Mastodon Might Make Two New Albums During Pandemic
Mastodon have been in the studio in recent weeks recording the follow-up to Emperor of Sand (2017) at their new, very own recording studio after a busy year of writing. And if the pandemic drags on for much longer they might have two albums to show for it.
Drummer/vocalist Brann Dailor previously revealed the band has about 30 songs written that he said could easily be separated into two separate albums, one of “doom” tracks and one full of faster “rippers.” Now, in a new chat with Full Metal Jackie, he says they might actually do just that.
Speaking of the abundance of new material the band has written, he explained:
“It is a good problem to have. It’s also a little bit stressful because I feel we have had too much time off. Like a lot of groups, we have had too much time and we’re constantly working. We had the shut down for a couple of months, but we’re back at it.
“I guess it’s a good thing we’re still wanting to come down here and wanting to work on our 20-year-old project that we have been calling Mastodon. It’s exciting to me because every time you go to approach writing new stuff, you say, ‘Well, when is this well going to dry up? When are we going to go looking and can’t find it anymore?’
“That is always a fear that a lot of musicians and artists go through.
“Sometimes you do have a mild case of writer’s block or maybe you have a severe case of writer’s block. That isn’t the case with us, luckily. We have an abundance of material and a lot of really great things. The hardest part is going to be picking the ones that go on the actual album because there are too many songs at this point. We want to put maybe 10-12 songs on the album and we have like 30.”
He added of the possibility of releasing two albums back-to-back:
“That’s a lot. That’s too much [laughs] but I think it is coming into focus now. The ones that we are wanting to play more than the other ones, those are the ones that are going to make it. But even with the ones we are really, really digging there are still too many of those — there are like 20 of those.
“There is always room for new ideas too. We were jamming the other day and we had like 30 songs we could be running through and we started writing something brand new. It’s like, “STOP!” …but don’t stop as well.
“As much as I think it’s kind of not the best to have one in the chamber, I don’t necessarily think it’s great for us to release a double album. I don’t see the problem recording a full length album and then because of the fact that we are not going to be able to go on tour immediately, record another full length album not far after.
“I think that that’s a possibility that we will have an abundance of music and we will have an abundance of stuff that we really dig that we can release to the public while we are still in this muck.”
Two Mastodon albums in the same year would be quite a treat, but I’m willing to bet they’ll end up opting to go the more traditional way once they’ve had some time to think about it and management and the label get involved. Maybe all those extra songs will be shelved, maybe some will end up on a subsequent EP… or maybe we really will get two albums on the heels of one another. Who knows! The post-pandemic possibilities are endless.
