Dave Mustaine answered the questions.

ENDGAME is Megadeth’s twelth studio album - how do you feel it holds up with the band’s catalogue?

It’s hard to compare records, it’s kinda like comparing children and I don’t think it’s fair to compare it to different bodies of work - it just doesn’t compare. How it stands up against other records? I think it’s all releative, the record hasn’t been released yet so we’re kinda speculating right now. As far as the playing is concerned, I think it’s vibrant playing, it’s challenging (we really pushed ourselves), and I believe we delivered what we needed to deliver in order to continue on the path we’re on right now, going where we want. The unfortunate thing is now you begin to bring other people into the mix, and that’s where mistakes can start happening.

You built your own studio for the recording of the album. How did that impact the recording process for the band?

We built the studio in San Marcus when we started recording the record because it just didn’t seem smart to spend $75,000 renting a studio and us pack up our stuff and leave. To just throw that amount of money away just didn’t make sense to me. We ended up building a studio in a warehouse and it’s completely self-contained and we’re going to have multiple uses for it besides being a studio. It’s an audio-video bay and we’re going to run a school out of it, a school that starts off with basic kids who just wanna get into music, and then people who want actually want to start learning about music, and then people who want to learn about the music businessand if they want to persue that there’s advanced classes wth recording techniques and stuff like that. It was the right decision by me before we started this record and left me to something to show at the end of the day. When we do our next project we don’t have to rent a storage place, we don’t have to rent a rehearsal place - this studio is providing us with all that right now. And when you have your own place it kind of brings back an enthusiasm, because you’re going to your own place (it’s not like ‘we’re going to a temporary studio and this sucks…’).

Discuss the departure of Glen Drover… 

Chris Broderick is the new guitar player in Megadeth and he came in to basically replace Glen Drover. Glen had run out of enthusiasm to be a touring musician and although he’s done a few TV things with some other players and since then other groups to help them out in a pinch, he really doesn’t like touring. He loves to play guitars, a great guitar player, but he doesn’t like touring. He wants to be with his family and I don’t blame him. He’s got one kid and his wife - more power to him. We saw him when we played in Toronto and it was really fun to see him, he looked good and he seemed okay. For me Glen recommending Chris was amazing because if it wasn’t for Glen I wouldn’t have had Sean and Sean and Glen both recommended Chris so it’s kinda like Glen just came by and Glen said ‘here, get off here Sean oh and by the way Chris, the next stop is for you, get off.’ And Glen continued the trajectory right back to Toronto and got off himself and now he’s teaching guitar lessons in Toronto, spending time with his wife and son and so if they makes him happy, I’m happy. I like the guy and I want him to be happy. If he’s not happy being with me, well you know it’s not a it doesn’t make it a good time for me because I feel it’s an inconvenience for people to be around, and I don’t want it to be like that. So he went home, we completely wrapped everything up in a loving and righteous way with him, and with all due respect to Glen, I do believe we got a better guitar player.

I do believe the public, the fans, the press, the critics, the polls, everything’s gonna say that Chris is, if not the best, is probably number two out of everybody, and I would say that anybody who doesn’t think he’s the best is because they would be pining for Marty Friedman, and Marty’s not coming back, and I don’t think there’s any reason to do that, and I would say that if anybody says he’s not the best they would be pining for Marty Friedman, and Marty’s not coming back and I don’t think there’s any reason to do that…

ENDGAME sees you continue your partnership with producer Andy Sneap. How has working with him helped the band move forward?

Andy Sneap is a producer that we met and he was recommended to come in and help us to mix the sound for ‘Gears Of War’ for the record THE SYSTEM HAS FAILED [actually, for the record UNITED ABOMINATIONS]. He did a remix which was so good that we decided we were gonna use him to mix the record, and then we had him wrap that one up and then we started from scratch with this one.

Lyrical themes to the record? 

There’s a lot of different stuff. I think anybody who thinks this is over-political might be resting on my previous stuff and thinking that’s how it’s going to be again, but unless someone can sit down and read the lyrics from the beginning of the record all the way through… they’re basing views on what they think they hear me saying. I’m not putting any merit on any of the assumptions made by anybody right now until the record is out with the lyrics and they can actually say, ‘ah, this is what he says…’

Can Megadeth continue to improve?

Certainly there’s room for improvement. All areas of my life, musically, stage presence-wise, reacting with the crowd, all that stff, there’s room for improvement but you know I’ve got to find someone better than me to show me. I’m always constantly searching and always listening. I started doing vocal warm-ups for the first time in my career last year, it’s been twenty years and I’m only just now doing vocal warm-ups… I used to do small ones but never actually sit down and actually sing in my dressing room…la la la la la… I heard the guy from Machine Head doing that and he’s like ‘la la la la la la’ and then he goes on stage and goes ‘Graaaaa…’ What happened to the la la la guy?

When can UK fans expect to see Megadeth live? 

We’re going to be touring quite a lot for this campaign. It’s probably going to be about a year and a half of touring because we don’t tour as much a year as other bands do. I just feel it’s better to make a Mercedes Benz. 8 hours a day, 5 days a week, they make VWs 24/7. And if I’m playing every day I’m just a VW, while I like being a Merceds Benz…