MEGADETH Drummer Says 'Everything Went Very Smoothly' During Making Of 'TH1RT3EN'

Jeff Treppel recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH drummer Shawn Drover for RoadrunnerRecords.com. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

RoadrunnerRecords.com: How did recording "TH1RT3EN" compared to your previous experiences doing MEGADETH records?

Drover: It's weird speaking for myself, but I think I can say that for pretty much everybody, the record was a very easy process. I'm not really sure why. Everything went very smoothly, we just rolled along and got things done at a very quick pace. We had about nine weeks between tours to record this record, and we really pulled it off. We're ecstatic about the results of the record. We think it's a great record, and we hope the fans will as well. I think the biggest difference between this and "United Abominations", "Endgame" before it, and so on and so forth, is how easy it was. There is no special reason why. Everything just seemed to click. Songs came together very well and very effortlessly, and it was just a really enjoyable record for us to make. Certainly on my behalf, that's for sure.

RoadrunnerRecords.com: Did having David Ellefson back after a long absence contribute to that ease?

Drover: You know, I don't think that contributed to the record being easier. He had a lot of input on the riffs we used, but we all did, we all fed off of each other. Dave [Mustaine] has such a library of riffs that he's recorded on tour, riffs that we've recorded on previous tours. He just keeps everything on file, so he's got such an abundance of riffs, partial songs, finished songs, all sorts of things he can choose from that we never have an issue like, "Oh, we don't have enough material." We always have more than enough material. Which is a great thing to have. So it's not the reason the record was easier to make, but I'll tell you what, it was great being on a record, for me personally, with both Daves. He was one of the ones that started the band, and having him back in the band and back on the record is certainly a great thing in my opinion. I'm loving it. We get along very well, and I'm glad he's back in the band.

RoadrunnerRecords.com: Did you find it easy to establish the chemistry with him as the other half of the rhythm section?

Drover: Yeah. We clicked. It's funny, the first time David came down to Arizona to rehearse with us, this was just before the "Rust In Peace" tour that we were going to do and I've met him several times before, but this was the first time we'd ever gotten in a room and jammed together and stuff. He plugged in, and we started playing tunes, and right away everything just locked in. Not that it was any better or any worse with James Lomenzo or James MacDonough, they were fantastic as well, but there was something about performing with someone who was on those records and performed the original bass parts. For the most part, I'm emulating other drummers and trying to bring their nuances to songs that I haven't played on. It was cool to play with someone who had played on pretty much all the records for the first 20 years of the band, to play all those old classics again and have the original bass player and guitar player play on that stuff.

Read the entire interview at RoadrunnerRecords.com.