all fell together through the process and we got along really well.

SDMFworldwide.com: How does the writing process work in MEGADETH? Because there's a guitar playing bandleader who's also singing, are there similarities between Dave and say… Zakk [Wylde]? How is new material brought to the table?

James: It's a song by song process. Some of the songs are obviously led more by the orchestration so you'd follow along with what Dave had laid out. Other songs give you a little more license to be a little more creative. In the case of BLS I think it was based on the amount of beer one had consumed for the day or night and that would lead to the creative process or the non-creative process — but either way we got something done!

SDMFworldwide.com: MEGADETH fans are some of the toughest fans to please because of the different lineups. They know what works and what doesn't, how did you go about learning the Dave Ellefson material?

James: Now I'm a big fan of David Ellefson! More so than I probably would have thought! He has a more guitar-oriented style than most bassists. I come from that old '60s funk thing to start out. As I started to delve into MEGADETH's sound I started to realize that his style is crucial to the classic MEGADETH sound. It's instrumental to it. So I have nothing but props for him as far as being a great bass player in his own right. I have a great respect for bands in their original entity. I remember seeing DEEP PURPLE and thinking "Man, if they're all not up there I'm not so sure…" but it's not possible sometimes. I take the responsibility of being in this band very seriously, even to the point of where I play a lot of these songs with a pick instead of my fingers. I'm trying to replicate the basic MEGADETH style and make it more familiar to the fans.

Read the entire interview at SDMFworldwide.com.

(Thanks: Rattlehead HQ)