Mark Tremonti Talks New Solo Album, 'Cauterize'

Mark Tremonti is not the kind of guy who likes to sit still.

Between his stint in Creed, his regular gig in Alter Bridge and with his latest project Tremonti, he consistently finds himself amidst a never-ending cycle of writing, recording and touring.

It takes a tremendous amount of work ethic and drive to juggle two and sometimes three projects at a time, which is why it should hardly surprise anyone that he’s decided to record two simultaneous follow-up records to 2012’s All I Was rather than just one.

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Cauterize is the first of a set of two albums Tremonti recently laid down with the help of his backing band and producer Michael “Elvis” Baskette and will hit the shelves this summer. Another record, Dust, will follow along sometime thereafter.

“I’ve always considered myself as more of a songwriter than a guitar player, and with this huge mountain of song ideas that I needed to whittle down, having a couple of bands to do that with really helps to get those songs to see the light of day.”

A key addition this time around to the Tremonti recording unit was bassist Wolfgang Van Halen, who had spent the previous summer on the road with the group.

“As soon as we started touring he was just kind of a member of the band,” says Tremonti. “He keeps the rhythm section super tight…and he’s just real creative. When Wolfgang was a part of the whole writing process he came up with things in his mind that by the time we went into the studio it was just perfectly laid down.”

With so much material saved up, most other artists might have just released a double record and called it a day, but Tremonti’s old-school ideas of what an album is supposed to convey prevented him from taking that route.

“A lot of times when I hear an album and it’s too long I feel like I lose track of the album,” he said. “I wanted this record to be concise, like so many of the albums I grew up listening to. A record you could live with for a year and a half before the next one comes out.”