MASTODON Drummer Talks About Upcoming Album

Sweden's Metalshrine recently conducted an interview with drummer Brann Dailor of Atlanta progressive metallers MASTODON. A few excerpts from the chat follow below.

Metalshrine: What's it like playing as a trio? Did you have to work everything out and rearrange stuff?

Brann Dailor: Not really. We played the first shows as a trio and it was weird and we didn't have Bill's rig hooked up on that side and you know, Brent's the rock guy and Bill's a metal guy so we needed to find out where that big heavy sound was gonna come from, so we just hooked up Bill's rig over there and started running two rigs. Brent's got like a 12-string, which makes a fuller sound. Brent's the only one who's had to make the major adjustments. I think myself and Troy are just doing the same thing we always do. We try to rock a little bit harder and we brought everything in a little bit tighter, but I think we've got it down at the moment.

Metalshrine: Any songs you had to cut because it didn't work out or are you playing the same set?

Brann Dailor: We're pretty much playing the same set that we would. We only get like 30 minutes, so that's not that many songs.

Metalshrine: The new album then? I've only heard it once at Warner Records, but how did you guys hook up with Brendan O'Brien?

Brann Dailor: Through MySpace (laughs). Facebook... No, it was really through Bruce Springsteen, I guess. We've been friends with Max Weinberg for a while through his son. His son is like thirteen years old and is a big music fan and he's been coming out to see our shows. His dad would take him, so his dad kind of got into it as well, watching all the crazy metal drummers and stuff and through Max, this kid could meet any rock star he wanted to. "Meet Danny from TOOL! Meet Joey from SLIPKNOT!" You know what I mean?! So over the years we've maintained a friendship with him and his father and we knew who Brendan O'Brien was, but we weren't sure... we kind of felt like our band was small potatoes compared to his resume and the list of people he's worked with. "Is he even going to be interested in our demos?", but he ended up being one of the only guys that really came back and went "I love this stuff and I really want to help you guys work on it!" We were supposed to do the record with Rich Costey originally and it didn't work out because... I guess he's a wanted man because he didn't have any time for us and we were ready to record in June and he couldn't do anything until September/October. "If we sit on this material for that long and not record it, our band will break up." We were like "Listen dude! We just need someone to push record and make it sound awesome!" The stars aligned, I don't know what happened, but all of a sudden a week later we were in the studio and the record was almost done. It really came together great.

Metalshrine: Did he bring anything music wise?

Brann Dailor: Yeah, definitely! He was able to push us and without it being forced. He was able to make us tap into where we wanted to go, but we never knew how to get there before, I guess. He just elevated the band, I think. It sounds corny, bu the made us feel good about ourselves as players and he was like "Do that, that's great!" "Really?" You know what I mean?! He gave everybody good confidence and good vibes. We needed somebody like that at this moment in time for our band. It just really worked out great. He just happened to be working in Atlanta at an awesome studio that I had no idea was there. It's like four minutes from my house and I drive passed it every single day. I had no idea. Bruce Springsteen was down there making records at Southern Tracks. It was just awesome to wake up in the morning in my bed, make coffee and then roll over to the studio. Play a track, "Cool, sounds great! See you guys later!" It was awesome!

Metalshrine: Who came up with the title of the album?

Brann Dailor: Me.

Metalshrine: I read that it's based on the Russian tsar family.

Brann Dailor: It's a multidimensional story. It starts on planet earth, it deals with astral travel, goes to outer space, you get lost and you go on into a wormhole and you start exploring all sorts of Stephen Hawkings theroies, space continium and all that, you go into the spirit realm, you get sucked into another wormhole that brings you into tsaric russia and you get put inside Rasputin's body and Rasputin is assassinated and you fly off through the crack in the skye and back through outer space into the devil's dominion, passed him, back into earth and into your body.

Metalshrine: Wow! How do you come up with a story like that?

Brann Dailor: I don't know, man. Did a lot of acid as a teenager! (laughs) The story starts with a seed and it grows. It's all real natural and it all kind of comes together. We like it. We like concept albums and we like being able to have a story that is tangible and something to look at, to hold and be able to immerse the listener. I think it's like that and I think our fans expect that from us and I think if we just did a record with songs that had nothing to do with themselves, it would be like "What happened? You couldn't think of a story?"

Metalshrine: It sounded great! I've only heard it once and it was a bit more of a '70s vibe to it and more mellow and laidback.

Brann Dailor: Yeah, definitely. Brent wrote the majority of the music that's on it and he suffered a traumatic head wound in Las Vegas and basically, he needed to sit home and not really do much, because he had like vertigo after it. He would just basically get up in the morning, go to his couch in his boxer shorts and play acoustic guitar and write all this crazy stuff. I think he was feeling pretty fragile and the band was kind of perservering going down to practise space every day and just being like "Ok, I don't know what's going on?" and for the first time we felt kind of shaky, but it was like "Let's just come down here every day, no matter what and just sit down here and hang out, if anything. From this time to this time and let's have a schedule and let's just be here and write." And we just wrote and wrote and wrote. It is more laidback and spaced out and psychedelic, but that's kind of where Brent was going. I don't think you can get up in the morning and go out in your boxer shorts, sit down with an acoustic guitar and write really aggressive, crazy music. But I think there is a deeper, darker thing going on with it. When I get done listening to it, I feel like I've watched some heavy movie. A movie hangover from it. "Fuck, what happened dude?" (laughs)

Read the entire interview from Metalshrine.