SiriusXM’s Jose Mangin recently chatted with Chris Broderick on Liquid Metal’s 666-LIVE call-in show. Read what the guitarist has to say about leaving Megadeth, new projects, and more below (which was transcribed by Josh “Shitkill” Musto), and let us know what you think in the comments!
Jose Mangin: Chris, thanks for calling up Liquid Metal. This is, I believe, your first time talking to anybody publicly
, right?
Chris Broderick: Absolutely, yeah. I wanted to make sure that there was a little downtime and to just kind of relax a little bit, give it a little time to sink in.
Mangin:Of course, man. So if you’re listening right now, Chris was a part of Megadeth since 2007.
Broderick: 2008 is when I officially joined, right at the beginning.
Mangin: And recently he left the band along with Shawn Drover, who had been with the band for ten years, and this was announced about three weeks ago. Chris…I guess…I mean what do I say?
Broderick: Come on, Jose–don’t be so tongue-tied!
Mangin: No, I’m just, you know–why?
Broderick: Well, it’s not gonna be as exciting as anybody would want, it’s not gonna be some huge drama thing or anything like that. It was simply time. I’d been in for seven years and I really wanted to just have that kind of creative freedom to write anything I wanted to, to go anywhere with it that I wanted to, and just kind of direct my own course. The way I think of it is it’s not unlike a chef that works at a restaurant and decided he wants to open up his own restaurant or maybe a lawyer that wants to start his own firm or something like that. It was a great time to move on and I think talking with Shawn, he was in the exact same place. We had talked and thought about it for a little bit, so when Shawn quit it was like, “Whoa, what happened?” I mean I knew that we had talked about it but he did i– he actually just left the band.
Mangin: He didn’t tell you, “I’m doing it tomorrow?”
Broderick: No. Like I said we talk all the time so I knew that he had thought about it and I had been thinking about it but as soon as he quit I knew he had made the right decision because Megadeth is going to be ramping up for their next CD recording cycle and if you’ve got trepidation about being a part of something you don’t want to commit to the writing process and then bail on them. When Shawn quit, that instantly became clear to me. I had talked to Ellefson and then I went and I talked to Jackson guitars, my endorsement, and Fractal audio systems, and they were so supporting, they were like, “Dude we’ve got your back, you do what you’ve gotta do.” So I decided that night after Shawn did it that it was the right time because Megadeth is getting ready to move into their next recording cycle. So if there was a good time to leave, that was it.
Mangin: It makes sense. How was the reaction from Dave when you told him?
Broderick: He was definitely disappointed. It was obviously not something that he wanted to hear or anything like that.
Mangin: He didn’t know it was coming?
Broderick: No, not really. I mean, the one thing that you want to know is that in a way we’re hired guns.
Mangin: I was gonna ask you, Chris–when you first joined Megadeth did you feel like you were gonna be in it for a long time? Because Megadeth has a history of having so many different guitarists and musicians come in. What did you expect when you first started?
Broderick: When I first started I didn’t know what to expect, I mean you’re going into something with fresh eyes and fresh ears and just going for it. It was great, it was awesome, it was great for my career. I got to play Big 4 shows, I played across the world, it was an awesome thing at the time, but there comes to be a point where I want to be musically creative for me, and that’s really where I wanted to go.
Mangin: Well you’ve been a part of the metal scene for so long, you’ve been in established awesome bands before. What were some of your favorite bands before you joined Megadeth that you were in?
Broderick: I mean obviously I have a huge affinity for Nevermore and Jag Panzer, those were the main bands that I was in. In Nevermore I was more of a touring guitarist, but Van and Jeff are great friends of mine and I love playing with them, great musicians. And Jag Panzer, they were all so level headed, everything was so democratic in that band and they welcomed me instantly with open arms, which was a cool thing because at that time when I joined them I was totally naïve to the whole process. I just thought I’d walk in and be an equal member in everything they had already established, but they allowed me that freedom. Those were the two main killer bands.
Mangin: I know you’re also a guitar teacher and you’re doing a bunch of cool stuff. What is happening for you in the future? I know you’re taking part in the Metal Allegiance all-star tours that are happening, Shiprocked in February and we’re doing the big one January 21st at the House of Blues in Anaheim, California, I’m very proud to be hosting that show with you guys and rocking that show out with you dudes. So tell us about your involvement with the Metal Allegiance, formerly Metal Masters.
Broderick: Yeah, so we’re just coordinating these next two shows, like you said it’s at the House of Blues on January 21st, and Shiprocked starting on the 2nd of February in 2015 should be killer as well. It’s gonna be a fun night, I’m not sure if I can talk about all of the people that are gonna be playing with us because I think some of them are surprises. But I think some of them that you know about are Alex Skolnick, Chuck Billy..
