On July 10th, ALTER BRIDGE and CREED guitarist/songwriter Mark Tremonti will release his debut solo disc, All I Was, under the moniker TREMONTI.

Joe Bosso of MusicRadar.com recently caught up with Mark for a Q&A; session, an excerpt follows:

What was the impetus for doing a solo record? You didn't have enough to do with your other bands?

"I spend a lot of time juggling all the ideas that I have floating around. The more I write, the more ideas I seem to have and they build up. I realized that a lot of these things would never get used, because I write faster than I make records. In two years I write a lot more material than can go on one album.

I saw that I had a three-month window when Myles (Kennedy) was going out with SLASH, and Scott Stapp was touring and doing a solo record, so I figured it'd be a perfect time to get a couple of buddies together and do something. I decided to concentrate on the ideas that I had played for the other guys over the years that would never stick but that I just loved. It would be a heavier kind of record. I wanted to bring out my roots on this one."

And by roots, you mean speed metal?

"That's right. When I was growing up, METALLICA were the first band I really loved and made me want to get into music. I was into speed metal for years. TESTAMENT, ANTHRAX, DEATH ANGEL, EXODUS, MEGADETH – the whole '80s speed-metal scene. That's the music I loved, and it's how I developed my rhythm guitar playing. I feel that's one of my strengths – rhythm guitar.

A lot of the time, some of the stuff I write is too over-the-top for Creed or Alter Bridge. When we first got together with Creed, they would poke fun at me for being too metal. [laughs] Scott would sing a bit like Bono or Jim Morrison, and I'd be playing a SLAYER kind of riff – it just wouldn't fit. So, over the years, I kind of aimed my playing down, but I still kept these other riffs. The solo album was the perfect opportunity for me to use all that stuff that didn't work with Creed or Alter Bridge."

To read the interview in its entirety, click here.

The tracklisting for All I Was is as follows:

'Leave It Alone'

'So You’re Afraid'

'Wish You Well'

'Brains'

'The Things I’ve Seen'

'You Waste Your Time'

'New Way Out'

'Giving Up'

'Proof'

'All I Was'

'Doesn’t Matter'

'Decay'

A preview of 'Brains' can be heard below: