Following the disbandment of Creed in the early part of the 21st century Mark Tremonti (guitar), Brian Marshall (bass) and Scott Phillips (drums) wanted to take things in a different direction. Discovered while taking an opening slot on a Creed tour in the late 90’s, Myles Kennedy, then with The Mayfield Four, was the perfect fit for that change. With the addition of Kennedy, not only would he offer a completely different tonality to the band’s vocals but also another guitar, and from this Alter Bridge was born. Now on tour with their fifth album, The Last Hero, Alter Bridge are finally getting the attention they deserve in North America. I had the opportunity to sit down with Marshall and Phillips as the tour pulled into a snow bound Boston to play to a packed House of Blues just opposite the home of the Red Sox: Fenway Park.
You are currently on tour right now having just finished up a European leg of the tour and back stateside with Nonpoint. How’s the tour going so far, and what are some of the differences between North America and Europe?
Scott Phillips (SP): Both tours have been phenomenally amazing. We finished the European tour; it started at the beginning of November thru mid-December. We played all over Europe and the U.K. for varying crowd sizes – with some of the markets in the U.K. we’re headlining arenas with some of the other European stops being four to five thousand seats. Here in the states it’s a little bit of a smaller scale, but I think we can all tell the worm is starting to turn a little bit with some sold-out shows, two thousand/twenty-five hundred seats that are packed and full of hardcore AB fans.
Brian Marshall (BM): We just played our biggest U.S. headline show to date; it was twenty-six hundred at Philadelphia’s Electric Factory. Quite a little milestone, it’s taken us 13 years to do it. We’re moving in the right direction.
SP: We’ve been in that lull. We’ve been playing to high teens to twenty-one/twenty-two hundred. For rock crowds in this day and age, it’s an impressive feat.
You guys are bigger in Europe, definitely the U.K. When you initially got together you toured the shit out of the U.K. We all know the backstory with Creed then Alter Bridge, stateside Creed was huge and not nearly as much in Europe.
SP: We never went there; I think that was the big thing with Creed. We ignored everywhere else in the
world; we really focused on North America. We went to Australia a couple times, went to Europe once or twice back in like ’99 and never returned. That was one of the goals with Alter Bridge is to make sure we not only focus on the U.S. but focus on every territory we could. I think the U.K. was ready for a band like us, it clicked at the right time and really took off.
It seems like metal and rock is bigger in Europe with all the big festivals.
BM: The festivals are one thing, but we spent a lot of time over there touring. We started in very small clubs and gradually built up, built a very strong fanbase over there and just kept going back and pounding the pavement. Eventually we’ve seen the fruits of our labor. We’ve seen our fanbase grow; it’s been a really cool experience.
You released The Last Hero back in October, another phenomenal record by Alter Bridge. Take us through the writing process and where the two of you plug-in to that process.
BM: Mark and Myles are very prolific songwriters. A lot of it stems from them. Over the course of time, they will have some ideas that they’ll log it into their computers if they are out with their other projects, with Myles doing Slash and Mark doing Tremonti. They spend a lot of time playing guitar; they are both excellent guitarists. For this record it was a little bit different; Myles and Mark would go away in the evenings, then we’d all get together during the day and focus on some of the material they pretty much put together the night before. A lot of it just happened in the moment, during the course of the writing process. In the past it was over time we would sit in sound checks on tour and start writing. Flip (Scott Phillips) and I settle into a groove, and it’s more that we dynamically pay attention to what’s happening within the songwriting process and arrangement wise. Then it just happens over time, starting from bare bones then to rehearsing it over thirty times, and it changes drastically.
SP: For me, going into the recording process, with Michael “Elvis” Baskette; this is the forth record he’s produced with us and second that he’s mixed. He was very involved with the writing process. Really a soundboard of what did and didn’t work as far as some of the initial ideas. I track my drums out in L.A., and everyone else tracked back in Orlando. It was Elvis, myself, and the engineer Jeff (Moll) that flew out there; really each day we were still writing parts and sort of the whirlwind of preproduction and putting everything together. Elvis and I sat down and figured out what felt good and what didn’t feel good. Transitions and that kind of stuff. I think once all that kind of fell into place is when the songs started to blossom.
Are songwriting credits a big deal? I always seem hear that.
