Fine, thank you!

Sure, the Eidolon stuff! The single was supposed to come out this month, but due to some contractual issues, we have to wait, so it will come out in October with some possibility of other material and a possible show to follow, but that's only just possible. The only sure thing is the single, which is the first piece of music that we recorded in a little more than 10 years with the current lineup. We didn't really split up during Megadeth, me and Shawn; we got just really busier, we just kind of… put it on the shelf, so to speak. It's with the current line up from the last album, which is « Parallel Otherworld » with me and Shawn, of course… and Adrian as well (who was in the band since forever) and Nils K. Rue, who is also with Pagan's Mind, if you may know. We're really happy and it's really cool, we've just got to wait until October.

Yeah me too, I'm very eager to get it out there.

No, right now I've been slowly working on this project, I've been doing singles; one with Todd from Queensryche, called Discordia; that came out last year. Another one with Henning Basse from Metalium, that came out not too long ago, the Wall of Blood single. These singles that I've been putting out with different singers are all leading up to something; basically, the original idea or concept was to do a full album, where they'd be up 8 to 10 songs, with different singers… and what I decided to do was to release the songs every few months or so, one by one, so people can check it out before I release the album, as a digital download. At the end of the day, when I've completed enough songs, where I feel like it's a complete album, then it's gonna be compiled and inevitably it's gonna be released on hard copies, which will be of course vinyls and cds.

Yeah! Aside from the ones I just mentioned, there's 3 songs in there; there's 2 songs that are currently being worked on, one with Chuck Billy from Testament and there's another one I haven't completed the music for. There's gonna be some other singers, I haven't decided exactly who I'm gonna approach and who I want to have on future tracks, but it's all gonna be within the air type of things, you know. And then, as far as the Metalusion thing, as you may remember : the first album that I did was with my name; the album was called Metalusion, now the band is called Metalusion, so it's kind of like the « Planet X » thing; if you may remember, Derek Sherinian released an album with his name, after he left Dream Theather… and he called the album « Planet X ». Then he formed a band and called it « Planet X » so it's the same idea. Initially, we wanted to use that as a band name. but the record company wanted to use my name, because they wanted to… I guess, exploit the Megadeth name and all that stuff. But it really is more of a band effort, so now we have an actual band name and right now, I was actually speaking with our keyboard player Jim Gilmour, so we're gonna start arranging music and getting ready for our second album. It will be in the same vein, metal meets rock meets progressive meets jazz fusion, all of those influences that we've grown up with, this will be the same kind of vibe and idea. So I'm really looking forward to put this all together, we're really excited about it.

What it is is really an extension of what I do; I already do a lot of session work where I'm getting guitar player to do solo spots. I do that for a lot of other artists, as well as helping a lot with their projects, like mixing, mastering, production, helping write them songs and guitar tracks, keyboards, all kind of stuff. Anything related to recording a full song. This is what Metal for Hire is; they have all these artists from different established bands, so people can go on the site and hire somebody, like a singer they want on a certain song; « this guy from that band » to do vocal tracks. There's different kind of possibilities : basically, you're just hiring a bunch of different musicians, I'm there listed for guitar stuff and all I just mentioned like mixing, mastering, production and all that stuff. So it is basically what it is, anybody can go to the site, which is metalforhire.com and can hire different artists in the industry to help out in their projects!

Shit, I don't know. I'd like to play some shows with Ozzy, that'd be good… There's so many but he would be one of them.

Well, I worked with several company along the way, but the one company I'm working with that I'm very happy is Schecter guitars. I'm using the guitars and it works really great. In particular, there's one model (for all the guitar geeks out there) called the Solo 2, that's my favorite one. It's more kind of like a «Les Paul» style guitar. The neck is a little thinner, it got 24 frets instead of 22, because all of «Les Paul» ends at 22… it's a beautiful guitar! Anybody who likes those style of guitars and wants something a little more metal with 24 frets, definitively check it out! The more frets the better!

Not anything in particular; I guess you warm up, you play a little bit, you stretch, drink a lot of water. Just get yourself ready, pump yourself up, eat good, to feel the best you can. If you go on stage and feel sluggish, that's gonna reflect in your playing. You're not gonna be as entertaining. It's just common sense, you just try to be ready for the show and play the best you can, I just do all of those little things to try to help me do that.

Well, I'd have to say Montréal, of course. It's one of the best crowd on the planet. I started playing there but it's also there that I have seen my very first concerts at the Montréal « Forum »; all the early concerts that I have seen growing up where all at the « Forum ». I like to play at the Download Festival in the UK a lot too… Sweet Rock Festival. Alaska; that's some you don't hear very often! The crowds are awesome there, they don't get a lot of content so the crowds go nuts. Very vocal, just like Montréal! If the crowds aren't as noisy, it's not as exciting! The louder they are, the more it gets you going.

That stuff that I grew up with, it's not just metal…. that's the whole idea of the Metalusion album; that was really what the album is all about. Focusing on the different stuff that I grew up with that I was very inspired about.. and still am today! Which is artist like Al Di Meola, Frank Zappa, Return to Forever, I could go on… Oh and of course the Prog from the 70's, I'm a huge Pink Floyd fan, Gentle Giant, Yes!, Genesis, Jethro Tull… Hard rock from the 70's as well, like Thin Lizzie, Heart, Rush, Max Webster. I could keep going on; those are all bands that I grew up on, with Black Sabbath and Iron Maiden. People mostly know me for the metal things and pretty much everything until the Metalusion album was all metal… which is great, but that album kind of reflect those influences too.

I don't know if I can pick only one, it's a difficult question. I mean, just to pick one! I could think of a few… One that comes right off my head is Mob Rules by Black Sabbath, it's definitively one of my favorite albums.

Yes! Number of the Beast by Iron Maiden, Kind Diamond's Them and Abigail, Mercyful Fate's Melissa. Those are definitively the stronger ones for sure.

Golf, I have a golf course right down from the street from my house! I just walk over; that's how close it is! It's at the end of my street, it's really awesome! Spending time with my family, I like reading , watching documentaries, I'm pretty simple. I hang out with friends sometimes but I'm a pretty quiet guy, I'm old now! (laughter)

That's another hard one as well… Hard-rock metal player. The whole jazz thing; I never considered myself a jazz player for sure. I think I just dabbled in it, so I'd say Hard-rock metal player.

I don't think I have any. A lot of times, I hear what's going on but I'm more interested in the melodies… Unless it's really stupid lyrics that destroy the song. There nothing in particular that comes on mind as a preference. I'm not really into the negative stuff, I guess I like more things that are written on the positive side… maybe some fantasy stuff, but I'm not into the dark stuff, that really doesn't do a whole lot for me.

Maybe a chef, I'm pretty good at it. That would probably be something that I'd pursue.

A guitar battle?! (Laughters) That's be fun to jam, we have met but we never played together. That's be fun just to jam over something; he's that kind of player, he can sit down and jam! Not a whole lot of guitar players can do that! Some players have to know what's coming next, but he's not one of them. He's one of the guys that add licks and just play. I'd like to play with other guitars players, not just him. There are all kind of great player out there that I respect.

Well, we did a little thing on the Metalusion album; the first song on that album, he plays on it! Actually, there's 3 of us on that one; it's me, him and Vinnie More. There's actually quite a few different guitar players on that album. I brought in some guests; like Chris Poland, where we do a trade-off solo back and forth, in the solo section of the first song. Then, Vinnie More, Jeff Loomis on one song with me. Fredrick from Opeth also!

That was an instrumental album, I thought that'd be cool to get some different guitar players to play some solos; everyone is doing now these days! Now I'm doing that with singers too.