Mastodon’s Brann Dailor Names His Favorite Song Contribution

It may come as no surprise to you that Brann Dailor counts “Blood and Thunder” as one of his favorite song contributions to Mastodon, as that has become one of their most beloved tracks over the years, but Full Metal Jackie also asked him about his favorite contribution from other band members that he’s come to appreciate and that choice wasn’t as obvious.

Dailor reflected on what “Hearts Alive” off the Leviathan album that they are revisiting on tour this summer meant to him, with the drummer explaining how key it was in their evolution. “It was like our first attempt at a big epic and written all by Brent [Hinds],” recalled the drummer, who says the track gives everyone some spotlight moments, encapsulated a lot of the album’s themes and artwork and has just become something great to play.

“As I’m playing the drums to it, I can really kind of close my eyes and drift off to another place, which is always a thing that, as a musician, that we’re sort of chasing,” says Dailor.

That’s just one of the revelations from Dailor as the drummer reflects on the Leviathan era, the band’s celebratory “Ashes of Leviathan” tour this summer with Lamb of God and the chemistry that has made Mastodon one of metal’s most revered acts. Plus, Brann gives us an update on what’s next for Mastodon after the “Ashes of Leviathan” trek.

Check out the chat below.

This week, we welcome Mastodon’s Brann Dailor back to the show. Mastodon are out this summer with Lamb of God on the “Ashes of Leviathan” tour. By the way, great name. Whoever decided that those two titles work together, like, I would love to have seen the whiteboard in that meeting. It was probably really fun.

I mean, I think it was pretty. It was pretty obvious, you know.

I mean it could have been “Leviathan Ashes.” It could have been “Leviathan of the Wake.” I mean, it could have been other things, but this flow …

Yeah. Yeah, I think it’s probably like they had all the refrigerator magnets with the words that were available and just kind of moved them around until it sounded good.

Fun exercise. So revisiting the Leviathan album’s 20th anniversary and Brann, Mastodon were at a very different place in their career. When you were working on Leviathan, what do you remember about that period of time that stands out to you, and how did you envision that album being received? And also, did you have that hunch that you were putting together something special as it was coming together?

For me, it feels like it was just a couple days ago, to be honest. But I will say, upon proper reexamination of that time period, we very much had our foot in the underground scene. Remission had been out for about a year and a half.

We had songs that ended up on Leviathan that were sort of in the making while we were touring Remission, and we were still kind of banging on the door of lots of clubs and stuff and had gotten some bigger tours. Like, we went out with Fear Factory while Leviathan was released. And so we were in a couple theaters here and there. But if we were going out on our own, it was still like small clubs and your occasional house show. So we were definitely still part of that whole underground scene but through Relapse and through their hard work and sort of getting our name out there and being on tour nonstop throughout all that,

I felt like the songs were strong. Basically, when we went to go record the album, we were on tour with Clutch, and it was pre YouTube, so we had heard through the Neurosis guys that when they went to go record Through Silver in Blood, that they basically toured the album for about a month on their way out to record. So we figured that would be a good idea to do that. So we just basically were on tour with Clutch for about a month and a half, and we didn’t have fleshed out lyrics or anything like that.

I remember writing a lot of the lyrics for “Blood and Thunder.” I wrote them in the van, just kind of riding to the next show and then giving them to Troy [Sanders]. Like, here, try these tonight and so were. They were definitely working the songs out live in front of people, but you could get away with it back then because those versions wouldn’t show up on YouTube the next day and no one really knew who we were yet. There was still some anonymity for us.

But when we finished recording the record and sat in our van with a twelve pack of beer and listened to it all night long, we were super stoked and we thought that we had something really super special.

Brann, I have to ask, with this tour putting you back in the mindset of a 20 year old album, is there something you’ve grown to appreciate about the music and the process of creating Leviathan more over time? And how do you feel the music holds up, having it come back into the spotlight again?

As kind of wild of an album as that is, there’s a little bit of a simplicity to it that I kind of miss, you know? And as time has gone on, some of our singles are still a little bit. But those are sort of simplistic in nature. We always pore over our songs these days just to make sure it’s not hard enough to play, you know what I mean? But these songs, for me, it’s definitely a breath of fresh air because I won’t be really doing as much singing as I have been doing the last few albums and the last bunch of tours. I’m pretty much just concentrating on drums, which is really awesome for me. It’s definitely a little bit freeing.

So a lot of these songs have been in the setlist and they became fan favorites over that stretch of time. And when we folded the Leviathan set into the Blood Mountain set, a lot of these songs have already withstood the test of time moving forward.

We always have “Megalodon” in the set. We always have “Blood and Thunder.” That’s kind of like, if we had a hit song, that would be it. It’s kind of our “Ace of Spades,” I guess. So already, a lot of these songs we play pretty [regularly]. They’re in the set, but there’s a bunch of them that we got to dust off. And it’s always nice to sort of revisit an old friend. Like “Island” or “Naked Burn” I guess.

Mastodon, “Blood and Thunder”

We’re talking about the summer tour, and it’s an absolutely amazing one. Not only do you have the album celebration aspect for Lamb of God as well, but this is also one of the first tours for Kerry King’s solo band. As a music fan, what is your appreciation level for getting to spend the summer with these guys?

Well, we’ve toured a ton with Slayer and Lamb of God as well, so we’re super stoked. And that there’s this whole other aspect of the summer tour that’s like, man, Kerry’s gonna be there, you know what I mean? We became such good friends during all that touring with Slayer, and when they stopped touring, I was like, man, that’s kind of a bummer. I won’t be able to hang with my buddy Kerry.