SP: You know what, Mark and Myles have always included Brian and me in that process even if it’s a small contribution or just a little nod if you will. They’ve always been more than fair with sharing that type of stuff with us. And they are certainly the catalysts.
BM: I take the songs away and write my bass parts, god dang it (all of us laughing).
Seems like everyone is happy with their roles in the band.
SP & BM: Absolutely.
That’s the important thing.
SP: I think everybody values what everyone else does. When you have the mutual admiration society then everybody feels comfortable in their rolls.
We are still early in The Last Hero touring cycle. When on tour are you recording riffs, any songs kicking around that will be good for AB six?
SP: I’m sure that those guys (Mark and Myles) have some stuff in the works.
BM: I’ve heard some ideas already. Haven’t jammed anything but I’ve definitely picked up on some things here and there in the dressing rooms before sound check kind of messing around.
Dipping back into the history of Alter Bridge, we all know the three of you from Creed days, but who discovered Myles?
SP: When he was with his original band, The Mayfield Four, they toured with us back in the Creed days. They were the first band of three with The Mayfield Four, Fuel, and us in probably 1998. I think we all knew what a talent that he was. He and I got to speak a little bit a couple of afternoons but never really got a chance to hang-out. He seemed like a good dude. We’d go out and watch him and were just like the kid is a star; he’s super talented, a hell of a guitar player as well. When we disbanded as Creed back in 2003 there were a lot of names sort of being kicked around of people we might be interested in calling to see if they were interested in joining forces with us. We had a mutual friend of Myles’s who had done a lot of stuff for us in the business for years and years and he mentioned, what do you guys think about Myles? Mark went out and picked up Second Skin which is their second record; I had the first record already. He was playing some of it for me, and it was just such a unique voice and unique talent; it would be a shame not to at least see if it would be something he would be interested in. We had a few songs that Mark had done as demos that he sent to Myles and had him sing over them and send it back to us. We listened, and it was like this is the dude if he’s interested – thank god he was.
BM: I think during that time we wanted a departure as far a vocal tonality. And Myles, aside from him being, his personality is amazing, to be in the role he’s in and to be down to earth still to this day speaks a lot. Going back to that, I think it was a departure to the Creed thing; we wanted to do something a little different. We didn’t want it to be a Creed part two.
So there was never a thought of the three of you continuing on as Creed?
SP: This was a start of something new for all of us. The Creed days were amazing, and I think we made some amazing music. Scott had a very dynamic, specific style that was very recognizable you don’t want to replace that. Let that be what it is, and I think it was a chance for us to try something different stylistically and musically a little more musicianship especially as we’ve grown over the years. Creed needed to stay what Creed was and not sort of tarnish that legacy if you will.
You mentioned there were some other names tossed out there, anybody we might know?
SP: Um (thinking if he really wants to mention any names), no not really. There were a couple of up and coming guys, local guys and a guy or two that were friends of friends of friends from the West Coast. There were a few names that were mentioned; I don’t know if there was ever any interest from them. Some of it could have been interesting, but I’m not going to say any names.
How did the two of you get started playing your instruments? Scott you didn’t start playing until you were 18, is that correct?
SP: Yeah I was 18.
And before you know it you’re in a mega band, talk about taking right off.
SP: There was a hell of a learning curve involved. I felt like I was an okay player. Normally I think drummers get to hone their chops at home for years and years and years. Or going out, hitting the road and playing club gigs for a few years before it really starts to take-off.
BM: We did that.
SP: We did that but it went from like club gigs to theaters to arenas in the blink of an eye. It was very much learning on the job for me.
BM: He was good to begin with. Day one, he was good; he knows it (laughing). We spent three years there in Tallahassee really pounding the pavement playing small places. We had drive and ambition. We still do. That was the thing – it was about playing shows and seeing how long we could play a show. We wanted to add as many original songs and take out as many covers as we could for the next show. Concentrate on writing. Eventually it got to the point we were playing My Own Prison songs for two years. The evolution of those songs had come a long way from their inception. When we got in to start recording that record, we knew exactly how it was going to sound.
SP: I started recording my drums for that in the summer of ’96. We didn’t finish it until ’97, but all my drum tracks were done the summer of ’96.
That’s unusual for a debut album to have that much time.
BM: I didn’t come in the band until ’95. The record didn’t come up until late ’97?
