MASTODON: New CD Is 'By Far The Biggest Departure From Record To Record That We've Done'

ARTISTdirect editor Rick Florino recently conducted an interview with MASTODON frontman Troy Sanders. An excerpt from the chat follows.

ARTISTdirect: Is the new record done?

Troy: We finished the bulk of it. All of the basic tracks are done. We finished them on the Monday before we flew out to Seattle to start this tour. We go home on August 23rd. Then we have 10 days booked in the studio to touch up things, add any bells and whistles, take away anything we don't want, mix it and then figure out the sequencing. We have until Labor Day to finish it. We're hoping that it comes out in January. It should see light at the beginning of 2009. On the one hand, we're like, "We wish it would get here quicker" and on the other, we're like, "It'll be here before we know it." It's still cool. We wanted to finish it before we left, but on the positive side, we have six weeks out here to listen to it, make sure everything is the way we want it and let it all sink in. Those six weeks give us that cushion to reflect on it, soak in the new songs and decide if there are any changes we want to make. At first we were really bummed, because we didn't finish it completely before we left, but I think it's all good.

ARTISTdirect: How would you describe the direction of the new material?

Troy: I think it's become more spacious, melodic and a bit more epic, in the grand scheme of things. Some of the guitar parts really space out. We paid a lot of attention to the vocal patterns. We really tried to become more melodic with the vocals, making them more intertwined with the songs. It's by far the biggest departure from record to record that we've done. A lot of the stuff on this record doesn't quite sound like us. You know it's us, because it's obvious that it is when you hear it. But on first listen, you don't know what the hell's going on. For me, the biggest departure was the vocal style that we applied to every song on the album. The vocal style is very much in tune with the music itself. We created this more unified, melodic record. I think that's what I'm most proud about. As far as songwriting goes, I think it's the coolest stuff we've ever done. I think it's good when you can actually say that on every record and really believe it. There are a couple songs that are straight-to-the-point, meat-and-potatoes rock and roll. Then there are a lot of songs that are very lengthy and epic-sounding. It's quite a journey. All four of us are really into this new record collectively — more than any other record before.

ARTISTdirect: Did you record in Atlanta?

Troy: Yeah, we recorded in a place called Southern Tracks. We're working with Brendan O'Brien, and he's amazing. He's done some great stuff with BRUCE SPRINGSTEEN, AC/DC and PEARL JAM. We're respectful of his whole discography. As a person, he's hilarious and great to work with. We were super stoked to meet up with him. We were even happier to record in Atlanta where we could go home every night and not feel like we're on tour by recording in some other city. We recorded the last two records in Seattle. They ended up great. We were in the studio all day, but then we were in some crappy hotel all night, so it felt like a tour. We're on tour enough already, so we wanted to record at home. It was very cool, and it made a big difference. We were less tired and less stressed. Overall, we were a bunch of jolly dudes recording this record, as opposed to some of the previous ones.

Read the entire interview at www.artistdirect.com.

Video footage of MASTODON performing at the Rockstar Energy Mayhem festival on July 18, 2008 in Phoenix, Arizona can be viewed below (courtesy of At Large Online).