{"id":4312,"date":"2011-11-13T22:32:14","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T05:32:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=4312"},"modified":"2011-11-28T15:02:17","modified_gmt":"2011-11-28T22:02:17","slug":"mastodon-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/11\/mastodon-3\/","title":{"rendered":"MASTODON"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>MASTODON<\/h2>\n

Their toughest task yet: reinventing heavy metal on deadline<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Longtime fans may be surprised by some new twists on heavy-metal giant Mastodon\u2019s latest, The Hunter<\/em>. There\u2019s the absence of the group\u2019s usual concept-album narrative, and the presence of producer Mike Elizondo\u2014who has worked with artists ranging from Dr. Dre to Carrie Underwood, but has very little hard rock on his r\u00e9sum\u00e9. Then again, fans might also be surprised to find Mastodon\u2019s fearsomely tattooed guitar slayer Bill Kelliher relaxing at an Atlanta park with his youngest son, which is just where we caught up with him. \u201cI\u2019m the rock \u2019n\u2019 roll dad,\u201d he says with a chuckle. \u201cOnstage kicking butt, then at home with the kids.\u201d<\/p>\n

How did The Hunter <\/em>begin? <\/strong><\/p>\n

We were told [in January] that if we wanted to get a record out this year we\u2019d better get it recorded by June 1. We already had a lot of ideas stored up from the Alice in Chains tour we did a year ago. I always bring my Pro Tools on my laptop. Everybody\u2019s got their cellphones out, recording riffs they think sound interesting. And I commissioned a recording studio to be built in our practice space\u2014just a room for demos. That way when the urge comes, when the feeling is there, we\u2019ll hit record. In early spring we dumped out a lot of the riffs we had and started thinking about a record.<\/p>\n

What led you to Mike Elizondo? <\/strong><\/p>\n

Mike had come to visit us in Atlanta, and he was so exciting and excitable. We invited him to our little mock studio to talk about ideas, and he was genuinely interested in the band. He listened to what we had to say and connected with us on a personal level. He seemed like the guy to do it. Finding a good producer is like finding a good friend.<\/p>\n

Even one not known for metal? <\/strong><\/p>\n

If you\u2019re a good producer, you\u2019re a good producer. You\u2019re going to make a band sound like it wants to sound. Why would Mike Elizondo want to make us sound like a hip-hop band?<\/p>\n

How did you divvy up writing? <\/strong><\/p>\n

This record was like, \u201cEverybody throw what you\u2019ve got in the pile right now. We\u2019ve got to get it down so it can get out this year.\u201d We went back to basics. When we first got together as a band it was [drummer] Brann [Dailor] and myself\u2014we\u2019d been playing together since the early \u201990s and had written some of the very first Mastodon songs before we met [guitarist] Brent [Hinds] and [bassist] Troy [Sanders]. They were in the same situation, so Brann and I were like, \u201cHey, we\u2019ve all got these songs, let\u2019s put them together and make a record.\u201d The end result is what defines Mastodon. Everybody writes and we let the songs\u00a0speak for themselves.<\/p>\n

Why no concept? <\/strong><\/p>\n

The pressure was on for us to do that: \u201cOh, they\u2019re Mastodon, they do concepts, they have to live up to that.\u201d We were like, \u201cYou know what? Let\u2019s just write a record. We don\u2019t need a concept. Let\u2019s let it be fun again and be free to write what we want to write, for the sake of being a band. Let\u2019s be spontaneous.\u201d Songs were coming together left and right. Toward the end Brann said, \u201cI\u2019ve got a concept for the record.\u201d It was intricate and really amazing\u2014but suddenly we were finishing up the record and it was sounding great, so we scrapped the idea. But maybe we\u2019ll save that crazy concept\u00a0for the next record.<\/p>\n

\u2013Chris Neal<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2018Everybody writes and we let the songs speak for themselves. That\u2019s what defines Mastodon.\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n


\n<\/strong><\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n

<\/strong> <\/strong> <\/strong> <\/strong> <\/strong> <\/strong> <\/strong> <\/strong> <\/strong><\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MASTODON Their toughest task yet: reinventing heavy metal on deadline Longtime fans may be surprised by some new twists on heavy-metal giant Mastodon\u2019s latest, The Hunter. There\u2019s the absence of the group\u2019s usual concept-album narrative, and the presence of producer Mike Elizondo\u2014who has worked with artists ranging from Dr. Dre to Carrie Underwood, but has […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[2820,2817,2818,1863,970,2615,2819],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4312"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4312"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4312\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4316,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4312\/revisions\/4316"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4312"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4312"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4312"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}