Peter Hodgson of IHeartGuitarBlog.com recently conducted an interview with Alter Bridge / Creed guitarist Mark Tremonti. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

IHeartGuitarBlog.com: What about your solo album? That’s coming out soon.

Mark: Yeah! I’ve already mixed it all. We have a mastering date with Ted Jensen, the best masterer on earth. It sounds really nice. It’s the first time I’ve ever sang on a record, so it was a good challenge for me. It’s just fun! I’m a songwriter: I have lots of stuff sitting around that will never see the light of day unless I do something with it! So…

IHeartGuitarBlog.com: As a singer, have you always been a lead vocalist or is that something you had to push yourself into on this stuff? Singing lead is a lot different to doing backing vocals.

Mark: Well, I’ve always been a songwriter, so I’ve sung while I was playing, but I write in my falsetto, so I’m hitting very high notes and all over the place, but I’ve always had a low range, so for my solo stuff I tune it way down. Y’know, I just never had the confidence before. I think the more I’ve sang over the years, the more I’ve developed the confidence in my voice, and I’m finally ready to do it on my own. But it’s a whole different world.

IHeartGuitarBlog.com: Will we hear your shred skills on the solo album?

Mark: Well, it’s melody driven. These are songs. It’s not shred for the sake of shred. It’s not an instrumental record, it’s a rock record, y’know? It’s definitely got some shreddy solos on there, but there are some more tasteful ones as well. The record’s a harder, heavier record than I’ve done in the past, so most of the solos are kind of pushing it a little bit. But no tapping or stuff like that.

Read the entire interview from IHeartGuitarBlog.com.

Tremonti‘s debut solo album, All I Was, will be released later in the year.

Tremonti handles all lead vocals on the CD, with additional contributions from Eric Friedman [backing vocals, guitar, bass] and Garrett Whitlock [drums].