In a recent interview with former THE HOURGLASS guitarist Rudi Messiah, new MEGADETH guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari discussed his experience performing material originally recorded by former MEGADETH guitarists Chris Poland, Jeff Young, Marty Friedman, Chris Broderick, and Kiko Loureiro.
“I’m very relaxed about it,” he responded (as transcribed by Blabbermouth). “I mean, of course it feels great to be in a band that you’ve been a fan of and get to play the solos of these guys that you’ve looked up to for years. So, that just feels really great. And I don’t feel like there’s any limit to my creativity here. And we’ve been talking about coming up with riff ideas [for new MEGADETH music], and Dave [Mustaine, MEGADETH leader] has been very open about us, the band guys, offering ideas as well. And that’s what we’re gonna start doing very soon. And so far I’ve had my hands full learning the back catalog, which we’re still doing. We’re adding more songs as go along. So that has been a lot of fun.”
“We’re always working in the jam room backstage and putting more songs to the setlist that maybe the guys even haven’t played in 10, 15 years,” Teemu continued. “So it’s kind of a learning experience for them as well, relearning some of the songs that they haven’t played maybe ever or in a long time. So far we’ve been concentrating on that, and we’ve added quite a lot of songs from when I stepped in.
“So that has been a lot of fun and it has to be really inspiring as well and educational as well. So I get to kind of have a better picture of the back catalog, the different kinds of songs that they’ve done previously. Of course I’ve listened to the albums previously, but I haven’t really like learned the songs in detail.”
Mäntysaari stepped in as the lead guitarist on MEGADETH‘s North American tour in September 2023 as guitarist Kiko Loureiro tended to undisclosed family matters. He was appointed on Loureiro’s recommendation.
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