SP: It was early ’97, we had our record release party in March of ’97. Then we got signed by Wind Up and got released in August of ’97.
Now you started with the drums, right, Brian?
BM: Yes I played drums in high school. My father had a set of Pearl Drums and eventually graduated to the bass guitar. I was about 17. I [played in a band called Maddux Creed in college, then Baby Fish Mouth in college, and that’s where I met these guys. We joined forces around ’95.
Compare the writing and recording process for Alter Bridge and Creed. With the three of you being from Creed, is it much different?
SP: I think probably the biggest difference is musically there are now two sources of material. Where in the Creed days, Mark was the music writer. So that’s been a big difference with those two playing off of each other, and you can see over the years how one is sort of influencing the other. They’ve got two very distinct ways of writing and playing, but you can see how they start to blend together. So that’s definitely been a big difference compared to the Creed stuff. Mark is certainly… he was a melody writer back in the Creed days but much more so now. And Myles obviously writes a lot of melodies as well, and I think pretty much everything lyrically. Well I guess like “Waters Rising” he (Mark) wrote the lyrics for that. He wrote the lyrics for “Torn” back in the day. Some of “What’s This Life For,” I think the first verse and the chorus. There’s probably a couple of other ones I’m missing. I think that’s probably been the biggest difference. The other thing, especially from the early Creed days until now, we all use to go out and have drinks together and come back and jam late at night for hours on end and have rehearsals and all that stuff. Now Myles lives in Spokane, WA; Brian’s in the panhandle of FL; Mark and I are close to each other, but the last thing we ever do is get together and work on stuff. There’s a lot more planning involved, like we’re going to rehearse for three days before a tour, so we’ve got to get flights, hotels rooms, and book time, that type of stuff. That’s a bit different, but we’ve been doing it now for twenty years so we know how the system works.
Any side projects for the two of you? Obviously, Mark has Tremonti and Slash with Myles as well as his solo work. Brian, you’re into real estate?
BM: I’m a real estate agent and a father. I enjoy it. I do it out here on the road and do it when I get home. It’s fun; I enjoy it.
SP: Myself, John Connolly, and Vinny Hornsby from Sevendust and Eric Friedman from Tremonti did a side project called Projected back in 2012. We released a CD that we were really happy with that John kind of put out through his own Facebook page. We weren’t signed to a label or anything. We had enough interest that we decided to do another album which is finished, getting released probably sometime in the spring thru Rat Pak Records. There are plans to actually get out and tour to support it whenever time allows it. Obviously we’ve got quite a busy year ahead of us. Sevendust, out of all the bands I know, is one band that doesn’t know how to take a break. They are constantly busy. So yeah we’re going to get out and actually try to support this one, see what happens.
Wrapping up things, any comments of the current political state of the U.S.? Seems like a lot of musicians have some opinion these days. Things have changed.
SP: I’ll go first and I’ll let Brian finish this one up. We probably sit on opposite sides of the aisle.
I’m not going to create an argument here am I? (laughing)
SP: No, no. We’ve already had plenty of those. I guess lets see what happens. It’s interesting to put a businessman in the role of the leader of the free world. I think he’s learning that you can’t quite run a country like a business. Hopefully he gets the support around him that he needs that puts America in a good spot. That’s all I can say.
BM: (long pause) well (with a grin) I consider myself kind of a Centralist. There are things on the left that I appreciate, and there are things on the right I appreciate. The people voted, and we were left with two candidates I think a vast majority of the people were not happy with. That’s who we were left with to decide from. This is where we are at, and let’s just hope for the best. We all have a voice, all have our beliefs, just try to put it out there as peacefully as you can. Hopefully it will reach the hierarchy of the government eventually. The right decisions need to be made to better our country. Hope for the best.
SP: You’ve got to listen to the people.
Either of you plan on running for political office sometime? Those were very political answers.
BM: Absolutely not.
SP: Way too many skeletons in my closet.
Final words for the fans out there?
SP: You guys have been nothing short of amazing for thirteen years now. Thanks for the support, we love doing it and are thankful that the people actually like to come out and watch us do it. Thank you guys.
BM: What he said. Come see us before we get too old.
Thank you for the opportunity to talk with you both.
Visit the Alter Bridge website below for upcoming tour dates.
