MASTODON's TROY SANDERS: 'I'm Surrounded By A Group Of Dudes That Strive On A Positive Vibe'

Radio Metal recently conducted an interview with bassist/singer Troy Sanders of Atlanta progressive metallers MASTODON. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Radio Metal: Do you think that "The Hunter" would have been a different album if "Crack The Skye" had not been that successful?

Troy Sanders: No, we didn't think anything of "Crack The Skye" when this music was being created. We definitely didn't try to create anything to cater to a certain type of crowd, or a certain type of fan. We didn't try to please our old-school fans, we weren't trying to please new fans. This is just the stuff that we do. Making the four of us happy while creating and piecing together meticulously all these riffs and all these songs, and ultimately making a whole album, that's all we have in our control. We don't let any success of anything in our past come into play when it comes to creating something new. We have this path that we're on and have been on, and we're travelling forward. We just try to continually do that.

Radio Metal: You're a very creative band; your music can be complicated, very simple, very aggressive or very melodic. Even your way of screaming is original. Do you think that you are a band that's totally free artistically?

Troy Sanders: Yes, we are. And I don't think we would have it any other way. That free-spirited vibe from the four of us, it's been there since the day we formed the band. It still is that way to this day. Even in 2005, when we signed over to Warner Brothers, it was not only verbally spoken, but also in writing, than we must maintain 100% creative control.

Radio Metal: About this new album, Brent Hinds said, "Kids are going to get in trouble to this album. They're going to break speakers, pop springs on their beds and get drunk and nude in public." Did you already try to make kids listen to this album?

Troy Sanders: That's the vibe we hope people get when they're listening to it! We feel, especially coming off the "Crack The Skye" record, that this one brings a fresh breath of energy back into the band, in a very positive way. With upbeat songs like "Blasteroid", and real movers and shakers such as "Spectrelight", we hope it kind of rejuvenates the fans that we already have, and the new ones that hopefully will find us. Yeah, we want people to jump up and down and break something! We want to pass that good energy that we feel on to anyone that will listen.

Radio Metal: Was this a way to make fun of all the meaningless press releases that musicians do on Blabbermouth?

Troy Sanders: No. We're quite positive people, and we don't ever care to talk negatively about anything. Anything with negative energy is just a bum out, in my opinion. I'm surrounded by a group of dudes that strive on a positive vibe. That's a good thing, and I'm glad that I'm surrounded by a group of friends like that.

Read the entire interview from Radio Metal.