A Conversation with Brann Dailor of Mastodon – HuffPost 11.18.11
Mike Ragogna: Why, it’s Brann Dailor of Mastodon.
Brann Dailor: Hi, how are you?
MR: I’m fine, how are you?
BD: I’m good.
MR: What was the vision behind your latest album The Hunter?
BD: To be honest, I had a whole long lofty, psychedelic story that was written up for it but we ended up in the end going free form, and just topics ranging from meth heads running around the trees with chainsaws, and sexing up Barbarella in space. We sort of freed ourselves from the constraints of a concept album and decided to go a more natural and less stressful route with The Hunter.
MR: “Stargasm” was, of course, the Barbarella reference, right?
BD: Yeah, she looks good in that movie. The costume changes–I don’t know the exact amount, but it’s about 50 or 60 costume changes.
MR: So, you had an album called Crack the Skye. You know about the band, whose “Sky” is missing the “e”?
BD: The phrase actually comes from a poem: “Whips of lightning cracks the sky.” I’ve heard the band and I think my mom listened to them. Skye was also my sister’s name, so I put the “e” on there as a tribute to her.
MR: What is the creative process when you guys write songs? You’re the lyricist, right?
BD: Mainly, yeah. I write a lot of lyrics, Troy writes some lyrics, Brent writes some lyrics–whoever is motivated to write lyrics and has any kind of idea of a vocal melody. We go by sounds because we write all of the music first and shoehorn the lyrics and vocals wherever they can fit and build the songs like that. There’s a whole bunch of different ways it could happen, I could write a part or Brent could have an entire song written with three or four parts that he thinks could go together and make them work as a song or someone has one riff and they like it, but they don’t know where to go from there. It could happen a whole bunch of different ways.
MR: Can you go into your video for “Black Tongue” and that image you also used for the cover?
BD: That was AJ Fosik. That really beautiful, incredible, triple-jawed minotaur head, he made for the album cover. It definitely helps people appreciate it more when they saw how much work had gone into it. It almost looks like some sort of CGI image on the cover itself, when you realize it’s an actual thing. It’s pretty cool.
MR: While we’re also on the subject of videos, one of my favorites was “Deathbound,” with your disturbing take on Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood.
BD: If you want to get people to watch a music video these days, you’ve got to do something like that. You’ve got to kill a bunch of puppets, you know what I mean?
MR: That should be mandatory, every video should kill a bunch of puppets.
BD: Absolutely, I’m on board with that Utopian society.
MR: Speaking of Utopian society, are you looking at the Occupy Wall Street protests?
BD: Yeah, definitely. It’s hard to participate when we’re on a constantly moving vehicle.
MR: But you could occupy every city then.
BD: Yeah, we occupy clubs, and things like that, and backstage areas.
MR: (laughs) What is your take on the movement?
BD: It’s definitely something that’s been needed in the US for a long time. We definitely don’t protest enough, we’re just busy at the mall, at the Cinnabon, and the Orange Julius. I like the fact that some people are waking up and trying to make some kind of difference. I don’t know what it will do, but hopefully, something changes sometime soon.
MR: Okay, back to The Hunter. “Curl of the Burl” has an interesting first line about how you killed a man because he killed your goat. And by the way, not cool.
BD: The first line is about a man who owns a pet store. (laughs) Just kidding, it’s open to interpretation.
MR: A lot of this stuff is as much about putting things together in a fun way as it is about making any kind of statements, right?
BD: Absolutely, there’s no soapbox involved at all. It’s really about the music itself more than it is about the lyrics. With the lyrics, it’s more about phrases that seem interesting, or words that are strung together that sound good. They act as another instrument; I don’t claim to be a great lyricist. There are some good moments in there and then there are some questionable moments. Hey, you’ve got to write thirteen songs in less than a month, and they can’t all be winners. I tried my hardest.
MR: How would you classify the group’s music?
BD: I would love the band to be unclassifiable, but I would say we’re just a weirdo rock band. We’re all over the map. We have some ties to the metal community and we grew up playing heavy metal as teenagers. But we’re really into Frank Zappa and we’re really into music, so we want the fact that we have such an immense love for every genre to be able to come through in the music. For Mastodon to quench all of our musical thirsts. (laughs) I like that.
MR: How did Mastodon form?
