It all started as a germ of an idea in the prolific mind of guitarist/songwriter Mark Tremonti, mere minutes before stepping onto stage with one of the bands he co-founded, Alter Bridge. The notion that stirred his fertile mind and creative spirit was still there after the show and became the seed for what is undoubtedly the most incredibly ambitious, thought provoking and immersive albums in his enviable and respected career.
A Dying Machine is the fruit of that labour, a powerfully evocative, chord crunching, pulse pounding collection of songs woven around a common thematic narrative issued under his band Tremonti, a solo offshoot that began in 2012, and which has released three previous, critically acclaimed albums.
Released on June 8 on Napalm Records, A Dying Machine truly did begin life as a random idea that forced itself to the front of Tremonti’s consciousness before an Alter Bridge show last year. (He is also a co-founder of 1990s alt-rock hitmakers Creed.)
“I remember it so clearly. It was 20 minutes before stage time and I started playing this chord progression and singing over it and was really digging the vibe I was creating. It was one of those creative moments where I kept on throwing these things out there to see if they would stick. And as I am walking to the stage I had three parts of what would become the title track going through my mind and ended up telling Scott Phillips [Alter Bridge’s drummer] about this concept I was writing about and he also got excited. As I am going on stage I also can’t wait to get on the bus and get this song ironed out further,” said Tremonti, just before heading to Europe for a series of Tremonti tour dates in Poland and Germany.
“And once I decided what the song was going to be about I decided I didn’t want to leave that world after the song was done. I wanted to continue with this feeling. Never ever in my career had I thought about writing two songs that told the same story. But for the first time I just loved this storyline so much I decided I will just continue doing it and maybe do a three or four song mini-concept record within a record.
“And then once I got those four songs, I said ‘no, screw it.’ That was one of those moments where I said I can do this. You try not to doubt yourself and so you say okay, I will try my best and get as far as I can, and it ended up turning into pretty much a complete concept album.”
But that wasn’t the end of the project my any means. Similar to what Neil Peart did with Rush’s last studio album Clockwork Angels, where a companion novel was also released as way of offering more narrative detail and characterizations to the story the overarched that concept album, Tremonti is also producing a book entitled A Dying Machine.
“As I got towards the end of writing the album, I remember thinking that in a perfect world I would be able to write a book, so people could really understand what the story is about. I have had this bucket list item for many, many years now about getting a book published; I think it would be one of the greatest achievements and it’s the one thing in the world that I would love to achieve because I am such a massive fan of authors of books. I think it’s just such an impressive thing. I just decided that if I was ever going to try it, now would be the moment. It was one of those decisions where it was either sink or swim, where I needed to go for it. It might fail miserably, but it also might be something great. At this point in my career why not take some chances,” he said.
“The book is just about ready to be released and is being laid out for print. It will take four to six weeks to print and pre-orders have been available for a week or so now. It’s expected to come out in later August or early September. I teamed up with [award-winning novelist] John Shirley to help me co-write the story, because when I put pen to paper I realized it was going to be way to difficult and way to lengthy to be able to get the book done by the time the record cycle was over. There was no way in the world; it would be five years before I was able to do it on my own, and it would be about half the quality that it is now since teaming up with such a great writer.
“And it was almost like writing an album with somebody, sitting with John telling him the story and telling him the thoughts on character development and this and that; and now it’s really come together. It was one of the most satisfying creative moments in my career. John really helped make it so much better because he helped hone the ideas that may seem far fetched but they are not out of the reach of science. I would explain something I wanted to include, and he would say well actually that technology is in the works. Things are not so far fetched because he could come up with the scientific reasoning. He would make in plausible in the story. He is a wizard in knowing where the modern technology is heading.”
The story underpinning the music and the book, is technically sort of science fiction with a dystopian twist, although Tremonti believes the key narrative is actually a story of humanity and emotion that is told through a story that has a fantasy/sci fi structure.
“The story takes place at the turn of the next century and by then there is no more waiting in line for something like a liver transplant. Those things are put in a DNA sorter and grown in a lab. The same thing happens with hearts and eventually, about 80 years from now, there’s a synthetic brain. And it’s all leading to the creation of virtual human beings. A lot of people have come up with robots and in the story a lot of the kids have grown up with robots that clean the house and walk them to school, but what they have done now is create the first synthetic being that has human skin, human organs and a human brain. But they also have a chip where you can download any knowledge you want them to have,” Tremonti explained.
“People have to answer these extensive questionnaires about exactly what they want this person to be like. And then, voila, they have someone who looks exactly like a human, that is exactly what they want them to be, but are considered property. They are called vessels. The first 3,000 vessels that come out are the main subjects of the story and the book, and there are some issues that arise along the way.”
