Altitudes & Attitude, the project between Megadeth bassist, David Ellefson, and Anthrax bassist, Frank Bello, are making finishing touches on their first full-length album, following their self-titled EP, which was released back in January 2014. In a recent interview with the “White Line Fever” podcast, Ellefson gives details regarding their upcoming effort:
“Actually, Frank and I have been in the studio a lot these past six months working on finishing [the] full-length for the next release, […] we are literally finalizing, probably in the next two weeks – getting the final vocals and final bits done on it,” Ellefson said, continuing to describe what the project means to them.
“It’s just this thing that… me and Frank have this whole other side of us and this other spirit soars when the two of us get together and get in a room and start writing songs together….
“And it’s a beautiful thing. And what’s cool about it, we haven’t left bands; it’s kind of a side, vanity thing that we do… a vanity project.”
Ellefson appreciates that he and Bello get to ‘do what [they] do in Anthrax and Megadeth,’ and then separately expose a whole different side to themselves with Altitudes & Attitudes. For them, it’s what keeps the project genuine and pure for Ellefson, as he doesn’t view Altitudes & Attitudes as a “supergroup.”
“Me and Frank was not intended as a supergroup,” he begins to explain; “[The project] was literally born out of me and Frank doing some bass clinics together, […] so that’s how Altitudes & Attitude started- it was for us to create some of our own original content for clinics, and then it spun off into [us] going out and hiring a guitar player and a drummer and actually going out and doing our own shows together- as a legitimate act, not as a clinic.”
The difference between this project and ‘supergroups’ according to Ellefson is that he believes ‘supergroups’ are mostly formed with the intention to sell and remain famous.
“To me, anytime the joy comes out of music, you’d better just stop, man, because really it kills… it kills the whole thing.”
Listen to the whole podcast including the segment with Ellefson HERE.