Their biggest album, their longest tour yet. Mastodon really hit their prog stride with 2009’s Crack The Skye, emulating their 70s heroes with an astro-political conceptual masterpiece. In 2010 Prog sat down with the men from Atlanta to look back on it all…
It may all seem a little odd now, but when Mastodon started out in 1999, most people believed they were a metal band – nothing more. It was only when the conceptual Leviathan album was released in 2004 that everyone noticed the fact that here were a band who actually had a lot more sophistication and complexity to their musical aspirations than could be accounted for by any abiding interest in metal. And this is a point that Brann Dailor, the band’s drummer, is keen to make at once.
“For us, the most important era in music – the one that really inspired what we do – was the early 70s. You look back at what was going on then, and it was all about bands experimenting, taking risks, without thinking about the commercial problems they might be causing for themselves. It was the artistry that mattered.”
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And when Dailor names the specific bands from those days to whom Mastodon feel most associated, then you’ll appreciate that we are talking here about a progressive act who happen to have metallic elements, rather than a metal band who’ve indulged other types of music.
“We embrace the spirit of early 70s prog as being the way that you should always approach music. When you listen to the fantastic albums made back then by King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd... we’ve wholeheartedly taken on their ethos. Because they taught us that you didn’t have to dumb anything down to make your point. On the contrary, it was – and is – important to stick to what you believe in.”
Dailor should know what he’s talking about, as it’s mainly down to him that Mastodon took their current musical path. It was the drummer who first came up with the idea of the Atlanta-based quartet actually doing concept albums.
“I plead guilty to that, which means you either buy me a drink, or poison me, depending on whether you feel it’s something Mastodon should be doing,” laughs Dailor, clearly comfortable with his role in the way things have developed. “I was reading Moby-Dick, when it struck me that it could make a good storyline for a concept album, and that’s how Leviathan happened. Since then, we're just far happier working within a conceptual idea.
However, what Dailor doesn’t mention until pressed by Prog is that he is also the man charged with coming up with the initial concepts the band then turn into albums, a role he’s happy to fulfill.
“I’m the one who has the first thoughts along those lines. I can get inspiration from almost anywhere, but what I might put forward to the others [guitarist/vocalist Brent Hinds, guitarist Bill Kelliher and bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders] isn’t anywhere close to the final story. All of us play around with the ideas, until we work them into a shape that makes some sort of sense to us. I always try to ensure that what I first propose is something I know the others would appreciate: after all this time, I know them well enough to reject anything I believe they’d hate without even thinking.”
Dailor has already come up with the basic concept for the band’s next album, the successor to 2009’s Crack The Skye. And Mastodon are already working on the songs to bring this fresh story to life.
“I don’t want to give away too much as this stage, but like everything we’ve done so far it is partly mythological in structure. Does it have anything to do with Crack The Skye? To some extent there is a connection, but it is a loose one.”
Dailor says that the concept has undergone quite a process of rewrite since he first proposed it, but now the band are getting the music together. They hope to be in the studio by the start of May, recording what could prove to be their biggest challenge to date.
“It’s what keeps us going, the opportunity to go further than we’ve ever done. And this time there’s a lot to live up to. The music is still heavy in parts – that’ll never disappear – but there’s also a groove that I’d describe as being close to mid-70s Led Zeppelin.”
At the time of writing the band have yet to make a decision on the producer they’ll use this time, with Dailor admitting there are a few names in the frame. And the album title is also up in the air.
“That’s nothing unusual for us. That’s always a last-minute decision, There are a few possibilities that we’re considering, but what the rest of the guys don’t know is that I have a title I think will work brilliantly – the only thing is that I haven’t told any of them yet.”
Dailor hopes that the record will be out late summer, and is more than happy with the commitment made to Mastodon by current label Warner Bros.
“This is the last album we owe them under the current agreement, but I hope they decide we’re worth picking up for a contract extension. We’ve enjoyed working closely with them. And it’s not their fault we haven’t had huge sales. It’s the times we live in. Someone recently told me that if you took into account all the illegal downloading that goes on, then the 350,000 sales we had with Crack The Skye probably equates to over a million copies in earlier days. How do I feel about it? It’s hard to have an opinion, because that’s going to change nothing. I’m happy we have a career.”
Right now, the band are also promoting their first official live release. The CD/DVD Live At The Aragon was filmed and recorded at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago on October 19, 2009. The centrepiece is unquestionably a performance of Crack The Skye in its entirety, something that became such a crucial part of the band’s live set on their last tour. Dailor is glad that they’ve been able to offer such a memento of a significant part of their development.
“That’s the reason we wanted to put this out. It was the biggest live production Mastodon have mounted so far, and we were determined to capture this. We had a 10-camera shoot in Chicago, which, as you can imagine, was very stressful. But what you’ll see and hear tells you where we were back then. I think it will be particularly interesting for anyone who failed to see us on that tour. It was an experience when I felt we truly came of age.”
However, there is one disappointment for the band as far as Crack The Skye is concerned. Such was the visual potential and breadth of the storyline – taking in Czarist Russia, astral and time travel, wormholes and religious beliefs – that there was a hope this would be turned into a movie in its own right. That’s a plan which the band held onto for so long. Now, though, Dailor admits they’ve had to let such ambitions drift away, to become part of another dimension that already houses so many other dashed dreams.
“It’s something we really did wanna do, but in the end the cost was just against us. We spent all the budget we had on getting the clips done which were used as backdrops for the live shows – and I think that was money well spent. Right now, the only hope we’d have is if the four of us took time out to write a treatment for the proposed film, and then one of us gets all done up in business clothes and tries to sell the idea to a movie studio in Hollywood. It might work, but that’s not what we’re about at all. So we’ll put this one down as the Mastodon ambition which got away.”
Although the band have their new album right at the core of plans for the coming months, there are also a series of summer shows coming up, including an appearance at the Sonisphere Festival at Knebworth Park on July 10.
“Typical Mastodon – we’ll get settled into the studio working on the new material, and then will have to take a break to go into rehearsals for the live dates. But, hey, we love playing onstage.”
Not only will these dates mark the official end of the Crack The Skye tour, but there’s just a possibility that the band will use these gigs as an opportunity to debut at least one new song.
“We might do that. The problem is that every time we’ve tried this sort of thing before it’s gone so wrong. We’d have to be really careful to choose the right sort of track. In all honesty, we might chicken out and avoid any new material for those performances.”
Mastodon are gearing up for a very busy end of 2011, with 2012 likely to be even crazier.
“I just love the fact that each year seems more full on than the previous one. Someone, somewhere always appears to have plans for us!”
