Greg Prato of Ultimate Guitar, spoke with former Megadeth guitarist, Chris Poland. The interview, appears in its entirety, below.
Ultimate Guitar: What was it like to work on The System Has Failed as a session guitarist compared to being a band member back in the day?
Chris Poland: Oh God. It was a blast, man. When Dave [Mustiane] was there and the producer [Jeff Balding], they were great. Sometimes I could do whatever I wanted, but on some songs, they wanted this specific vibe. And sometimes, they wanted me to simplify stuff, and so I did.
But when they weren’t there, and I was there with Ralph Patlan, Ralph was the first engineer, we could do anything we wanted. And it was just awesome, man. And Ralph had a big box of vintage pedals, like a giant four-foot by two-foot box two foot high of vintage pedals like I’ve never even seen before.
And he had a Foxx Fuzz Wah Volume pedal. And then I put a Textone Fuzz Nutz in front of it, and that’s how we got the sound for the last song, My Kingdom, the guitar solo. When we were doing that, he was just like, ‘I cannot believe that.’ I couldn’t either. I never heard a wah sound like that before. I had so much fun doing that.
Ultimate Guitar: Dave [Mustaine] has a reputation for being a very strict band leader. What was it like to work with him in creative sessions and in the studio? Did he demand very specific solos of you, or did he let you do what you wanted?
Chris Poland: He never told anybody what to do, really. I mean, sometimes he would say, ‘Can you go in an upper register?’ after I’d maybe try to solo three or four times. And he’s like, ‘Can you go up there?'”
But it was never like, ‘Okay, you’re gonna start here and then you’re gonna do this.’ It was never like that.”
And then with The System Has Failed, it was fun. I’m pretty sure he was sober. It was a good experience. Except, I don’t want to get into what happened, but he was remixing all the records, and we all know the story.
But anyway, I had a lot of fun. It was really great working with Ralph Patlan. He’s just a consummate pro, man.
Ultimate Guitar: How was it playing on The System Has Failed compared to the first two Megadeth albums, just as far as the atmosphere and how the band was getting along?
Chris Poland: Well, first of all, I was sober. And second of all, I was in an environment with a really good studio and a really good producer. Not that Randy Burns wasn’t really good, but this was all ‘next level,’ you know? And in my own stuff, I have to record my stuff in my studio with whatever I got.
So being in that environment, I was like, ‘Wow, this is awesome.’ Got this great console. Ralph Patlan had a 50-watt ’60s Plexi Head Marshall with a matching cabinet. It was perfect
3 Responses
I think “The System has Failed”is a great Megadeth album. For me, it’s just as good as classic era Megadeth albums. Originally planned to be a Mustaine solo album, I was surprised Chris Poland played on TSHF cuz I always thought there was “bad blood” between Mustaine and Poland, considering the song “Liar” off SFSGSW is about Poland.
Saw TSHF tour when it can to my area. My cousin and I attended the show and stood in the pit area. My cousin wore a “F- Lars” t-shirt. When Megadeth played the song “Something That I’m Not”, my cousin took off his t-shirt and hung it high so Mustaine could see it. Mustaine noticed the message on the t-shirt, smiled and pointed at it, and then gave a “thumbs up” to my cousin. My cousin was stoked.
TSHF is definitely a great record and a “hidden” gem in the Megadeth catalog. I remember buying this cd the day it came out and I must’ve played it multiple times per day for a couple of weeks. I was blown away by it.
This is a great article about a great cd! It is definitely an angry Megadeth cd but to me does not have the sound of the classic first few releases. It sounds like they are trying to capture that sound. My favorite cd is So Far So What. This is an cd everybody should own who likes Megadeth. No fillers.Pure Metal! I just pulled it off the shelf and listened to the whole thing. No fillers.