MASTODON Drummer Discusses Songwriting Process

MidWest Excess recently conducted an interview with drummer Brann Dailor of the Atlanta progressive metal band MASTODON. An excerpt from the chat follows below.

MidWest Excess: When it comes to songwriting, every instrument somehow has room to breathe while there's a lot going on musically. You never seem to drop a boring "4 on the floor" beat. How do you approach writing drum parts amidst every that's going on in your music?

Brann: I don't know. I guess I'm more of a compositional drummer. I kind of tend to follow the guitar lines a lot. Weave in and out of those. I'm not really sure. I just kind of do what I think sounds right. I never took any lessons; I wasn't properly trained in how to do that, but I think early on playing drums I had a lot of friends who were guitar players who would get dropped off at my house and we'd go in my basement and play. At the time there was a few of those guitar players who were more technical, and trying to outdo themselves with as many notes as they could play. So, not knowing that I was supposed to be following the bass player, I would just follow along with the guitar. So when the guitar went "biddle-diddle-diddle-diddle-diddle-dit," I went "fadda-dadda-dadda-dadda-dadda-dat." So I think that's kind of where that came from…my style (laughs). If I have one.

MidWest Excess: In the album credits you list "All music and lyrics by MASTODON." When you're doing big, concept driven stuff like you guys do, do you have a lot of input as drummer, lyrically and story-wise?

Brann: I do everything I can to contribute. I write a lot of lyrics. I've written more lyrics as time has gone on. I think in the beginning it was more the guys singing that were writing all the lyrics, but the songs have gotten progressively more in depth lyrically, so, everybody that can chip in is…basically it's whoever's motivated to write something. If you're up to it and you feel like you have something to say, then put it down on paper. If you have a vocal melody idea…all ideas are welcome with us. So we try to get everybody in the band's input so it's as much owned by everybody, you know what I mean, musically and lyrically and story-wise as possible. So I try to be as involved as possible. I write guitar riffs and write songs. Try to get my songs in there. But, at the end of it, it's whatever we feel as a band is going to be the best record.

MidWest Excess: That kind of answered my next question. Is it tough when there's so much musically and story-wise is, it easy or hard to keep that whole process democratic? Or do you find yourself like, "I really want the 'Sleeping Giant' in there?"

Brann: (laughs) No. I mean, when we start traveling down a road which would be a song, we decide right off the bat if it's something to go for. If there's a part that's being written and we're all kind of going down that road we're going to finish that song. We're going to get that song to where it needs to be no matter how long it takes. So nothing gets left behind because we leave it behind immediately if it's not good enough. We kind of know instantly if a riff is good enough or not. Or maybe it'll take a week. But it's pretty soon that if a riff needs to get the boot it's going to get the boot pretty early, you know? So, as far as arguments are concerned, of course you're going to have arguments. It's four guys that are in a room together kind of bashing it out, but I think we've really learned kind of how to control that. You don't want to hurt anybody's feelings but you want to be brutal about the music. There's going to be little tiffs here and there, but we've over the years kind of learned how to control all that. Everybody knows each others boundaries. The last record there really wasn't…it's nice to know when you should leave the room. Just walk away from a certain situation because it might be volatile or whatever. We've been together for nine years so we pretty much know when that's going to happen; when it's time to just leave the room and be like, "You know what?! We'll finish this tomorrow." When you're in there 5 or 6 hours a day putting stuff together, playing it over and over…

Read the entire interview from MidWest Excess.