CHRIS BRODERICK And SHAWN DROVER Explain Decision To Leave MEGADETH (Video)

Louder Noise recently conducted an interview with former MEGADETH and current ACT OF DEFIANCE members Chris Broderick (guitar) and Shawn Drover (drums). You can now watch the chat in two parts below. A couple of excerpts follow (transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET).

On the decision to leave MEGADETH and form ACT OF DEFIANCE:

Broderick: “For me, it had been a decision that was a long time coming. And it finally came down to the idea that I knew I was not gonna be happy until I was able to express myself musically and creatively — with the direction that I take my music in and my career and the way I present myself. So that’s ultimately what led me to leave MEGADETH. And Shawn and I had been talking about it for awhile. And he, actually, left six hours before I did. And when he did, I was, like, ‘Woah! Shawn actually left. He left MEGADETH.’ And I had called some friends and, actually, some of my endorsers and stuff like that, people that I knew I could confide in. And talking to them, and seeing how they all had my back and were basically supportive of me moving on, I knew that Shawn had made the right choice, because we were being called in to start writing the next [MEGADETH] CD, and that’s not the right thing to do if your heart’s not in it. So the time to leave was right when we left, and that was late November of last year. And then as far as starting ACT OF DEFIANCE, it was really just, again, talking with Shawn. We were talking about how we had all this great material that was never gonna be released or anything like that. We started joking around about just releasing it, just to see what would happen, and then from there, it quickly turned into, ‘Hey, let’s make a full-fledged band and let’s just put something together that the fans can get behind and get to know us, and they realize that we’re a unit and a team.'”

Drover: “I confided in [Chris] about [wanting to leave MEGADETH]. The reasons are similar. I wanted to focus on the music that I wanted to make, and I wanted to make heavier music. And when I confided in Chris about it, I’d come to find out that he was thinking along the same lines. It was purely music from my perspective, it was purely a musical decision, and it was a good time to do it. The band was taking a huge break — for, like, a year — and I didn’t wanna do that. So I figured, if there was ever a time to do it, the more I thought about it, I came to the decision that now would be the time.”

On contributing to the songwriting process in MEGADETH:

Drover: “Yeah, it wasn’t as much as I would have liked it to be, but I knew that going in. I never had an issue with it. But, again, over the course of time, I just started to realize that I really wanted to make heavier music and I wanted to make my own music, and not have any musical boundaries or… Not to say that I had that in that band at all — ’cause I didn’t — but I just wanted to do it organically and my way, and whatever that ended up being… I didn’t wanna put any limitations on myself except I wanted to make a heavy metal record, which is a very broad term.”

Broderick: “For me, personally, when you’re writing in MEGADETH, it has to sound like MEGADETH, which is Dave Mustaine. He’s the head of the company, which is rightfully so; he built that legacy. But I think going into that, and understanding that, you realize that your own creative outlet will never fully be realized. And so, I think that’s one of the biggest reasons for wanting to move on creatively.”

ACT OF DEFIANCE‘s debut album, “Birth And The Burial”, was released on August 21 via Metal Blade Records. The CD recording was split between three studios in three different states: Broderick handled vocal and guitar production at his own Ill-Fated Studio in Los Angeles, Chris “Zeuss” Harris (ROB ZOMBIE, REVOCATION, MUNICIPAL WASTE) worked with Drover tracking the drums in Dexter’s Lab in Milford, Connecticut, while Bachand laid down his bass at ManShark, in Southampton, Massachusetts.