INTERVIEW WITH DAVE MUSTAINE

Dave Mustaine

“Yes. I think it has to do with that. When we started this album we already had quite a few heavy songs written and we had already started composing some quite melodic tracks. We hadn't thought of a name for the album yet, although we knew we were taking a lot of musical risks. And so we thought that would be the perfect title for this album.”

Dave Mustaine

“I think there is a natural progression between Cryptic Writings and Risk. If you look back at the last four albums, Countdown to Extinction, Youthanasia, Cryptic Writings and Risk, there is a very natural progression from album to album. Countdown to Extinction marks the beginning of something very magical for me. It was that I felt capable of capturing melodies with the harshness of the Megadeth sound. Especially with the song Symphony of Destruction. That naturally continued in songs on the albums that followed. I think we figured out how to write melodic songs and still be very, very heavy at the same time.”

Dave Mustaine

“The music did not change with the new member. Jimmy (De Grasso) was a strong enough personality to be in Megadeth. I met him during a tour that Metallica and Megadeth did in Europe. And the first time I played with Jimmy was on the MD.45 project. The best thing about the album, regardless of whether it was good or bad, was the opportunity it gave me to meet Jimmy and ask him to join the band.”

Dave Mustaine

“I think the band continues to grow as it did on previous albums. It maintains its power and is also melodic. People confuse the fact of being powerful, "heavy" with the speed (of execution). And they are not the same. Being fast in execution and being powerful does not mean, furthermore, that the result is good. You can play really fast and make disastrous music.”

Dave Mustaine

“The obvious difference, on the first listen, is that the sung part became more relevant. Because on other albums before Risk I was still deciding whether I felt comfortable singing or not. When I went to Argentina and heard the fans singing the songs, I realized that this was the guarantee that the melodies were good. And at that moment I started to believe in myself as a singer. Furthermore, in this new album there are some contributions from new technologies in songs like 'Insomnia' and there are also songs that come from the depths of us, songs that start from a deep emotion, such as 'Time', 'Ecstasy' and 'Breadline'.”

Dave Mustaine

“Not soon enough as we would like.”

Dave Mustaine

“The truth is that we decided to use different guitars. I played more types of guitars on this album than I had played in years. Because Marty Friedman is such a good guitarist that I only had to sing, write and play my solos. And the arrangements between the other guitars, the parts where acoustic guitars appear and the arrangements of the guitar textures were done by Marty. But during the recording, Marty and David Allison and Jimmy went home in the middle of the rhythm track takes. And so I decided to do the job of playing, playing and playing. And I was able to do all the acoustic takes, something I had never done before. I also did many of the different guitar sounds that I normally wouldn't have done for this record.”

Dave Mustaine

“Jimmy is like another Marty Friedman to me. Nick Menza, the previous drummer, was a good performer and had a very interesting personality, but we grew in different directions and it was very difficult to get along in the end. I think Nick was quite frustrated, I think he wanted to be the 'front man' in the band. In fact, the last time I spoke to him he was playing guitar in a band. That speaks to the difficulty of him playing drums in a band, when what he really wanted to do was be a guitarist. When Jimmy joined the band I told him to listen to the songs he was going to have to play for the next album (songs that I had already written), to see if he thought it was okay for them to be included or not. And he told me that I already had them defined and that he wasn't going to turn things around. That seemed fantastic to me, because this guy was going to play the drums, he was going to make an impact, he has a fantastic personality, a great sense of humor, and it's very interesting to listen to him in concert because he plays very 'hard', like Nick did. And it would have been very stupid of me to let Nick go without getting a drummer as good or better than him. And I think we found a better one.”

Dave Mustaine

“Woodstock was good because there were very good bands at the festival. We probably had one of the best roles during the festival, because we played what Jimi Hendrix played in the 60s. The rest of the dates had really good bands playing and, surely, we would have liked to play another date, but I think ours was one of the best dates. Regarding the fact of playing in front of such a large audience, it is exciting and fun. But it's not like playing in Buenos Aires.”

Dave Mustaine

“I was surprised. Although he drank heavily, he habitually used drugs. However, his complications were not diagnosed. His death was the result of liver complications that could not be diagnosed. Among other things, also: cirrhosis, hepatitis and HIV. But I didn't know anything about these diseases he had. He was a fantastic musician, a great drummer, and I just want to remember those moments when we played together. And I regret the fact that I didn't know him better.”

Dave Mustaine

“I don't know. Load was seen by many people as a failure. Because the Black Album sold almost 12 million records in the United States, and Load sold only four. So, if you ask me if this album can be seen as a failure, I must say no. If the question aims to think that we are opening new doors, letting ourselves be carried away by new musical forms, opening the possibility of having new fans, new audiences, I love that. What I like most about this band is that it appeals to different types of audiences. Old and young.”

Dave Mustaine

“I must correct you. The song was not composed for a soundtrack, but was already composed. We did not write this song for the soundtrack. We wrote it for the album.”

Dave Mustaine

“Honestly, we like success. We seek it. There are many bands in the United States and it is very difficult to stay among the best. We also want to have international success with this album. But one of the things we most long to do is play 'I'll Be There' in Buenos Aires. When we were deciding how to produce this track, I told the band how the fans in Buenos Aires sang this song with me. And I told them how beautiful it was to feel the fans sing it with me. For years we said it would be good to record a live album. And I believe that when we do it we will do it in Argentina. They always ask us why we don't make a live album. And I said it was because we didn't have enough songs. Now we have them, after recording this last album.”

Dave Mustaine

“That was not my idea, but the idea of the person organizing the festival. We were not involved in the decision, but we support any initiative to help children, no matter what nature those initiatives are. Furthermore, we were all children at some point, and AIDS as a disease is crap. It's terrible. And knowing that there are children who suffer from serious illnesses, and in particular, this disease... If we can help, that's fine.”

Dave Mustaine

“I didn't do it. It was him who wanted to do it. Actually, we talked to Motion Pictures. We wanted to communicate with Oliver Stone, who was shooting a "different" film. And the people at Universal heard the song and said they wanted it. We said yes. And then (Joe Goldberg) who is the world wrestling champion in the United States said it was a great song and that he wanted to be in the video. And Van Damme heard it and said he also wanted to be in the video. I like Joe. I think he's much more interesting than Van Damme, because in the United States people are a bit tired of Van Damme. And the public respects and admires Goldberg.”

Dave Mustaine

“No. The cat is Austin Powers'.”

Dave Mustaine

“Well, it's not exactly the same. It will probably be the brother or sister.”

Dave Mustaine

“I don't understand the question. We haven't returned to the 70s. Can we move on to the next question?”

Dave Mustaine

“No. We had keyboards on Megadeth's first albums: Killing Is My Bussiness... And Bussiness Is Good!. On this album, on the first song, which is called 'Last Rites / Love To Death', you can hear me playing the piano terribly. And that was the first song I recorded using keyboards in some way. It's like the introduction, a part of the song that allows another to be introduced.”

Dave Mustaine

“Yeahhhhhhhhhh (phonetically reproduces the country speech). This is a bit crazy.”

Dave Mustaine

“I think there was a problem with the translation. I didn't say we had to adapt to the industry to be successful. What I said was that Megadeth and Metallica are some of the few bands that were able to adapt to the industry and remain successful. We didn't "have to" do it.”

Dave Mustaine

“The singing teacher? It was terrifying.”

Dave Mustaine

“The fact that I mentioned Fleetwood Mac referred to a particular song. I don't think I can listen to all of Fleetwood Mac's records. It's not that we are listening to all the songs from the past. We are trying to listen to some songs that were really successful. And that has nothing to do with the fact that they appeared in the 60s or 70s, 80s or 90s. We listen to songs that are really good songs. We used Fleetwood Mac songs when we were creating 'Wanderlust'. We listen to many interesting things from the past, but it is only to take some ideas related to the arrangements. You can have great parts to form a great song. But if those parts cannot be put together well, the song breaks.”

Dave Mustaine

“I just wanted to have free internet connection.”

Dave Mustaine

“Well. I think there is risk in the release of every album. I imagine Michael Jackson was crazy to name his album Thriller. But it was an album that sold 15 million copies. And then you have to put out a new album. How do you beat it? It's impossible. So, we saw the entire album as a completely different project. It's not that we tried to do Cryptic Writings part two, which would have been impossible to do. What we wanted to do was put our next album into a series of great albums.”

Dave Mustaine

“I think soundtracks are important, but they are not the most important thing. The most important things for us don't even have to do with music.”

Dave Mustaine

“Yes. In Phoenix, Arizona.”

Dave Mustaine

“You're joking, right?”

Dave Mustaine

“Do I have to tell you? 'Chains'. I liked the song a lot. I don't know if it's from Fleetwood Mac from the seventies or not.”

Dave Mustaine

“I don't think so...”