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David Ellefson (MEGADETH): we hope to release an unplugged album

David Ellefson (MEGADETH): we hope to release an unplugged album
BANDS : Megadeth

The bass player of the legendary group Megadeth, David Ellefson, was kind enough and accepted our proposal to offer a new interview for Metalfan Romania. The subjects were the presence of OST Fest from this summer from Bucharest, his new book titled Unsung: Words and Images, the love for KISS, and the possibility of forming a super group with Dave Mustaine (Megadeth) and Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield from Metallica. About all of these, as well as other topics of interest, you can find more details in the lines below:


 
Metalfan: Hello David and welcome back to Metalfan! How are you doing these days?
David Ellefson: Doing great, thank you.

Metalfan: Let’s start with the Gigantour, Megadeth’s own festival that started back in 2005. The 7th edition took place this spring, and this time you invited Motorhead, Volbeat and Lacuna Coil. How did these bands got picked and how did the tour go? This was your first Gigantour experience, wasn’t it?
David Ellefson: The process starts with the idea for the tour. Dave had a hand in picking them to build a really powerful lineup for this tour.  It was my first time on Gigantour and it was a really successful outing and we covered so much of the USA and especially Canada.

Metalfan: Megadeth is scheduled to play on  September 7th in Santiago de Chile and you will play the album Countdown to Extinction in its entirety at this show.. Are you going to record the show and maybe release it as a DVD like Rust in Peace Live?

David Ellefson: Well, unlike the Rust In Peace tour which was only supposed to be one month in the USA but turned out to be a full year’s worth of touring, South America may be the only place we play the Countdown… album in its entirety. So, it’s possible we will look at filming opportunities.

Metalfan: Megadeth will return in Romania this summer to take part at OST Festival at Arenele Romane in Bucharest. What should the audience expect from you? Could you tell us three songs that Megadeth will play for this show?
David Ellefson: We are currently supporting the Th1rt3en album so you’ll hear some songs from that record plus, some of the ‘greatest hits’, and more.
 

Metalfan: Tell us more about the book you have released this year Unsung: Words and Images. How do you think people will react are there any surprises in store, any secrets exposed? What’s your favorite biographic book?
David Ellefson: It was really a great creative experience for me. I like doing things out of the box. Because the lyrics weren’t set to a particular musical genre I didn’t have to worry about any style of lyric being acceptable, or not. It allowed me to be passionate about my views on politics, romance, Scripture, philosophy and more.
In fact, I just finished and putting the spoken word version of the book on Reverb Nation, which you can find on this link here. For biographical books, I liked the Sammy Hagar book and the Aerosmith book. There are so many of them these days and most of them are great reads.

Metalfan: Any news about that musical project of Dave Mustaine’s with Lars Ulrich and James Hetfield?
David Ellefson: I haven’t really heard anything more about that lately.

Metalfan: This year you have taken part in the Metal Masters that was held in West Hollywood, California, together with Dave Lombardo and Kerry King from Slayer, Frank Bello and Charlie Benante from Anthrax and ex-Dream Theater drummer Mike Portnoy. What can you tell us about this event, what exactly did you guys do there? Would you like to repeat this experience?
David Ellefson: Those Metal Masters clinics have really become a great experience for all of us. It’s partly a clinic and an All-star jam.
It’s so cool that we can join in the brotherhood of metal together, and not only play our own songs, but just as importantly show our respect toward each other’s songs, too. We are all really fans of each other’s music as well as being friends and musical comrades. 

Metalfan: It seems thst Roadrunner Records faces some serious financial problems, reportedly closing down offices in Europe and Canada. Do you have any further info on this topic and what effect do you think it will have on the rock and metal industry? How whill it affect Megadeth?
David Ellefson: I hear the news of it like everyone else but I don’t know any of the details. We just released a new video for Whose Life as the next single from Th1rt3en so we are full steam ahead with Roadrunner on supporting the new album right now.
 
 

Metalfan: Th1rt3en, the band’s latest record has been released six months ago, have you started thinking about a new album yet?
David Ellefson: Yes, we are always writing new material so seeds are being planted all the time. However, we have the next several months planned for touring on this current album so it is much too early to really form any sense of a new record yet.

Metalfan: There are videos on Youtube with Megadeth doing unplugged shows. What do you think about releasing unplugged albums? Do you see yourself ever doing one?
David Ellefson: Personally, I think Megadeth acoustic is really a cool thing, especially because we are a heavy band doing something so against the grain! We are one of the only metal bands ever that can really pull it off because we have the right songs and musicianship in the band to really dig in and do it.
Ever since the first time we tried it at our show in Yokohama Japan back on the Cryptic Writings tour, it has seen a huge embrace from our fans. They love it! There are some great bootlegs our there, especially from a live national radio broadcast in Argentina in 1998 that really set the stage for one day doing a real acoustic record. We even did a full acoustic USA radio promotion tour to launch The World Needs a Hero album back in 2001 which was so cool. So, hopefully one day we’ll include some official recording of it.

Metalfan: You are a fan of KISS and you like their 1975 album Alive. Do you like any other album of theirs?
David Ellefson: KISS had such a huge impact on me. I loved every album up from their debut up through KISS Alive II. After that I sort of moved on to new groups for inspiration. Back in those days, groups did three albums and then a live album, that was the formula to break a rock band if they were great live bands. Some bands, like KISS and Rush, did multiple live albums but there was usually a pattern of three studio albums and then a live record. Those live records were really like greatest hits albums in a way, but because of the audience track it brought home such a unique energy for us fans. That as a great era of rock n roll for me. 
 


Metalfan: Overkill have released a new album this year titled The Electric Age. Did you have the chance to listen to it? What do you think about the band?
I have not heard that album yet but Overkill is one of the Thrash greats, for sure.

Metalfan: Thank you for your time David! In the end would you like to send few words to our readers or to add something?
David Ellefson: Sure, thank you to all the readers for another great year in metal. See you on tour this year!!
Autor: H.
Vezi galeriile trupelor: Megadeth

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