Mark Morton may be familiar to the legion of Lamb Of God fans around the world but there is more to this guitar player than just his role in one of the top metal bands going around today. On March 1st Mark releases his first solo album titled “Anesthetic” and features a list of guests that are as diverse as the music itself. We talk to Mark ahead of it’s release to find out more on this collaborative effort and why he decided to do a solo album.
Andrew: So how’s the new year been so far for you?
Mark: The new year has been good, it’s been really busy. Lots of stuff going on man, lots of music. Obviously getting prepared for the release of the new solo album so that’s something I’m really excited about. Getting some good feedback on the couple of songs we’ve put out there so doing lots of press for that, a fair amount of travel going with it so it’s cool.
Andrew: Good to hear! I was lucky enough to have a preview of the album last night and it’s a great album. How long have you been wanting to do an album like this?
Mark: Well I’ve always been kind of interested in the idea of doing projects outside of Lamb Of God, mainly because as a songwriter and guitar player I don’t exclusively just play metal. So I’ve kinda over the years searched for a bit of a destination for some of my ideas and some of my music that doesn’t fit into the framework of Lamb Of God, so it’s been a process. It’s not like I woke up one morning and decided, ‘Oh I think I’ll just do a solo album’. It’s just kind of evolved, mainly through the songwriting. Like I said over time just collecting pieces of music that weren’t right for Lamb Of God but still felt like they were worth developing, and I would say some of that stuff start coming together…I mean we’ve been really officially working on the album for a little over two years so I would say some of the song ideas started coming two or three years before that.
Andrew: When you were first starting this project, did you always have the idea of having various people involved as far as guest appearances on singing and that kind of stuff?
Mark: From the time that we realized that it was an official project, yeah that was always the model. In terms of when I was writing the songs or the song ideas initially on my own, no I don’t know that I had known what they were for. Songwriting for me is just kind of something that happens, it doesn’t necessarily happen with a purpose, it just happens. I get an idea and I start working with it and I’ll document it and then I’ll develop it a little bit and just start writing it for the song that it is and let it become what it sounds like it’s supposed to be without necessarily having a destination for it.
Andrew: OK so there was no songs on this album then where you had maybe a certain someone in mind like, ‘Oh this person would sound great doing vocals over this part’ and that kind of thing?
Mark: So on this album no but I think the songs were just kind of written and then that sort of process of deciding who the vocalist would be came after the fact, although I think by and large people seem to feel like the matches are pretty well tailored. So what would happen is we would write the song and in some cases write a vocal melody or the lyric or something for the chorus or sometimes all of the lyrics for a song and we would do a demo and then Josh Wilbur, my producer and myself would kind of listen to the songs and sort of imagine who would best sing the song. For the most part the people you hear on the album were the people who were among the first conversations for each song that we would ideally have sing.
Andrew: Well there is some great guests on here, some huge names and obviously the one I want to ask you first about is the song “Cross Off” which was the lead single. Chester Bennington is obviously the guy doing the vocals on that, with the tragedy that happened in the aftermath of that, what was it like working with him and in hindsight, how do you view that song now?
Mark: Yeah so working with Chester was fantastic, it was a really super positive, energized, fun experience. We hit it off creatively very well and very quickly, Chester was very prepared, very motivated. Excited about the song and very excited for his fans to hear him getting back to something heavy where he could scream, he was thrilled about that actually. He really loved the song, that’s why he was there, that’s why he was involved with the project because he just genuinely loved that song. So the process of co-writing that with him and working with him during the recording, getting to watch him to record that, getting to work with him as he recorded that was really great that I really look back on very fondly. So shortly after Chester was no longer with us and it did kind of put the song in a bit of a different light, but when I listen to it and when I think about it I still think of the joy it was to make that song and how much fun we had working together.
Andrew: I’m a huge fan of Myles Kennedy and Chuck Billy too, great vocalists and very different vocalists as well. Again what was it like to work with those guys? Those songs obviously themselves are very different, one is quite melodic and the other is heavy which I guess is two sides of the band you wanted to showcase.
