Thrash titans Megadeth are touring in support of their latest opus Endgame, the first CD with the band for new guitarist Chris Broderick (Jag Panzer). They brought their show to Charlotte, North Carolina, where I had the opportunity interview bassist James LoMenzo. He has a long musical pedigree, having played with everyone from White Lion to David Lee Roth to Black Label Society to Ripper Owens. He's been in Megadeth since 2006. LoMenzo is an extremely friendly and engaging interview, and we had a great chat about topics both old and new.
Chad Bowar: What impact has Chris Broderick's addition to the band had?
James LoMenzo: Chris is a really stellar addition to the lineup. We were at a place with Glen (Drover, former guitarist) where we were a machine firing at all cylinders. It was going splendidly, but it's hard out here on the road. He wanted to get off the road, because we tour all the time. He and his brother Shawn (Megadeth's drummer) had actually suggested bringing Chris in. We were delighted, because it was as if we hadn't lost a step. Chris is such a virtuoso and really peppers and flavors the classic solos in a very forthright way. He's been a great addition.
Endgame was recorded close to home at the new Vic's Studio, and the previous album was recorded in many different places. Does being in a studio close to home make a difference, or is a studio a studio?
I don't think so. A studio is definitely a studio. It was great to have the opportunity to have Vic's Garage at our disposal. With United Abominations we recorded most of it in England, then went on tour for a couple of months. Then we regrouped and worked in North Hollywood. With Vic's Garage the nice thing is that it's our equipment. Things don't get changed around.
Is Andy Sneap's role mainly in the mixing and mastering, or is he involved with the whole production?
He's very hands on. A lot of times when we're working on stuff, Andy will grab a guitar. He's a great guitar player in his own right, and has really keen ears to really listen to the riffs as they are going down and keeping us honest. Initially when we got into making this thing, Dave's directive was we want to making more of a classic sounding Megadeth record. Andy kept us honest and kept us from floating into different musical spaces.
Do you have to be in a certain headspace to create that old school vibe?
I think it's just direction. Musicians build a vocabulary over time. You can flavor things in a blues direction or a jazz direction. You are constantly taking in new information and processing it and redirecting it. What was interesting about Endgame was that Dave had a bunch of old recordings. This stuff is from a lot of the early rehearsals. We digitized it and catalogued a lot of older music that never got recorded, little riffs that Dave might have come up with back then. We picked a few of those as a good starting point. That was the orientation. Dave gets the big picture in his head right away. He sees where the thing is going, and I admire that. I'm not like that. I'm a little more erratic.
Endgame has been getting a lot of positive reviews.
We are so proud of that. In the midst of making it you never know how it's going down, because you live with it. You don't have a good outside perspective. So when the reviews started coming in and they were so positive, it really meant a lot to all of us, because we were hoping to do that. That was the plan.
Dave has voiced his displeasure with the record label during this release. Is it a distribution issue?
It's a weird time for the record industry. I don't blame Roadrunner, I don't blame anybody. Other people may (laughs). I think it's really hard out there. Historically the way this works is that the record company acts like the bank and the distributor and the manufacturer all at the same time. And for that you license stuff and give them a certain amount of money that it takes to do that. They loan you money like a bank, and then you go out and work and hopefully sell enough records to pay back the bank and make your percentages.
Bands have luxuriated in this throughout the '80s and '90s, and it's not there anymore. You see bands like Megadeth doing everything they can to stay vital, to stay connected. We use the website, the liveline, all these media thing to bring people in and at least get them to the shows. We've even started selling CDs at the show, which is very P.T. Barnum to me. But it goes to show you when you've got 200 people lined up every night to buy a CD, and the store is only carrying two or three of them, they are totally missing the market of people who would like to have it. We are signing them, so there is a little bonus there, too. I think the audience is still out there, but the record companies are looking at their bottom lines and are afraid to commit too much.
I don't think we're going to recognize the record industry as we know it in another two years. It's going to be gone. It just feels that way. But we're still doing shows, coming to the people, still doing it old school. That's the beautiful thing about metal. Those people are there. There's a certain drive and certain love for this music that doesn't seem to get old or die.
There are the original Megadeth fans that are in their thirties, forties and older. You also are drawing younger fans and teenagers, which will keep the cycle going.
There are a lot of things going on. I have a daughter who is in her teens, and the Rock Band games have reintroduced a lot of music. Once you've played along to “Symphony Of Destruction” you tend to get a little bit of ownership, and we're seeing teenagers showing up. We dig it. They are here for a lot of the same reasons that still excite me about the music. It's about the guitar playing, the man against volume thing.
