To say Alter Bridge ‘burst’ onto the scene back in 2004 might even be an understatement.
In many ways, what the Florida quartet did was reshape the very nature of North American rock. Three former members of Creed – Mark Tremonti, Brian Marshall and Scott Phillips – came together with a frontman in Myles Kennedy who boasted a killer set of pipes, and the results spoke for themselves.
12 years since their debut album One Day Remains, Alter Bridge released their fifth record, The Last Hero, in 2016. It’s another collection of songs packed with pounding melodies and incessant rhythms, and though Alter Bridge’s work has always harboured political undertones, the new LP is more driven than ever.
“I think the state of politics in general right now served as a catalyst for where things went lyrically,” Kennedy explains. “Normally we try to be careful with things that can be polarising ground.”
Written in the run-up to the US Presidential election, The Last Hero runs rife with powerful songs of pleading and persuasion, even if these messages were not enough to wish away the impending doom. However, Kennedy says it’s not always the place of the band to air its opinions so openly.
“What we tried to do was make sure we conveyed the emotions more than any sort of agenda, because I think once you start doing that, you can just start pissing off your fans, so that was a delicate balance with us on this record.”
Indeed, political motives or not, the music of Alter Bridge is incredibly emotive. But will the band’s future work be more directly informed by the political landscape of the day?
“I think about that a lot,” Kennedy says. “It’s such an interesting time because there’s so much passion regarding what’s happening. People are so focused on politics, and that can be a good thing in the sense that the well is full of plenty of things to draw from. But you have to be careful, because once that eventually passes and time changes, it can make a song or a body of work not as relevant. Often you can end up with songs that aren’t resonating. That’s a good question – we’ll see what happens on the next batch of tunes, where we’ll pull from.”
It’s hard to imagine Alter Bridge ever running short of ideas for new material. Indeed, the band members often expel the build-up of creative ideas on other projects: guitarist Tremonti has released three solo albums, while Kennedy himself is a regular fixture with guitar god Slash. He won’t rule out the possibility of a solo record of his own, either.
“I recorded one [album] right before Slash and I started working together, and I started writing another late last year, so I’ve just been chipping away, trying to get more songs complete. I’ve been very lucky over the last seven years in that I’m basically jumping back and forth between two bands with very little time off. So we’ll see how things play out over the next year; we’ll see if a solo record can see the light of day.”
It takes a certain kind of stamina to keep the creativity going so consistently, especially for someone whose vocals demand so much from his body. Kennedy is asked whether he practises some kind of bizarre Brett Manning exercise in order to keep his voice up to scratch. He laughs.
“I’ve had night after night after night of learning how to utilise my voice, making it stronger and do what suits. I guess from a stylistic approach I’ve learned that grinding on the vocal chords tends to burn my voice out quicker than anything, so I’ve adopted an approach that is a little more pure than I used to do, and it helps its longevity. And the best thing I can do is stay hydrated!”
Collectively, Alter Bridge have maintained one of the most steadfast sounds in the genre, and it’s a relief to know they have no intention of veering away from that anytime soon. “We always try to evolve in some way and push ourselves a little further with arrangements and whatnot,” Kennedy explains. “As far as any sort of genre offshoots where we try to go on a jazz odyssey or something, I don’t really see that happening. We’ve kind of figured out what our fans want from us and we try not to leave them feeling alienated.”
Alter Bridge were last in Sydney three years ago, and Kennedy and Tremonti took the opportunity during their set to indulge in a guitar duel. It was an injection of relaxed improvisation that Kennedy says Australian fans can expect to see again on their April visit.
“We started doing it again on this [tour], and it’s funny because initially when we started doing the little guitar duels prior to ‘Rise Today’, I was worried it was gonna be a little too self-indulgent, and I’m sure there are people in the audience like, ‘What the…?’ But it’s just so much fun.
“It’s just so spontaneous and improvised and it’s the one time in the set where each of us can kind of just step out on a limb and not know what’s gonna happen – I don’t have a clue what I’m gonna play, and you just stand in front of thousands of people with a guitar and hope you land on your feet. There’s a certain rush akin to when somebody jumps out of an airplane with a parachute – you don’t know what’s gonna happen. We’ll do it again Down Under and hopefully won’t put anyone to sleep!”
Alter Bridge’sThe Last Hero is out now through Napalm, and they play Enmore Theatre onTuesday April 4, withLike A Storm.
