MEGADETH's DAVID ELLEFSON Talks ALTITUDES & ATTITUDE

MEGADETH bassist David Ellefson recently spoke to Guitar World about ALTITUDES & ATTITUDE, his new project with ANTHRAX bassist Frank Bello.

Asked when the seed got sewn, so to speak, for ALTITUDES & ATTITUDE, Ellefson said: "We were doing bass clinics for our endorsement of Hartke bass amplification a few years back when the 'Big Four' were playing shows together. I just said to Frank, 'We should really write some of our own material we can play for these clinics. Something unique just for us.' So last year at Bass Player Live! at the Key Club in Hollywood, Frank got us talking to ANTHRAX producer Jay Ruston, who is also a bass player, and he got excited to get on board to record some songs for us. We agreed to do just a few songs we could release in EP format. This would make the workload easier with all of our schedules and even allow us to continue releasing more songs moving forward as well. Jay brought in Jeff Friedl on drums and even suggested Gus G. to play the solos I wanted to have on the track 'Here Again'."

Regarding when the material for ALTITUDES & ATTITUDE's self-titled EP was written, Ellefson said: "Frank had a few full songs sitting around that he wanted to release. His label, Megaforce, had already heard them and really liked them, so we knew we might have an outlet to release these tracks. I also thought we should have some material that was instrumental in nature for our clinics, which is why I brought in 'Here Again'. In fact, that song is specifically composed and recorded so we can use it as a clinic backing track to play bass solos over top of it, or we can perform it with the whole band including vocals."

Ellefson also spoke about whether fans can expect to see ALTITUDES & ATTITUDE on the road at some point in the not-too-distant future.

"I don't know if touring is on the horizon, but certainly some one-off performance offers have come our way," he said. "In particular, some clinic-based performances can now be more of an all-inclusive concert. So rather than just go up and playing MEGADETH or ANTHRAX songs to an iPod, we now have something new and original to display and incorporate into a night of master class instruction and even live performance."

ALTITUDES & ATTITUDE released its self-titled EP on January 14.

"Altitudes & Attitude" track listing:

01. Booze & Cigarettes
02. Tell The World
03. Here Again

The song "Booze & Cigarettes" can be streamed using the SoundCloud widget below (courtesy of RollingStone.com).

"Altitudes & Attitude" EP recording credits:

Frank Bello - lead vocals, electric guitar, 8-string bass guitar
David Ellefson – 4-, 5- and 8-string bass guitars, rhythm guitars
Jeff Friedl (A PERFECT CIRCLE) - drums and percussion

Special guest: Gus G. (FIREWIND, OZZY OSBOURNE) - lead guitar on "Here Again"