Mark: Chuck Billy is a friend of mine and we toured together a number of times with Lamb Of God and Testament and Chuck and I have gotten to know each other quite a bit through the years. And really for the song Chuck appears on “The Never” and also the song that Randy [Blythe] and Alissa [White-Gluze] are on, “The Truth Is Dead”, those are the two more traditional kind of thrash metal songs on the album. So for those songs it was pretty easy for me just to go through the people that I work with on regular occasion, Chuck like I said, we toured together a bunch. I’ve been a Testament fan since I was a teenager so I was really excited to finally be able to work on some music with Chuck. With Randy, I feel like Randy is the best vocal screamer in the world and he happens to be one of my best friends so that was a pretty easy call to make. So for the two metal songs, that was pretty much a phone call away. Myles and I, we had played some festivals together in Europe, we were friendly. I’m a big fan of his voice and the artistry and the Slash camp and Lamb Of God have crossed paths a number of times on festival tours so we’re all pretty friendly. Josh and I both felt like when we wrote that song, Myles was the first and only conversation we had for that song, we just heard his voice on it. So I got a hold of Myles and asked if he would listen to the song and see what he thought and he listened to it and he was in from the start.
Andrew: Awesome, I literally just saw Myles Kennedy with Slash not long ago and it’s amazing that he still has a fantastic voice so it makes sense to have him on that particular song.
Mark: Yeah he’s a super talented guy, great guitar player too.
Andrew: Two of my favorite songs getting away from the heavier side of things is actually “Axis” and “Blur”. A little more mellower stuff but I really like those two songs and I guess I was kind of surprised that I hadn’t heard them as singles yet, are you thinking about putting one of those as a possible promo thing or single?
Mark: Yeah but we will see. Those are the kinds of decisions that are usually made by people that are a little more oriented towards promotion and marketing and that kind of stuff. People smarter than me kind of makes those choices! All the songs on the album are special to me, “Axis” and “Blur” are two of my favorites and I’ll tell you why. Because to me more than any others on the album, those two songs have a very distinctly 90’s sort of feel to them and that era of music is very close to my heart and a big influence on me as a songwriter. So to be able to work with some of the cats that worked on these tunes, Mark Lanegan is one of my favorite singers ever and on the song “Axis” it’s Mark Lanegan on lead vocal, Myles Kennedy on background vocals, I’m playing guitar, Marc Ford from The Black Crowes on lead guitar on that song – he’s the only guest guitar player on the album. Mike Inez from Alice In Chains plays bass and Steve Gorman from The Black Crowes plays drums on that song so it’s like this really killer 90’s rhythm section and with Mark Lanegan singing it, the combination of people on that song is really special and I think it’s just a really cool song. “Blur” is the same rhythm section with me doing all the guitar work and Mark Morales from a band called Sons of Texas singing and he’s just got that real raspy kind of, at some point an almost Eddie Vedder-ish sort of sound to his voice. So I’m glad you pointed that out, those songs are two of my favorites for sure.
Andrew: Yeah definitely love those songs. So the question that you have probably been asked numerous times is, will you be taking these songs out on the road and playing a few shows?
Mark: Yep a couple of weeks ago we announced a tour so we’re going out with a band called Light The Torch who has Howard Jones, formerly of Killswitch Engage and his new band have a new album out and a new single that’s doing really well. So we will be going on I think about two weeks in North America and it will be coast to coast and we’re leaving for that around the third week of March.
Andrew: Will you be having any of the guests (from the album) coming on to do any of the shows or will there be just a fixed sort of band?
Mark: It’s going to be a fixed band and then when we’re able to and when folks can come out, we’re going to have guests from the album come and go as they can in different cities. So there’s going to be some special shows in different cities where you’re going to see certain people from the album pop up in that show and that show only so it will be pretty cool.
Andrew: Awesome well congratulations on the new album, as I said it’s killer stuff and I absolutely love it and I look forward to hearing what everyone else thinks when it comes out in March. Thanks for your time Mark, really appreciate it and good luck with everything.
Mark: Hey man thanks for taking a listen and thanks for your support and for covering it. I’m really excited about it and I’m glad it’s making it down there to Australia. I haven’t been there in a while, I look forward to coming back.
Mark Morton North American tour dates:
March 13 – Richmond, VA – The Broadberry
March 14 – Philadelphia, PA – Underground Arts
March 15 – Toronto, ON – Lee’s Palace
March 16 – Montreal, QC – L’Astral
March 18 – Boston, MA – Brighton Music Hall
March 19 – New York, NY – The Gramercy Theatre
March 21 – Chicago, IL – Bottom Lounge
March 23 – Colorado Springs, CO – The Black Sheep
March 25 – West Hollywood, CA – The Roxy Theatre
March 26 – Phoenix, AZ – Club Red
