Interviews : Mastodon

Mastodon is an eclectic mix of soulful melody and punishing heaviness generated by four eccentric individuals from Atlanta, Georgia. Fortunately, I had a chance to talk to Brann Dailor, who my friend calls "the human tornado of drumming," just in time to discuss the wonderful birthing of a new Mastodon album.

First of all, you guys have the first video out which is getting played quite a bit on Headbanger's Ball. Did you have a good idea what it would end up looking like?

Sort of. We didn't really have anything to do with the direction of it. We went in to have a meeting with the director and we had all these crazy ideas and stuff we wanted to do and he was like "OK, well, here's the deal: you have this much money and we have this much time so I don't think we are gonna achieve your extreme vision for the video so let's do something that is more realistic that we can actually pull off in one day." That's pretty much how it went. I guess we had an idea, a rough outline, of what the video was gonna be about and it came out really cool you know for our first video. We went in there, lot of people worked hard on it, a lot of people worked for free, got a lot of favors so I think it came out really cool you know.

About Headbanger's Ball, I don't know if you've seen it or not, but I had to look at about 90 minutes of crap to finally catch the video the day it premiered. I know it's supposed to be a big deal with the show coming back but they hardly have anything good. What do you think about the show?

I think, you know, it's okay. There are a couple of good videos, but that's how it was in the old days, too, if I remember it correctly. I hated most of the show and I'd stay up really late for the Triple Thrash Threat. It was pretty varied like they played Britney Fox and Ugly Kid Joe and I was sitting there being thirteen years old like "This isn't metal! This isn't Headbanger's Ball, what's going on?!?" So, it's the same old thing I think. And I remember being pretty happy when they would play a Gothic Slam video or Laaz Rockit or something like that you know?

Maybe you guys should go up there and host the show sometime.

Yeah, there was talk about that happening in January so maybe it will happen. I hope so.

About the DVD, I haven't seen it yet but some people on the Mastodon message boards seemed a little disappointed with the quality. How do you think it turned out to be?

Think it turned out alright. I think it looks good, it could sound better. It's a free DVD, you know. We didn't really have time to sit and sift through all the slides stuff and we said we can use this one show and this Pro Shop we can use. We were on tour at the time we just said, "Yeah, okay, go ahead," so next time, hopefully we'll come up with better behind the scenes footage, because I'm an avid DVD collector, so I know how nice it is to have the goodies on there so we will hopefully come out with a more proper DVD.

Like an exclusive DVD?

I hope to film a lot when we start recording "Leviathan". Hopefully, we are gonna be filming a lot of the behind the scenes footage of that of us recording in a studio and we can include that in with the packaging but I'm not sure if that's gonna happen or not. I would like that to happen.

Did you just say "Leviathan"? Is that the name for the new album?

Yes.

Well, finally you guys are off the tours and taking some time off writing new material and all. How's the time off going for all the guys?

You know we have to back to work and work our jobs, work all day long, go to practice at night. We get up everyday early in the morning, work all day and go straight from work to the practice space and sit there and try to write. It's fun but it's a lot of work. Like my day is completely filled up since I don't get home till 2:00 or 3:00 in the morning, crash out and do it all over again. But we're working really hard to make sure that this next record is gonna be awesome. We have every single song done; we just need to play it, play it and play it so we get used to it, so after we get that recording in the record we don't come up with stuff that we wanna do.

I heard a couple of guys are taking a vacation. Going to Vegas?

I'm going to Vegas. I go there for work though, it's not a vacation at all. I don't like Vegas. You ever been there?

No, I haven't been there.

Terrible. I dunno, I don't like it all. It's just not my thing. I don't gamble, I just don't like it there.

Is there someone going to the Middle East?

Bill is going to India.

Oh yeah? You know, I'm from India myself.

Cool. Like you guy's music. I like weird late 80?s - early 90's Egyptian stuff. All the Bollywood stuff is pretty awesome, like the soundtracks and the 70's Bollywood action flicks. I don't see that many but the one that came out most recently that I like that I like a lot is Monsoon Wedding. The movie rules, I own it on DVD.

By the way, I saw the pictures of you guys on the Halloween float. I know Troy was a clown and Brent was a Hooters girl.

That was Troy's father's old clown costume from when he used to be a clown. Think his name was Jingles or something like that. Brent was dressed as a Hooters girl. Bill was dressed as an old man that just got out of the shower. I dunno about Bill's costume, it was a little like "Hey come on now, what's going on?" And I was dressed as a Turkish disco scumbag with just a little bit of fake cocaine on my nose. Just some 70?s sleazebag; Tony Clifton kind of thing.

