Live-Metal.Net - Interviews: Megadeth

Drummer Shawn Drover discusses the recording of the band's new album TH1RT3EN and more.

It certainly has been a whirlwind past couple years for Megadeth. A nonstop touring schedule that has included the Big Four shows with Metallica, Slayer and Anthrax, a killer album in 2009’s Endgame, the Rust in Peace 20th anniversary tour, the return of bassist David Ellefson, the Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival and even more have headlined the world of heavy metal. Dave Mustaine and Megadeth are names metal fans old and new are seeing and hearing again on a daily basis—almost to the point of a Mega-overdose. But that’s just fine with us, and probably even better for drummer Shawn Drover, who originally thought he was going to be playing the band’s “farewell tour” when he joined in 2004. I don’t think he even knew what he was in for. And it doesn’t end there; Megadeth will release a new studio album called TH1RT3EN on Nov. 1, 2011, and is set to play the next Big Four show in September at Yankee Stadium.

During Megadeth’s run on the 2011 Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival, Live-Metal.net sat down with Shawn Drover and discussed the recording of the new album, Megadeth’s hectic schedule and Ellefson's return.

Live-Metal.net: We’ll start with the biggest thing going on in metal right now, the Big Four shows and the upcoming East Coast date at Yankee Stadium (Sept. 14, 2011). How much are you looking forward to this and what can we expect for “the jam” that all the bands have been doing?

Shawn Drover: Yeah, it’s going to be great. I mean, who ever thought we would play such a significant venue? Yankee Stadium is pretty much the pinnacle of all sports facilities, so it’s really cool that we’re going to do that. But with that said, its business as usual for us. Nothing is really going to change. We’re going to go out there and play the best we can and try to tear everybody’s face off. That’s always the game plan with us—to play to the best of our ability and have a great show. That’s what everything revolves around out here.

And I would assume we would do the jam at the end. It’s not written in stone, but you would almost think that we’ll do it. And yeah, we’re all looking forward to (the show). I talk to (drummer) Charlie (Benante) from Anthrax all the time, and we’re all really jacked up about it. All the bands are excited to do the show.

This has been a whirlwind of a last couple of years for Megadeth with the Rust in Peace anniversary tour and then going in to make a new album. After the tour, did you guys kind of feel like you were writing the follow-up to Rust in Peace rather than Endgame?

No, we don’t try to duplicate anything or replicate a certain record. I think that’s a big mistake because then it’s not genuine anymore. When they wrote Rust in Peace, they didn’t try to make it Peace Sells part two. That was a new batch of songs. And it’s the same game plan. You go in there and you write a bunch of tunes and try to write the best tunes that you can. I mean, what else would you want to do, go out and record the crappiest tunes? [laughs]

But you never go in and say, “Let’s make this song sound like 'The Conjuring,' let’s make this song sound like, 'Five Magics.'" Because then it’s contrived and it’s not real. To me, that’s fake. You just go in there and you write a bunch of tunes, and you have riffs, and it’s like putting pieces of a musical puzzle together. Dave has so many riffs that he’s compiled, from recent stuff to older stuff—these files he has on his computer, you just listen to riff after riff after riff. So there are so many ideas that we already had that it was a great situation for us to be in instead of going into a studio with no ideas.

And we have our own recording studio (Vic’s Garage), so we could go in there tomorrow and write a record if we wanted to. It’s not costing us anything; we own the studio. And we’re really fortunate to have that. But we were so prepared with riffs that it was just a matter of putting the pieces together, and if there were pieces that were missing, we would jam on something. That’s really what it was—it was pretty effortless actually. It was the easiest album that I’ve worked on, and I’m not really sure why because we had the same tons of ideas for Endgame, United Abominations and all that stuff. We write on the road if we come up with a riff. We have Pro Tools in our dressing room—if we got a riff, press record. So when we go into the studio, we have all of this stuff compiled.

