MASTODON Drummer: 'I'm Always Surprised When Somebody Buys Our Records'

April 22, 2012

Darryl Smyers of the Dallas Observer recently conducted an interview with drummer Brann Dailor of Atlanta progressive metallers MASTODON. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Dallas Observer: Oftentimes, your music is described as sludge metal, but your newest effort, "The Hunter", doesn't fit that description. Do you agree?

Brann: Yes, there are all sorts of silly ways that people label bands. It's often about each person's musical vocabulary. Some people just throw labels out there so they can have something to write, so that they can try to explain what something sounds like. I don't feel like the new album is that sludgy, but it might have a little of that in there. I try not to label it. I just play it. But I understand the need people have to label bands, to put it somewhere.

Dallas Observer: When "The Hunter" came out, it debuted at number ten on Billboard. Were you surprised?

Brann: Sure, I'm always surprised when somebody buys our records. You know what I mean? I was excited about it. Ten is a good number. It's cool that people still buy records. Our fans are actually committed to buying the music. We are lucky in that regard. But we wanted to move away from making another concept record, so we tried to write the best collection of songs we could and just put them on one album. I guess fans like that idea.

Dallas Observer: Why do metal bands love concept albums?

Brann: I don't know. Maybe it's folks like KING DIAMOND and IRON MAIDEN. Those are two of my favorite bands. For me, it all started with those two and then I started getting into the progressive stuff, even YES' "Close To The Edge".That style has always appealed to me, to my inner nerd.

Read the entire interview from Dallas Observer.

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