Chris Parker of Boise Weekly recently conducted an interview with MEGADETH guitarist Chris Broderick. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On the high expectations surrounding his gig as MEGADETH's seventh lead guitarist:

Broderick: "I'd consider it high stress, not necessarily because of the actual workload but more because of the microscope you're under at this level. Everybody is video-recording you. Everybody has an expectation because of all the great guitarists that have been in MEGADETH in the past."

On his early guitar influences:

Broderick: "[When I got my first guitar], the first thing I did was spray it red and put black duct tape on it, because I wanted to be Eddie Van Halen. Then as soon as I heard Yngwie [Malmsteen], it was all over for me. Then I got into all the shredders like Jason Becker [who played with later MEGADETH guitarist Marty Friedman in CACOPHONY] and Paul Gilbert."

On how he and MEGADETH mainman Dave Mustaine have complementary styles:

Broderick: "Dave's always been self-taught and he always kind of gets what he wants out of his playing, but you can tell he fights for it all the way there. You can hear it in his playing and in the way he attacks the guitar. I came at it from a very different road, where I had a lot of different instructors and people showing me the path to get there. I've always been about trying to minimize effort to do what I'm trying to do — two different paths. I think it's so cool because [our styles] both translate into their own feel and their own kind of sound. When you put them together, they complement each other very well. He brings his own writing style into the mix, so when I look at that, I'm thinking, 'How do I write a counter melody or a counter harmony to that particular part?' It definitely makes it that much more interesting for me."

On how thrash metal has reached a new wave of fans in recent years:

Broderick: "It's cool to see it transcend so many generations. Knowing that it's been around since 1983, and it's got fans that are still with us from then, but also to see it resurge in the younger generation is really cool. It's awesome to see them appreciate thrash the way I do."

On MEGADETH's plans for the follow-up to 2011's "TH1RT3EN":

Broderick: "We're so busy right now. We're writing the new CD in our off time. And we're really not taking a lot of time off in the first place. We're just moving and grooving. We're demoing songs and starting to look at the direction we want it to go in."

Read the entire interview from Boise Weekly.