Q: As a musician, you're an artist. How are your drawing skills?
Mark: Drawing? No, I can't draw. I'd rather had those skills. My brother got those skills. My dad and my brother.
Q: After the band Creed split up, you started Alter Bridge together with the old members of Creed with Myles replacing Scott. Why did you come up with a new name?
Mark: Well, we didn't want anyone think that we're just continuing creed, you know. That we do something completely different and I think when a band breaks up, the singer has a lot to do with the overall sound of a band. I just don't see that working. It's worth with a few different bands like AC/DC and Iron Maiden. Those are the only two bands I can think of where it was possible to be succesfull with changed vocalism. So ehm, we just wanted to do something new and not confuse people with continuation. We've never played any coversongs or any of the old songs. It's a new band, another life, a new adventure.
Q: On the cover of one day remains there's a bridge that had some meaning for the band.
Mark: Yeah, the bridge was in my neighbourhood a few blocks away. It was kinda where parents didn't allow their kids to go because it got into a bad drug infested neighbourhood and an extremely violent neighbourhood. And that represented to us as the unknown. So going in Alter Bridge we didn't know where it would take us. We're crossing that bridge to the unknown. The dangerous rock 'n roll world. And that bridge on the cover is the actual bridge, prettied up a littlebit, but that's the actual picture of the bridge that was used.
Q: How did the proces go from idea to cover?
Mark: Well, my brother Dan is an artist, you know, and he went to Pratt Institute and it was the best artschool there, I believe. And he always has done our artistic design for albums and for t-shirts and all that stuff. We wanted the bridge on the cover and he came with the initial idea.
Q: Did he make it on paper or on the computer?
Mark: He does it all on computer. It has been a long time since he's actually drawn art by hand. Since the computerdays have started, you know. Well, he's a really good artist. He gets paid doing graphic work. He's done work for Steven Spielberg, Mercedes Benz, Porsche and all kind of folks. He's the real deal. And I'm just a musician having lots of fun.
Q: What are the special things you experience on tour?
Mark: Playing for so much people every day is such a great honor. To be able to do what we love doing, like playing guitar, playing our songs for folks and go to countries across the sea I tought I would never go to before I did this. And having people you don't even speak their language singing the lyrics is awesome.
Q: When you're looking for a new guitar, are the artwork of it important to you?
Mark: Well, my guitars are all Paul Reed Smiths so I have the great privilege to have my own model of PRS. The only difference in the appearance is the woodgrains and the colors. So basically all my guitars are the same. I think it's the greatest guitar in the world.
Q: In the band, are there any more artistic persons when you consider paintings or drawings?
Mark: Well, we aren't artistic in that way. I'm a huge art-fan, like my dad. My father went to artschool, so my dad was an artist. Actually I can show you what a real artist can do. But not me.
