Mark Tremonti of Alter Bridge, Creed Interview – Talking Frank Sinatra

2022-05-24

Mark Tremonti in Frank Sinatra Dressing Room by Chuck Brueckmann

Mark Tremonti in Frank Sinatra’s Dressing Room – Story by Anne Erickson, photo by Chuck Brueckmann

Mark Tremonti joins Anne Erickson to discuss his new Frank Sinatra album, with proceeds benefiting the National Down Syndrome Society

Mark Tremonti is known as the hard-charging, shredding guitarist in Alter Bridge and Creed, so it might come as a surprise that he’s a huge Frank Sinatra fan. As Tremonti explains, he fell in love with Sinatra’s music years ago and became “obsessed” with it more recently.

“I’ve been a fan my whole life, but about three years ago, I really became obsessed and just non-stop wanted to drive into every movie and book and recording that I could find,” Tremonti tells Audio Ink Radio.

Now, Tremonti has a new solo album coming out, “Tremonti Sings Sinatra,” on May 27. The record is for a great cause, as proceeds raised will go to the National Down Syndrome Society (NDSS). It’s a very personal cause for him.

“My daughter has Down syndrome, and before that, as I mentioned, about three years ago, I became obsessed with Sinatra and was signing along and diving in to have fun,” Tremonti says. “At one point, I was like, I want to do something with this, but didn’t have any reason to do it. Then, once we found out Stella had Down syndrome, I was like, I’m going to record a Frank Sinatra record now, and we can do it to raise money for charity and the National Down Syndrome Society. It was one of those things where you feel like all the stars aligned and it was all for a bigger purpose.”

He hopes the new album brings awareness to Down syndrome. “That’s one of my big missions in life now,” he says.

As for Alter Bridge, Tremonti says the band is making headway on their new album. “We’re in the studio right now,” he says. “We just finished pre-production, which is where we go through final arrangements and pick which songs we’re going to record. We arranged 14 tracks, but we’re going to record 12 of them, and drums are underway right now.” As for a release date, “I think it’s going to be maybe October- September, October, around then,” Tremonti explains.

Regarding the musical direction of the new album, Tremonti says, “It’s a lot of- I don’t know if this is because a lot of this stuff is still fresh, but it’s a very complicated album. There’s a lot of parts. There’s a lot of movement on the record, so you’re definitely not going to capture the whole thing with a first listen. It’s definitely a multiple listen kind of record.”

So, is anything new with Creed? “Nothing at the moment. We’re just waiting for a good window to see if something could be put together, because we’re always- between all of us, everybody’s got something going on. Creed will always be there. It’s not like if we take an extra year to do it, people are going to forget about Creed. Creed is something we can do throughout the rest of our lives whenever we feel the right moment is.”

It’s worth mentioning that when bringing up Creed’s late-1990s tour with Sevendust and 3 Doors Down, Tremonti replied, “That’d be a fun tour to put back together.”

Listen to the full interview with Tremonti above via YouTube, or listen via the Audio Ink Radio podcast on Apple Podcasts and Spotify here.

Anne Erickson
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Posted by Anne Erickson | Features, Interviews, Music, Rock

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