The last time I talked to you at the Clutch concert you talked about the Moby Dick theme that guys are working on for the new album. How's that process coming along?

It's coming along great. Mainly it's gonna be the artwork though. A lot of songs are coming to shape like dealing with chasing the white whale basically. Kind of using that as a metaphor for why we pile into the van and drive all over the country and play for people.

By the information I have from the Mastodon message boards about the latest Athens show you guys played five new tunes. So, can I go through the list of the songs and have you tell me something about them?

Eh, sure. [laughs]

"Naked Burn"?

That one Brent sings on and I don't know how to explain it. [laughs] That one's all Brent, he wrote that whole song. He sings on it and he uses his beautiful singing voice instead of screaming. There's clean singing in it. It's awesome, it's one of my favorite songs that we have now. I get some definite chill bumps when we play it. It's really heavy and hard hitting but at the same time it's really calm, there's a nice calm part in the middle that I really like.

Kinda like "Trilobite"?

Sort of, but it's faster than "Trilobite", it's more of like a mid-tempo song, you know.

Next new song, "Iceland" or "Reykjavik"?

We are not sure what we are gonna call that song yet. But that's Bill's song, he wrote that. Starts off kinda Swedish sounding I think and then kinda switches tempos and goes into a Neurosis-y type thing. I like that one too.

Next is "Soundcheck"?

[laughs] That's the one we don't have name for yet. We played it at soundcheck so we called it that. That one is collaboration between Bill and I. It starts out kinda slow and then it's got some Melvins-y riffs going on in it and the last riffs are like a real old thrash riffs, like 80's thrash.

Next is "Brent's Song"?

Yeah, "Brent's Song", that one's like super prog rock in the beginning like King Crimson-y and it switches gears to be like kinda old Pain of Mind Neurosis or Tragedy style.

You guys been listening to Neurosis a lot?

Oh yeah, like punk beat pa-dum-pa-dum-pa-dum-pa-dum-pa-dah like that and then it gets really slow and super heavy at the end.

Next is "Iron Tusk"?

"Iron Tusk", I wrote that one.

That one seems to be the big hit of the show.

Oh yeah? We messed it up in the middle, I messed it up. First time we've played it live but that one is just fast and kinda melodic and at the end there is a nice big dance-y breakdown. In the middle there is a slow kinda stoner-ish part.

You guys have any faster songs?

That one is fast; it's got a slow part in the middle. And which other ones are fast? Most of the songs are pretty fast but let me think. "Blood and Thunder" is pretty fast, haven't played that live yet because we haven't finished it. "Hearts Alive" is slow, it's more like messy.

You guys play a lot of samples at shows which crack me up. Is Bill the one who manages the samples?

Yeah, he has the sampler thing on his side. Dr. Sampler we call him. All new samples on the next tour.

Who is the lyrical mastermind of the band?

I don't think there really is one as we all kind of chip in. But Brent and Troy write a lot of lyrics.

The lyrics really detach you from reality and give you feel of what the song is really doing.

Yeah, that's more of the point you know, for us anyways.

Is there a story behind Troy's World's Greatest Lover t-shirt?

I bought that for Troy. I work at the store and I order t-shirts like all day long and when that came in I ordered the World's Greatest Lover t-shirt. It was when he was single so you put the World?s Greatest Lover shirt on and girl walks up and says "prove it".

Common question, what albums are you listening to right now?

I bought the new Lamb of God record to check it out. I've been listening to Swans ? "Songs for the Blind" and the new Neurosis/Jarboe record. Mars Volta I've been listening to, Mars Volta is badass. Still listen to that Queens of the Stone Age; I just popped that back in and Peter Gabriel's "Up", still like that. But that's pretty much it.

Well, I'm about out of questions, but what future touring plans do you guys have when you go to Seattle?

We're going out with Clutch again. Then by ourselves on the west-coast.

Like in February and March?

January and February.

Someone told me that you guys are gonna play the whole new album when it's done straight through?

On the tour from the east-coast to the west-coast we're gonna play the entire album all the way through.

Well that's about it and thanks for doing this. And I hope I'll see you guys in Dallas.

No problem man and I'll see you in Dallas.

So there you have it, all the scoop on the new material that you can ask for. With a full US tour and a new album coming soon 2004 may as well be the year of the Mastodon. Keep checking www.mastodonrocks.com for updates and tourdates.