INTERVIEW WITH DAVE MUSTAINE
Dave Mustaine talks about the release of 'Risk' (1999), confirming that the title was inspired by a comment from Lars Ulrich of Metallica about the need to take more musical risks. He explains the album's mix of very heavy and very melodic tracks and the reason why they did not release a live album before: they did not have enough new material, but now the live album will be recorded in Argentina because of the excellent audience. Mustaine also discusses the inspiration behind 'Crush 'Em' (originally for hockey) and its connection to the film 'Universal Soldier', as well as reflecting on aging and songwriting as therapy.
Date
August 23, 1999
Media
Radio Rock & Pop (AR)
Interviewer
Gustavo Olmedo / Mario Pergolini
Interviewees
Gustavo Olmedo / Mario Pergolini
Dave thank you for your time, are you at home in Arizona now?
Dave Mustaine
“Yes, I'm at home.”
Gustavo Olmedo / Mario Pergolini
Well, Dave, can you tell us a bit about Risk, the new album that will be in stores in a few days?
Dave Mustaine
“We recorded it in Nashville like the previous album, it has some very heavy tracks and some very melodic ones, it follows the line of Cryptic Writings and we are very proud of Risk.”
Gustavo Olmedo / Mario Pergolini
We thought you were going to have a live album, why did you change your mind and make another studio one?
Dave Mustaine
“I think we said it last time we were in Argentina, we needed to make another studio album so we could have enough material to make a live album. Now, we are going to make the album in Argentina because the audience is the best. So now with this last studio album we will be able to record the live one. You can't make a live album if you don't have enough material.”
Gustavo Olmedo / Mario Pergolini
We read some news that said you named the album Risk because of statements from Lars Ulrich who said he would like to hear Megadeth take more risks in their albums. Is this true?
Dave Mustaine
“Well, it's true, what he told me is that I was a very talented songwriter but that he would like me to take some risks. I saw him in England recently and I told him we were going to call it Risk because of what he had said, we were joking and laughing about it. I gave him a copy of the album and the next day he called me and said "man I loved the album and blah, Blah, blah..." and we chatted for a while, it was great.”
Gustavo Olmedo / Mario Pergolini
Do you know that the album is coming out first in Argentina than in the US?
Dave Mustaine
“When is it going to come out there?”
Gustavo Olmedo / Mario Pergolini
It's coming out in two days
Dave Mustaine
“In two days?!”
Gustavo Olmedo / Mario Pergolini
Is that good or bad?
Dave Mustaine
“No, it's great, I'm tired of waiting for it to come out in America.”
Gustavo Olmedo / Mario Pergolini
Regarding this risk taking, do you think Metallica takes the risks that Lars asked you to take?
Dave Mustaine
“I don't know, Metallica has done so many things with music that they don't have much new to discover. When I saw them in England it was good to see them play again because the new songs have a small new direction but they still have those magnificent old songs.”
Gustavo Olmedo / Mario Pergolini
Dave, you mentioned that the new album is more melodic but I find that some lyrics are as dark as before. Do you think that now that you are calmer, it makes the music less aggressive but the lyrics are as dark as before? Do you use writing lyrics as a kind of therapy?
Dave Mustaine
“Sometimes when you're playing something really fast it sounds like garbage because you're going too fast. It's really hard to make something heavy and melodic and not fast, it's easy to write lyrics the music is the hard part.”
Gustavo Olmedo / Mario Pergolini
Reading the lyrics I see that you refer to time, dreams, death and that the end is near and things like that. Also the last two songs on the album are called Time: the beginning and the end, I found the phrase "I can't let time beat me" interesting, how do you feel about that? Do you think time is affecting you or something?
Dave Mustaine
“Yes, I feel it, when I see old fans or friends at a concert and I notice they are really old I get scared. But when I see young people, really young, like 10 years old, they make me feel young again. When I see people from bands that started with us and I see that they didn't take care of themselves and they look terrible as if they were dying, I tell them that they should take care of themselves a little.”
Gustavo Olmedo / Mario Pergolini
The first song "Crush 'Em" which is from the movie Universal Soldier, sounds different, especially the beginning. Did you record the song especially for the movie? Did you want to try something different with a song for a movie?
Dave Mustaine
“We didn't write it before the opportunity for the movie... (pause...). I like watching hockey, we wrote that song for them to play at hockey games. When you watch the games they play "Welcome to the Jungle", "Enter Sadman" or "Gary Glitter Rock & Roll part II" and I thought of making a song for them to play there.”
Gustavo Olmedo / Mario Pergolini
But it's going to be on ESPN for Boxing, did you know that?
Dave Mustaine
“Yes, for Oscar de la Hoya.”
Gustavo Olmedo / Mario Pergolini
Do you like that?
Dave Mustaine
“Yeah, Oscar Rocks!.”
Gustavo Olmedo / Mario Pergolini
How do you think the Argentine fans will react the first time they hear the new album? You've been here several times and you already know what they expect from Megadeth...
Dave Mustaine
“Well, I think they will like 'Prince of Darkness', and also 'I'll Be There'... we wrote 'I'll Be There' as a "fan song", at the end of the song we put a melody so the fans could sing with me, I told Dan Huff about this and told him how the Argentine fans sang beautiful songs to us. I wanted to give them something. I think they will like 'I'll Be There', 'Seven', 'Time: the End', 'Crush 'Em', 'Insomnia'... and I think with the melodic tracks we are going to gain more fans too...”
Gustavo Olmedo / Mario Pergolini
Well, this is the last question, thank you very much for your time, now Risk is going to be played for the first time in Argentina, what do you have to say to the fans? How would you introduce them to the new album?
Dave Mustaine
“I hope they like it as much as we do, that we are looking forward to returning to Argentina, that we finally want to make that live album we have been talking about for so long and that we are very happy to have a new album and to be able to return to Argentina.”
Gustavo Olmedo / Mario Pergolini
Ok, Dave thank you very much and we hope to see you again soon in Argentina.
Dave Mustaine
“Ok.”