Unsere EMP Kollegen Claudio und Marina aus Italien, hatten die einmalige Möglichkeit, Jason Newsted zu einem Interview zu treffen. Claudio und Marina ließen es sich nehmen und quetschen ihn bezüglich der Metal EP aus, interessierten sich für die Tour und Dave Mustaine. 

Jason manövrierte sich wie ein Profi durch das Interview und ist seitdem großer EMP Fan!

Aber lest erst Mal das Interview:

Your album is due out on August 2nd. It will include 2 of the 4 songs from the EP. Why two and why  these two?

Usually EP is supposed to be a sampler of what the LP is gonna be. We had a lot of music to choose from and lot of songs to choose from, so I wanna the Metal EP to be an instant classic for some reasons. I wanna it to be the place when you can only get those songs, so to make the EP special also.

“Soldierhead” and “King Of The Underdogs” are the ones that, as a band and with our management and agents, we decided they would be the best fit from the EP to be included with the new music that we are gonna made for the LP.

The EP was recorded by three people, the LP was recorder by four people and I wanna it to be as representative as possible at the stage so… EP was representation for the first couple of months ‚cause we were three people around, but now that our band is made of four people… well, this is appropriate now.

“Heroic Dose” is a song really strong and with a great power. What about other tracks?

They are equally as awsome, they are as good and better. The title of the album, no mistery, is HEAVY METAL MUSIC. Every song is heavy, every song is metal and every song is music. Music being the most important element of those things. Thery are not all fast, they are not all slow but they are all heavy!

Newsted will be on Gigantour with Megadeth and many other bands and will play in many places, in US and Europe and  Michigan also . What’s your feeling and expectations about this tour?

Some. One of the most important thing for me in this situation is to have reasonable expectations. I don’t have any prediction of anything other than what happens. I’m not like “this is gonna be the big fricking thing” and ”tons of people,  tons of dollars and bla bla bla”. I don’t have any of that. Whatever happens happens. People like it, they appreciate, they come at the shows, they buy t-shirts, buy the records, whatever. That’s fine.

So I just… If you do it the right way like I feel I’ve always done, to conduct ourselves with Metallica, and Flotsam, Echobrain, Ozzy…everything to be conduct professionally. If we keep chasing it and doing it the right way, with authenticity, and correctness – all about that stuff – we will get equal back. If we keep the karma positive, we will get back positive. That’s it.

Mustaine recently declared he will perform with you some Metallica‘ song. Do you think it will happen?

There’s been talk about it but I haven’t talked to him personally about it yet. I’m open to anything. I’ll jam just with anybody at anytime.  I’ll play whatever he says.

In the past you performed in many places, expecially festivals and big arenas. Now you play again in small clubs. What do you prefer?

If I had to pick one I wanna take the “100 Club” in London and just take it all around the world. And just play for 300 people with the perfect sound system. That’s if I had to pick one but, fortunately for us, we have  also arena shows, we have also clubs, 20.000 people festival, some hundred people coming here today, 8.000,  10.000, 30.000 people in other shows. To have an army of people singing loud together. That’s beautiful, of course, with a lot of energy, that’s powerful.

In the club I can see everybody’s eyes. And they can see all my faces, and gestures, my growles… They can see me and I can see them. So, the beauty of that purity like… You know, the love, the family love? That’s valuable.

When did you meet Jesus and Jessie and why did you choose Mike Mushok as 4th member?

Jesus and I met in the end of the 90s when he was with Metallica for a while. He was also drum tech in Echobrain tour. We have been playing music for 10/12 years together so the experience we had together is the most valuable thing. Nothing can replace the hours and hours together.

Jesse Farnsworth…he’s probably playing 10 year with Jesus as well. So they had those years too.  Mike joins us just about 4 months ago and so we completed the LP in 3 weeks time. He came to cover his part in already existing songs.

 We put the word out that we were looking for a guitar player. We had a lot of people that wanted to try out but we bare it down to just a couple of people. So there were two people to try. And Mike was the one. He was very able and he was the guy.

For me it’s not just a project. He’s here not just to help, he’s not here just for tour, he is in our band.

He is also in a band called Staind and when Staind is asked to do again what they do he’s gonna do it with Staind. But he’ll always be in our band. And I won’t do our band without him. So.. he’s gonna exist in both bands, like I existed in Voivod and Ozzy at the same time, or whatever like that.

The 3 of them are showing me support that I really haven’t felt before. You know, those kind of happy viber, brotherly support, things that are really very healthy for me now. 

Selbstverständlich halten wir euch weiterhin auf dem Laufenden und das komplette Newsted Progamm findet ihr in unserem Webshop.

Wir danken Marina und Claudio und vor allem Jason, der nun unsere Rockhand trägt und wir fast platzen vor Stolz!