TEEMU MÄNTYSAARI Is "Really Looking Forward To Contributing" To Next MEGADETH Album

In a recent interview with Mxdwn, Megadeth guitarist Teemu Mäntysaari spoke about the band's plans for creating new music and his involvement in the process.

Addressing the future of the band after their U.S. tour wraps up, Mäntysaari revealed: "This tour here after the second leg of this U.S. tour ending in late September, I think after that we're gonna take a little bit of time off and start really concentrating on songwriting, and the plans are to go more and more into the songwriting mode next year, where I think we won't have that much touring coming up. So I'm really looking forward to contributing as much as I can. And we've kind of started talking about it already a while back."

Mäntysaari, who joined the band over a year ago as Kiko Loureiro's replacement, explained how his creative approach has evolved since joining Megadeth. He highlighted how frontman Dave Mustaine's encouragement has fueled his dedication to crafting new material.

"The first time Dave mentioned that, yeah, he'd be happy to have some of my ideas there and listen to my things, from that moment on, I already took the mindset that, okay, whenever an idea comes to mind, I'm just gonna put it down and record it. And gradually, I've now started doing more and more of that. When we have a day off, at the hotel room I always have my little recording set up and my guitar there. So first I usually just play and film an idea on my phone, and then I have a folder of different ideas, and then when I have that off day at the hotel, I just record it on my laptop and then have a big folder of riff ideas that I can offer at some point."

Earlier this year, reflecting on the groundwork for the follow-up to their 2022 album, The Sick, The Dying… And The Dead!, Mäntysaari elaborated on Mustaine's collaborative process and how it aligns with his personal contributions: "Already a while back Dave started talking about making the next album and kind of starting to do pre-production. And as soon as he mentioned that, and kind of before that already, once it was clear that I'm gonna be staying with the band, then I kind of started putting my ideas down and just recording any riff ideas that I felt like could be something that could be used in Megadeth."

"By now I have a bunch of riffs and ideas that I've gathered. And then Dave told me that he likes to work the way that everybody does their riffs and then at some point, we're gonna get together and then review things and see which riffs are gonna work together and then work out the parts between the riffs to kind of connect things and then that way come up with the skeletons for the songs. And I'm looking forward to doing that and hearing how he feels about my ideas as well."

Judging by Mustaine's own words, seems he couldn't be happier about Mäntysaari, and went on as far as saying: "Well, we are a band again. It doesn't feel like me and some side players or some session guys."