Mangin: I have a list here too Chris that I can show you–Frank Bello, Charlie Benante, Chuck Billy, you, Dave Ellefson, Scott Ian, Andreas Kisser from Sepultura, Mark Osegueda from Death Angel–those two dudes are new–Mike Portnoy, Troy Sanders from Mastodon, new to the Metal Allegiance lineup, Alex Skolnick, John Tempesta, and Scott Ian is gonna be doing a spoken work thing before the show starts. I hear there’s another band that’s gonna be opening but we’re not gonna tell you until it’s official and it’s all said and done, but I know there’s a lot of cool things in store for that. Chris, so looking forward to your next mission as a musician, what do you want to do? I know you’re an avid music dude and a guitar teacher and student, what are you looking to do besides the Metal Allegiance stuff?
Broderick: Well, you know one of the things that I’ve always wanted to do is a solo CD, so I’m definitely gonna be working on that in 2015, but one of the things I’ve really very recently become excited about is through talking with Shawn Drover, we had talked about how we had all this material that was never gonna get released, all these killer heavy riffs that we had written, so we just decided, why don’t we put this stuff out? Why don’t we form a band and get out these killer riffs and see what people think? So actually we formed a band, we’re working with a killer singer and he’s awesome, and we’ve got record labels that have made some good offers on the table and we’re really excited about where that’s gonna go.
Mangin: Wow! Is there a name for the band?
Broderick: Well here’s the funny thing, we have many names. The problem today is that there are so many bands out there that the first thing we’ve gotta do is run them by a trademark. You know, we don’t want to run into the Ghost and Ghost B.C. issue, right? So we’re looking into trademarks on the name and I would love to tell you, but we want to save some of it for our official press release and we’ll talk about the singer then and we’ll have the record label then.
Mangin: Is the singer someone that we know?
Broderick: Maybe.
Mangin: American, Canadian?
Broderick: He’s a member of planet Earth.
Mangin: Hah! I like that place, it’s pretty cool man.
Broderick: It’s a good place and there are a lot of good singers there.
Mangin: So with some of these riffs that you’ve collected between you and Shawn Drover, were these things that you presented to Megadeth and were turned down, or you didn’t feel like it was even worth it or even would work?
Broderick: I think some of them work presented but then some of them also I’d be like, oh this isn’t appropriate for Megadeth’s sound. I have a tendency to write very complex stuff, so I’ve got to watch it when I write and submit for Megadeth. I want to make sure it’s not too complex or too crazy or too all over the place, so those are the things that I would have held back.
Mangin: So I know you’re a boat veteran. I get queasy just talking about boat stuff, man. Are you like that or are you pretty pro about this stuff?
Broderick: No, you know, I wakeboard all the time. It’s a very different feeling to be on a wakeboarding boat as opposed to a cruise ship because on a wakeboarding boat you see the waves coming at you, you understand why the boat is moving and why it’s rocking. A cruise ship you just feel like – at least on the Motorboat cruise – you just feel these little pulses in the floor and I thought that was weird, but it’s not like I was leaning over the side puking my brains out or anything. But it was killer and I had a great time, and I think Shiprocked will be equally as killer.
Mangin: That’s awesome man. Any new hobbies that you plan on starting in your time off in this new life of yours? Anything you might want to pick up like maybe crochet?
Broderick: Yeah, I’m an avid knitter man. I could knit you a sweater from hell.
Mangin: It is Christmas, ‘tis the season to give Chris! Maybe you should make a cool Liquid Metal sweater for us and we’ll give it out to a lucky winner.
Broderick: I hope they are not in a cold climate, that’s all I’m saying.
Mangin: What about hobbies, are you gonna pick up anything new in your life, just as a dude?
Broderick: No, like I said in the summer time I love wakeboarding. In the winter time, I just got back, I did a couple of days up at Mammoth Mountain doing some snowboarding and stuff like that, it was good to get away from recording. So those are the hobbies I have.
Mangin: Of course playing guitar.
Broderick: Of course, that’s not a hobby though.
Mangin: That’s life and love!
Broderick: I’ll be under a bridge playing the guitar, it wouldn’t matter.
Mangin: People can follow Chris in all of his adventures, it’s @Chris_Broderick and he’s on Twitter and Instagram as well. And of course we’ve got your back brother. I look forward to seeing you in a few weeks in California, and like I said we always have your back and thanks for supporting what we do here for all these years.
Broderick: Hey, thanks a lot, Jose. Thanks to everybody out there that’s helpful and supporting, and actually thanks to all the heavy metal fans in general for just horns in the air.
Mangin: Hell yeah, Chris dude, you had a fuckin’ awesome run brother, congratulations on everything you did with Megadeth and we look forward to your future.
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