FEIST: 'It's A Wet Dream' To Have MASTODON Cover One Of My Songs

Atlanta progressive metallers MASTODON will release a split seven-inch single with Canadian singer-songwriter Feist to celebrate Record Store Day on April 21. This very exclusive and highly anticipated pressing features MASTODON covering the Feist song "A Commotion", while Feist covers MASTODON's "Black Tongue".

"It's a wet dream to have MASTODON take one of my songs and put it into their massive machine," Feist tells RollingStone.com.

"We didn't tell her what to do, and she didn't tell us what to do," says MASTODON guitarist Bill Kelliher. "'A Commotion' just kind of stuck out to me. I could hear the opening riff, a single A-note."

Feist tells RollingStone.com that she based her decision on which MASTODON song to cover by finding a track whose lyrics resonated with her the most. "MASTODON fans would probably be disappointed to know that I actually didn't know MASTODON very well," She says. "I actually went onto one of those lyric websites, and I scrolled through 50 songs and just narrowed it down to the ones I thought I could wrap myself around the words. 'Black Tongue' is speaking in my kind of elemental language — about diamond and earth and sky. It's all just in a language that I already sort of speak lyrically. It was pretty easy to climb into that one."

In a recent interview with Sweden's Metalshrine, MASTODON drummer Brann Dailor explained how the single idea came about. "We did [the BBC television show 'Later... With Jools Holland'], and right after we got off stage, we went backstage and and we were in the hallway with [Feist], and she was talking to [MASTODON vocalist/guitarist] Brent [Hinds]. They were involved in a conversation and were just like, 'Yeah, let's do that! We should do it for Record Store Day!' Something out of left field and something we'd like to be involved with more of."

He added, "It's fun for us. I mean, most times we end up doing covers of bands that are already sort of heavy or that is already in that vein, like the MELVINS, THIN LIZZY, METALLICA, you know what I mean? What are you gonna do to those songs to make them your own? It's kinda difficult and especially with stuff like METALLICA or the MELVINS where we're so kinda familiar and in love with the versions that METALLICA and the MELVINS and THIN LIZZY have created, you wanna make it sound like theirs because that's what you're so used to hearing. You don't really wanna mess with it. With Feist, it's something that we could really play with and do something different with."

The cover artwork for the MASTODON and Feist split seven-inch single can be seen below.

About Record Store Day: Record Store Day is managed by the Music Monitor Network and is organized in partnership with the Alliance Of Independent Media Stores (AIMS),the Coalition Of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) and celebrates the culture of independent record stores by playing host to in-store events/performances, signings and special product releases on a global scale.

Record Store Day takes place annually on the third Saturday of April.