Just how many riffs do you think Dave Mustaine has compiled in this “riff file” that you speak of?

I would say hundreds.

Is that normal for any hard-working, touring band or is that just a testament to Dave being prepared?

I don’t know if it’s normal, but it’s smart. If you have an idea, record it. I’ve had ideas and think, “Yeah, I’ll record it tomorrow, but then, 'Dammit!'" And it could have been the best thing you’ve ever written. Dave’s got little hand recorders like you have right here, so anytime anything comes up (we record). If we’re headlining and we have soundchecks, we’ll goof around and have an idea and record at soundcheck.

You made this new album in a pretty short period of time. Did you like working that fast and what affect did that have on it?

Yeah, very short—two months. Nine weeks. It didn’t affect me because I started. It took me about two and a half weeks to three weeks, tops, I would say. And it was effortless. It really was. It was very enjoyable—not to say anything about the other records because they were very enjoyable, as well. It was really a lot of fun. (Producer) Johnny K. was a really cool guy to work with. The first time we worked with him was on this record, and we hit it off the bat right away. We were on the same page in conversations on what we wanted to achieve and what direction we wanted to go in terms of getting tones for drums and all that stuff. And we were right on the same page right away. And that’s cool because the last thing you want is to not be able to get along with a producer or an engineer or something. That can turn into a weird situation. And I’ve never had any bad situations with anyone during recording, but once again, with Johnny K., it was really fun and I enjoyed it.

Were you guys completely satisfied with the success and subsequent touring for Endgame? I had read comments from Dave early on saying he was disappointed with the label and stuff like that. We talked to (guitarist) Chris Broderick (Read interview) on the Rust in Peace anniversary tour about this and he couldn’t really speak for anyone.

We’re certainly pleased with the record, but I think it’s more a matter of the state of the industry right now. And this is always a bad, sore subject because of Internet piracy and stuff. You see your fan base getting bigger, and as time goes on, we’re playing to bigger and bigger places, yet our record sales are going down. And that’s just not reflective of your fan base. So that just tells you that we know that a lot of kids and adults are ripping off records. And that’s affected the entire industry—and that’s kind of a drag. Until somebody finds a solution for that—and we’re obviously nowhere near that right now—this will continue and I think will get worse. That sucks because it affects everything. It affects recording budgets, touring budgets. Record companies are like, “You’ve only sold 150,000 records, we can’t give you tour support.” That’s because they’re struggling and less money is being generated from lack of sales. So that’s affected everybody right across the board in every kind of music. So that’s what I think Dave was probably getting at. It’s kind of a drag that a record we’re so proud of and is critically acclaimed, that when you look at it, sold less than United Abominations, which sold less than the previous record. So you see it—it’s right there in front of your face. It’s disheartening because we really bust our ass to make the best music we can, and at the end of the day, you want to see as much success as possible. And when we’re playing bigger and bigger places around the world—(this situation) is a drag.

You joined the band in 2004, right? Obviously, Megadeth was a household name then and still is today, but when you first joined the band, did you know what you were getting into? Could you ever foresee playing shows with Metallica, the festivals, the tours and everything else that would follow?

No, because when I joined, it happened so fast that I didn’t even have time to think about all that stuff. My brother (guitarist) Glenn (Drover) got the gig about a month before I joined, so I was talking to him everyday and knew what was going on and how things were going. I was so excited for him. I kind of got the call at the 11th hour where a situation happened and the drummer was out and they wanted me on the next plane. And that was six days before the tour started, so I didn’t have time to freak out or time to think about what we were going to do. I needed to learn the new album because I didn’t know any of the songs. So I was playing the songs that I did know, which was everything from Countdown to Extinction back—I knew 90-95 percent, so I could certainly get through it. And I was learning when we weren’t rehearsing everything that I didn’t know—stuff off of Youthanasia, Cryptic Writings and off the new record at the time, The System Has Failed. I think it was just released at the time.

