Mr. Big vocalist Eric Martin has announced that the band is planning to call it a day after one final studio record.
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You can check out the conversation with Rock Radio N1 below.
You’ve been quoted as saying that there might be a new Mr. Big album next year, but that it could very well be the last. Have you anything you can add to that or do you just want to leave it at that?
“Yeah, I do. I’m the one getting everyone together for conference calls and e-mails and what we want to do. I really want to do it and I want to spend more than six days on it like we did with [band’s latest studio record, 2017’s] ‘Defying Gravity.’
“I want to be a little more prepared. I want to do a new record and I also want to have a couple of different drummers on it – ones that Pat [Torpey, the band’s late drummer] really liked; maybe Mike Portnoy, Gregg Bissonette, Ray Luzier from Korn, I really like his playing. Just get some great drummers to do something to honor Pat Torpey.
“We don’t know if we’re going to do an album or an EP; it kinda depends on the songs. If we only have six songs then there’s your EP, but if we have more we’ll cut an album.
“We only have a little bit of a window of opportunity because Paul [Gilbert] is on the road pretty much the rest of the year and then we might have an opportunity in February to cut something.
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“But we are going to do a tour in June and July and then come home for a couple of weeks and then try to do it as much as we can for about three or four months.
“But yeah, that’s the last hurrah, that’s it. It just feels a little uncomfortable to keep going without Pat Torpey.”
You mentioned writing songs. When Mr. Big songs are being written, do you all get together to write together or do you each bring different things to the recording studio?
“Both. I think the last time we got together; me, Paul, Billy [Sheehan] and Pat, was when we wrote [The Stories We Could Tell’ album. We wrote ‘Gotta Love the Ride’ as the first song on that. It all depends; everybody is gone all the time doing their own projects and trying to get everyone together is hard.
“Here’s what we used to do – Paul will write a few tracks, he calls ‘sniglets,’ that’s kinda weird, and he will send that tape or CD or whatever to me and I’ll write lyrics and melodies.
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“Then when we eventually get together for two or three days at a rehearsal studio, it’ll be – you know that song that has that weird off timing thing in C or whatever – it’s called ‘Merciless’; something like that. That’s how we had been doing it for years. A lot of times,
“Billy, Pat, and Paul would just jam out ideas and they’d send them to me and I’d break it all down and try to get five good songs out of it. [Laughs] It was like so many solos, trust me, you know what I’m talking about!”