BD: We’re kind of two halves–myself and Bill Keliher, the guitarist, we grew up in upstate New York in Rochester. We started playing in a band together in the early ’90s. Same with Troy and Brent, they started playing in the early ’90s in Atlanta. For a number of years, we slugged it out in upstate New York and finally joined this band called Today’s The Day, which was a step above that and touring a whole bunch. Today’s The Day wasn’t really our thing, we were filling in for a variable revolving door of musicians that had already joined this band previously. So, we really wanted something we could call our own. Bill’s girlfriend–and now wife–lived in work in Atlanta. She wanted to stay there and he wanted to be with her and I had never been to Atlanta before but I was assured it was a wonderful city. I took Bill’s word for it, went down there, and we met the other two guys within two weeks of Y2K. We went down there on January 1st, 2000, to celebrate Y2K. So, we went down there and met those guys, and everything came together really fast. We just all knew that what we had was something special and unique and that we wanted to pursue because that was what was making us happy, playing music together. Everything after that was gravy but we spent five years in our van playing in people’s basements and VFW halls and whoever would have us. It eventually led to this position we are in, and it was earned with a lot of hard work.
MR: This album was produced and mixed with Mike Elizondo.
BD: That’s right.
MR: He’s also worked with Dr. Dre, Eminem, and 50 Cent. How did The Hunter end up sounding the way it did with a producer more associated with hip-hop?
BD: Mike is a very musical person, he’s not just a hip-hop producer. Dr. Dre is a very smart individual and a very musical person, and if he’s going to pick someone to produce records, it’s not just about hip-hop. It’s about a likable song, it’s about a hook, and it’s about something that can connect with people. Whether it’s hip hop, metal, or hard rock, whatever it is, that element of the hook and likability to that song is the same thing. The ability to pick those moments out, that’s where the artistry lies.
MR: On the other hand, many producers, once they have signature sounds or approaches, put their signatures on recordings.
BD: I don’t think he necessarily does that. He likes Mastodon and he’s a fan of metal. He’s much like most musicians that you meet; they’re not sitting around listening to their genre of music specifically and nothing else. I’m a music nerd and Mike Elizondo is the same way. He’s done the hip-hop thing for a long time and he’s also done a bunch of other projects. He’s a big fan of music across the board. He’s an outstanding bass player; he played upright bass in orchestra and things like that. So, he was really the perfect person to make the record, he embraced our progressive side along with the heavier stuff and wanted to marry those two worlds together. We had done Crack The Skye with Brendan O’Brien and it really went in a more progressive direction because I think that was what Brendan was connecting with, which was fine with us because that’s where we wanted to go with that record.
MR: This album was recorded in just a few weeks, right?
BD: Yeah, it was about a month or so, a little less than a month.
MR: A different approach from how Mastedon recorded the other albums.
BD: The thing that was different was that we weren’t a hundred percent ready when we went into the studio and winged it on a few parts. We said, “Hey, we will deal with it when we get into the studio.” We did and it worked. We were under pressure, and it was self-inflicted pressure, basically. We had a tour booked June 1st, we were leaving to go for a month and a half, so we had all of this material written, it wasn’t completely fleshed out the way we like it to be. We like to work really hard in the practice space, before we go into the studio and know exactly what we’re going to do. We just didn’t have the time or ability to do that for this stuff, so we just threw caution to the wind and figured that these songs were pretty well developed, and we have a good road map for most of them.
MR: So, the experience of winging it in the studio was enjoyable?
BD: Yeah, that was awesome. I loved that aspect of it. It was different and it’s cool when you’re making a new album, it should be a new experience. It gets boring to do the same thing over and over again. It’s boring to be safe about it, you should throw some caution to the wind, it’s art and music and it should be fun, and there should be moments of spontaneity that are there to revive everybody.
MR: What advice do you have for new artists?
BD: It’s getting harder and harder to be a professional musician due to the circumstances around what that is. It’s hard to get a record deal, record companies aren’t signing; it’s tough. You shouldn’t be going into music to be a famous person, you should make music because you love making music. You should find some people that you can connect with and make music together that makes you, and the people in your band, happy. That’s pretty much all you should expect from it. Try hard to push yourself in any direction that you feel necessary, and work hard to be the best player you can be. Do it because you like it.
MR: What do you think is Mastodon’s biggest growth from when you first got together ’til now?
BD: We understand the business a little bit better, I would think. After all of these years, we’re a veteran touring band now. We’ve been on tour for twelve years, so we understand how to do that successfully, whereas in the beginning, it was a little easier to burn out. It was party all of the time back then; nowadays, it’s a little different. We take things with stride, and we all get along really well, which is pretty refreshing. I know some bands that despise each other, and it’s just sad.
MR: I was going to ask you guys how you get along?
BD: We get along really well and we hang out together and we get dinner together. It really is like a four-way marriage, we’re with each other constantly and it’s important to be friends. I wouldn’t want to be out here if I hated the guy on stage next to me. I couldn’t see doing it for the money, it wouldn’t be worth it. We all have a pretty strong bond, and if we ever get in any arguments, it usually gets squashed in a couple of hours. All we need is a good rock show to bring everybody back around.
MR: You’re touring now?
BD: Yeah.
MR: How long is the touring on for?
BD: It goes till December 2nd.
MR: Brann, I really appreciate your time, thank you so much.
BD: Thank you very much.
Transcribed by Theo Shier