Mark Tremonti has only just finished his run of huge North American shows with Creed – his original reunited band that now seems to be bigger than ever as a live draw. Time to take a breather? Nope, he's already got the next Tremonti band single out (Show US) with an album (The End Will Show Us How) to follow on 10 January 2025.
But with his 20th studio record (counting Creed, Tremonti, Alter Bridge and his Sinatra albums) how is he going to keep pushing things to a higher level? Well, he's already thought of that.
"Every guitar record I do, I try to make it something where I'm challenging myself to do some different than I've done – create different moods," he tells MusicRadar. "I think there's nine or 10 guitar solos on there."
Despite moving into the lead vocal role in Tremonti, Mark admits guitar solos are still the part that pushes him the hardest.
"The toughest part of any record is putting together the solos," says Mark. "That's why on my days off and I'm in rooms like this – my guitar rooms. I've got to learn new licks so I have new stuff to do on every record. There's a lot happening on this record, there's a lot of guitar stuff going on but it's always melody-driven. It's always it's always based on the song – I never want to write something that's just crazy musically if it can't support a good song."
However, it's sonically that Tremonti is really raising the stakes on their latest album.
"The MT-100 is all over the record," he says of the tonal arsenal he packed for The End Will Show Us Now. "That's Elvis [Baskett] my producer's favorite album. He loves that."
No surprises there – Tremonti's second PRS signature guitar amp is designed to excel on his records, and has been delivering the goods for Creed live lately too. But it's certainly not the only amp that's helped push The End Will Show Us How to a higher level for the guitarist.
"I got a new Dumble", Mark reveals. "I absolutely love that. The person I bought it from works on works on Dumbles – he's worked with Carlos Santana and Larry Carlton. These people who own Dumbles send them to my friend Brandon [Montgomery]. He's one of the few people you can trust to work on your Dumble.
He believes it could very well be the boilerplate prototype for the Overdrive Deluxe
"He had an amp sitting on his desk for over 10 years," continues Mark. "And he believes it could very well be the boilerplate prototype for the Overdrive [Deluxe]. He said it was made the same year – the guts of it are all the same other than a footswitchable option on there. He said the [owner] would be willing to sell it to me so I bought it.
"It's an Overdrive Deluxe, not an Overdrive Special," confirms Mark. "So when it was in the mail I was like, yeah, it'll be cool. It's just a cool thing to have. I love everything Dumble but when I got it, it blew me away. What it's best for is like an over-driven percussive [sound]… I got a lot of use out of it. Anything that's not full-bore, high-gain and anything that's not clean I used that Dumble amp, and it's just beautiful – I love it."
The result of this combination is a new standard for Mark in the studio.
"I've got to say this new Tremonti record is the best-sounding album I think I've ever recorded," he says. "Just the tones and the sound of it. The best I've ever heard. Elvis bought a Wonder Audio console and it sounds incredibly good. When I got the mixes back I was blown away. It's the best-sounding Tremonti record for sure."
- The End Will Show Us How is released on 10 January 2025. To preorder and for tickets to Tremonti's European tour in January and February click here.