Looking back now, it was a pretty daunting task. I had a lot on my head and so did Dave because ultimately if it failed, the tour would be canceled or postponed, and a lot of people would have to go home and not work. I didn’t think any of that, though. I didn’t fathom it. But it’s kind of cool the way things turned out for me. I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way. But I don’t know if I would want to keep doing that over and over again. (laughs)

Obviously, this was probably not what you expected. At that time Megadeth was probably not at its peak in popularity, Ellefson was out of the band.

It was going to be a farewell tour, too, if you remember. We were going to do this world tour and call it a day or whatever. So I was like, OK. It was going to be fun, and I was in a band with my brother. So I didn’t look long-term at all because there really wasn’t a long-term at the time. When it first started, it wasn’t a long-term, but after you sell out every show that you play, and it was cool and we were having fun, Dave kind of had a change of heart about it. So there you go. Here we are today seven years later.

I don’t mean this in a bad way, but are you holding up OK with Megadeth’s hectic schedule? I just read that you were a grandfather, so how are you holding up these days?

I’m 45 and it’s certainly not as easy as when you’re 20. But it’s all about taking care of yourself. Actually, what it is mostly is getting a lot of sleep. If I don’t sleep, it’s bad. I’m kind of hit and miss with the bus. You always intend to go to sleep as much as you can, but sometimes you just have a bad night or crappy ride, and it affects your whole day the next day.

So it’s really important for me to get as much rest as possible because everything revolves around the show. That time that we’re onstage is what everything revolves around. There are no big parties and all that crap—I’ll leave that to the professionals and let the younger kids do all that stuff. For us, we’re pretty “milk and cookies,” dare I say. That’s not a very metal term, is it? (laughs) We’re pretty boring, if you know what I mean. If you want me to say that we still trash hotel rooms and jump out of airplanes, I guess I could lie, but that’s not the truth. You just have to take care of yourself out here. That’s the bottom line, because you’ll never last long term if you don’t.

Are there any particular songs on TH1RT3EN that you really feel like you put your own stamp on that you’re really proud of?

I don’t know—the tendency is to always say the ultra-fast, violent song is the most fun. Honestly, its fun playing all that stuff, but I like playing a lot of the more straightforward songs just as well. And you can still add your flavor to that, be it with little nuances or ghost notes, or whatever it is on the snare, or a little trill on the high-hat to kind of put my little stamp on it. But I don’t necessarily try to be that anyway. I try to do whatever the song calls for. If the song calls for fast rolls and all that doublebass drum wacky stuff, then that’s fine. If it calls for something more straight forward, like a “Symphony of Destruction”-vibe, then I’m cool with that too. I’m a real team player, and at the end of the day, it has to serve the song. In my opinion, you have to serve the song unless you’re in Rush, which is my favorite band, so I’ll leave that to them. That’s a whole other conversation.

What was it like seeing the “Daves” back together making an album? Was there ever that one point where you realized that’s it, “that magic”—that’s how they used to do it?

Well, I was the guy that kind of made that happen. When the word was put out that we were going to have a change, my mindset was that if there was going to be a change, there’s only one guy that can do this at this point. We can’t after having James Lomenzo—who is such a great bass player who the fans really embraced—just replace him like that. In my mind, it had to be (Dave Ellefson). The trick was getting Ellefson to want to do it and getting Dave (Mustaine) to agree to it because of the crap that went on in the past. But thankfully it worked out very quickly, and within two days, he was in the studio and we were just starting to go over rehearsals for the Rust in Peace tour.

It’s just weird how everything happened. You can almost think that it was planned that way, but it was not at all. It was just that a situation came up and another bass player could have been out here. But in my mind, that could just not happen—it had to be David. So yeah, you can thank me for that. And it was a big thing for fans and for metal media. I don’t think that anyone had ever anticipated that happening. But again, everything happens for a reason, and it was all a timing thing, so here we are. He’s been back for a bout a year and a half, and it’s been great. It’s been great having him back.