Wolfgang Van Halen Joins Mark Tremonti's Band
Posted by Joseph Lee on 03.06.2013
He also says Van Halen are working on new music...
Billboard reports that Wolfgang Van Halen has officially joined Mark Tremonti (Creed, Alter Bridge)'s band full time.
Van Halen (who has been a part of the band Van Halen since its 2007 reunion), said: "There's definitely a lot of hate out there that I try not to acknowledge. It's definitely intimidating as a 16-year-old to have the world hating on you and saying you're only in (Van Halen) because it's your dad's band and all of that. But I just kind of do my thing. I know what I can do, and when people tell me I can't and I know that I am doing it, whether it's in Van Halen or with Mark, it almost makes me feel better."
Tremonti says that Wolfgang was his first choice to play on his solo album All I Was, but the recent Van Halen tour got in the way. He added: "He's an amazing musician. He doesn't have that Van Halen gig just because his last name is Van Halen. He's an amazing bass player. He's also an amazing drummer and guitar player -- he's definitely got a lot of his dad's genes in him. And he's got a real sharp mind when it comes to memorizing and learning."
Wolfgang adds that the Van Halen band is working on a new album. He said: "We've actually written a handful of songs on this tour alone. During sound check we'll jam some stuff out. Van Halen is definitely the priority, but whenever Van Halen isn't doing anything, I treat this as another band I'm legitimately in. I'm really excited to be on the next record and have some sort of influence on the writing."
The band are also preparing for shows at the Stone Music festival in Australia on April 20 and in Japan during June. He says he's "really proud" of their 2012 album A Different Kind of Truth and he helped find older demos that "kinda put dad, Al and Dave into the mindspace of when they wrote, like, 'Runnin' With the Devil' and 'Dance the Night Away' and stuff like that."
When asked if there's more where that came from, he replied: "Oh yeah, there's plenty of other ideas laying around, and some new stuff that we've been working on, too. You never know what'll happen."
In addition to bass, Van Halen also plays drums (which was his first instrument), guitar, keyboards and sings. He said he "definitely would like to be a drummer in a band at some point."
He also said his talents could mean he could be his own band if he wanted. He added: "I've always loved the whole Dave Grohl story of how he started Foo Fighters and just did a whole demo album by himself before he put a group together. I'd love to do that. I feel like it's just kind of open-ended. It's all the same to me. It's just doing what I love. As long as I'm playing music and having a good time, that's all I really need."
