TREMONTI's Forthcoming 'Dust' Album Will Be Every Bit As Strong As 'Cauterize'

TREMONTI, the band led by CREED and ALTER BRIDGE guitarist Mark Tremonti, will release its sophomore album, "Cauterize", on June 9 via Fret12. The follow-up to 2012's "All I Was" was helmed by producer Michael "Elvis" Baskette, who previously worked with ALTER BRIDGE and SLASH.

TREMONTI actually recorded two albums' worth of material during the "Cauterize" sessions and will release another full-length disc called "Dust" "probably within a year."

Asked how recording "Cauterize" was different from the sessions for "All I Was", Tremonti told Guitar International: "On the first CD, were were under time and financial constraint. Plus it was only me, Eric [Friedman, guitar] and Garrett [Whitlock, drums] and we didn't have a bass player. We were initially going to release it online and see what happened. As things progressed, we got really excited about it and felt we needed to release it as a CD, so we needed to find a bass player and tour for it."

He continued: "We knew what we were capable of going into this CD, so we increased the budget tremendously. We got more time out of Elvis Baskette, spent more time in pre-production, and pushed the writing process as hard as we could with the sessions being four times as long compared to the first CD.

"We spent at least 40 days writing together before pre-production. On ALTER BRIDGE's 'Fortress' CD, we only spent a week writing, multiple that many times over to see how much work went into this CD."

Tremonti added: "We have a fully completed second CD that came from these sessions. This is just part one of the two-CD cycle. We are going to release 'Cauterize', see how it does then try to develop a plan to release the second CD; whether as a complete CD or as singles over time."

Asked if it was challenging to pick what songs would be on each disc, Tremonti replied: "Yeah, it was really tough. One of my favorite songs from all 20 songs was a song called 'Dust'. It will be the last song on the second CD, so if we release a song at a time, it will be the last song anyone will get to hear, which is tough for me."

He continued: "My brother [Dan Tremonti, who runs the Fret12 record label and manages TREMONTI] couldn't believe that I did not have it on the first CD. We both feel it has the best chorus of all the songs.

"I don't want anyone to think this CD is the 'A' sides and the second CD will be 'B' sides. That's not the case, and I want everyone to like the second CD just as much as the first one."

TREMONTI has recruited Tanner Keegan to play bass on its upcoming tour.

It was announced last month that bassist Wolfgang Van Halen will not hit the road with TREMONTI due to commitments with his main act, VAN HALEN.

TREMONTI's U.S. tour kicks off on April 25 in Orlando and has dates booked through late May so far. The band will be making stops at some of the largest festivals in the world, including Welcome To Rockville, Rock On The Range and Download. TREMONTI will be opening some dates for SEETHER while also headlining shows in the United States.