Those issues include the vessels’ burgeoning self awareness and growing realization that they do not possess rights or liberty – yet they possess the cognitive faculties of their human creators and overlords as well as sophisticated emotions.
“Most of the songs and the album itself kind of stands on it own. People can still get something out of it regardless of whether they are paying attention to the story or not. Silence Becomes me is about extreme loneliness and came from a period in my life as a teenager when I felt extreme loneliness. When I wrote that song about this character in the book, I spoke about the loneliness that anybody can feel and how people just need someone to reach out and lend them a hand every now and then. But sometimes, people don’t give a damn. The song is about creating this technology in the future where you build this ‘person’ to be able to think on their own and to feel emotion and feel everything that a human feels, but then you abandon them and expect them to be fine,” Tremonti said.
“But then they fall into a severe depression, which is kind of a common thread in the book and the album. These vessels are not human beings to begin with, but they are fashioned to look, act and feel like human beings, but are not treated as full human beings. It’s kind of the same as how we treat other cultures or classes in our world today. When you look at some of the wars where you see one side viewing the other as almost a completely different species. There’s no empathy for them because they’re portrayed as not like us, they’re different and don’t have the same value, which is very untrue. They are demonized and dehumanized – and actually dehumanize is one of the most common words used on this record.”
One of the most incendiary tracks on the album is Bringer of War, which features a breathtaking musical hook accompanied by some heavy thrashing guitar.
“In the storyline, there’s initially two perspectives. One is from the character who is singing about the Bringer of War – it’s his perspective. And the other is the female character from the title track. The Bringer of War is the very first of these human-like beings ever created. He was built to be a military expert in every form of combat, every form of security. He was created by a woman who developed this technology in the first place. He is built to protect her and lead her little private army,” Tremonti explained.
“But she also uses him as a sex slave and treats him like he is beneath her. She is always telling him to shut his mouth and do what she tells him at all times. He is programmed to obey and not talk back. But his whole quest through the story and the book is to find out how to get beyond the obedience protocol all the vessels are programs with and no longer have to blindly obey mankind. He becomes the leader of all the other vessels and they work to get through the protocol. So basically, he is a disgruntled vessel who tries to organize this uprising against humanity. He thinks human beings are petty and that he and the other original vessels are far superior in every way.”
There is another significant character in the storyline, Stella, who is another vessel and the love interest of The Bringer of War.
“The song Take You With Me was one that I kind of had to retrofit into the story because it wasn’t originally something that fit. There are a couple of songs on the record that I almost left off because they didn’t necessarily make sense, they were not critical to the story line. But I made it work. In Take You with Me, the main character has found Stella to not be ashamed of who she is and stands up for who she is. And he is there to make her stronger and get back up and regain the path that she once had,” he said.
“All throughout the story there’s a lot of passion, there’s a lot of love. The guy who is the Bringer of War says at one point in the book that ‘the only things that ever made sense to me are violence and Stella.’ And this song, and the song Trust are from the same point of view where he is trying to tell her to put her trust in him, to not get down because they will get past it, because at this point in the story mankind has done something really devastating to the vessels and this is the time he wants to rise up.”
As for touring, Tremonti said he sincerely hopes to get some dates in Canada for the band (which also includes bassist Eric Friedman and drummer Garrett Whitlock), as he has always felt welcome and supported by Canadian rock and metal aficionados. At present the band has an American tour mapped out in the early fall, starting in North Carolina on Sept. 13 and wrapping up in Des Moines, Iowa on Oct. 5.
“Every time I go on tour I tell my agents that I want to go to Canada. It’s funny, when we first started touring with Alter Bridge, we booked Canada and very few people would come to the shows, so our agents would only book us where they thought people would show up and we kind of overlooked Canada for maybe about five years,” he said.
“And then we went back, and it seemed like the fan base just erupted there, so I think it just took a bit of time for Alter Bridge to settle in up there. Now with Tremonti it’s the same fashion. I love going there and hitting Montreal and Toronto, but I would love to also get over to Vancouver and other cities. Every time we go up there it’s just such a passionate group of people. I remember when we went up to Toronto with Tremonti the last time and it was the best show on the tour. I told the Alter Bridge guys we have to come back. So, we did, and it was another amazing show.”
For more information on Tremonti, A Dying Machine the album and the forthcoming A Dying Machine book, visit https://www.marktremonti.com.
- Jim Barber is a veteran award-winning journalist and author based in Napanee, ON, who has been writing about music and musicians for a quarter of a century. Besides his journalistic endeavours, he now works as a communications and marketing specialist. Contact him at jimbarberwritingservices@gmail.com.
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