And you have all the guys in his band. Namely, Kyle Sanders, who’s the brother of Troy, our guy. So that’s awesome that he’s gonna be there. And Mark [Osegueda] and Phil [Demmel] and Paul [Bostaph]. I mean, all these guys we’ve been friends with for 20 years.

So it’s gonna be so exciting to have those guys out there and fold them into this tour and just have it be like this awesome vibe backstage, summer camp and all that good stuff. Gonna be plenty of barbecues and hopefully not as much Jagermeister as was offered on the 2006 run with Slayer and Lamb of God.

Oh, remember that tour?

That one was … Yeah, that was a much younger version of myself. I’ll be staying away from those evenings, but it’s still going to be super fun. And, you know, I’ll remember more of it probably.

READ MORE: Brann Dailor Addresses Mastodon Setlists, ‘Leviathan’ + More

Brann, Mastodon are one of those bands where the creative process isn’t all on just one or two people. It truly is a group effort with your band. Throughout the Mastodon catalog, do you have a favorite drum part or contribution to a song that you’re most proud of? And what is the song or part from one of your fellow bandmates that you most appreciate for its genius and how it came together?

I guess I’ll concentrate on Leviathan for this because I have to. I could say I think one of my biggest contributions to the band would probably be the song “Blood and Thunder,” because I wrote that one on guitar. That was one of the songs that I had really super mapped out in my mind before it happened. I was really proud of the way that it came out.

I mean, I’m not a very skilled guitar player, so you can kind of tell when it’s my riffs because they’re kind of meaty and really easy to play. But when I get them into the hands of Bill [Kelliher] and Brent [Hinds], the songs become way better and they become beyond what I was able to kind of eke out. A lot of times I end up humming the parts to Bill or Brent to see if it can get it into their fingers and more capable hands. So I’d say “Blood and Thunder” would probably be one of my bigger achievements for the band.

And I would say, “Hearts Alive,” the end piece, the epic. It’s not the last song on Leviathan, but second to last before the kind of reprieve acoustic Joseph Merrick song. But “Hearts Alive,” it was like our first attempt at a big epic and written all by Brent.

I just thought that when we put that forth and offered that to our fans off Remission that it just definitely showed that we were capable of more than just being your average heavy metal band. I felt like it was able to showcase a lot of the talents of all the guys in the band and really bring together a well rounded, epic, kind of proggy song that reflected the mood of the album and sort of encapsulated everything that we were going for and this nice, epic ending to this fantastical journey that we had encased in this Moby Dick theme and all the artwork and everything and really brought it all together. So I’d say that piece by Brent really kind of blew me away, and I was able to really emotionally sink into that song and play that one.

There’s some moments in it where you can really, as I’m playing the drums to it, I can really kind of close my eyes and drift off to another place, which is always a thing that, as a musician, that we’re sort of chasing.

Mastodon, “Hearts Alive”

Mastodon’s lineup is one that has remained unchanged since its start. It’s rare that bands get to this point in their career without losing someone. What is it about Mastodon that you feel has kept the band together, and why has this foursome worked so well creatively together?

Well, first and foremost, on the tour bus, you gotta know when it’s time to go to bed. So that’s the first rule of thumb. When you see that look in someone’s eyes at three in the morning, you say, I’m gonna go to my bunk and close the curtain. That’s pretty much all it takes. Once you see the curtain closed and snapped shut, no one bothers you. Even if they’re in the midst of an insane, drunken stupor, there’s something subconsciously way deep inside that knows that flap is shut, and I will not open the flap. So that’s part of it.

The other part of it is, since the beginning, when we first met, we definitely had an epiphany. The four of us, when we all met and played together for the first week or so, we had just this outpouring of imagination, and, I don’t know, it just clicked. You can equate it to falling in love, and I think that all musicians would agree that when you meet someone or you meet a group of people that you can really artistically play together with, and you really have this sense of discovery together, you can’t wait to play with that person and see what is next. That kind of keeps it coming back for more.

As difficult as some relationships can be,  there’s that overarching feeling, like, this thing that we’re creating is bigger than us as people, and you want to keep chasing. Just because you’re in love with that feeling of discovery and playing music together and then creating something from nothing and then sitting back and listening to it and sort of obsessing over it until it’s just perfect and you’re ready to release it into the world and then go play it for people. The whole process is just something that you love to do, but it’s got to be with the right people first and foremost. And when you find those people, you really don’t want to let them go unless something terrible happens, a tragedy, of course, or that person decides that they need to move on and go do something else.

Until that happens, you know, we’re here for each other, and we love each other, and we just want to keep on experiencing that feeling of creation and art and music and playing live together and all the things that go along with it.

Brann, obviously, this year is one of reflection for the band, looking back at 20 years of Leviathan. But what does the remainder of 2024 hold in store for you? And what’s next for the band on the to do list?

Just more writing. We’ve been writing this last bunch of months and putting together whatever the next Mastodon album is going to be and putting together another thing that we’re working on that I can’t really talk about, but it’s just more Mastodon. It’s not a double record or anything. It’s sort of like that, but it’s not that. It’ll be just one regular Mastodon record. That’s something else that we’re working on. So just lots of writing, lots of trying to be creative, lots of going into the studio and just working on fun.

It’s been really fun actually getting a riff out and that’s pretty much what we’re doing. I mean, we’re just in the studio working about five days a week. We kind of treat it like our, our job and we have so much material, it’s kind of ridiculous at the moment.

So it’s time to sort of decide on what songs go where and what happens. But I think that it’ll be nice to take a step away from studio and go do this tour. It’s nice for me personally, drum wise, to be, like, completely in the zone of playing every night. When I’m in that kind of drummer shape, like at the top of drum mountain as I like to call it, when I get off of a month and a half long tour, I feel great. I feel 100 percent ready to go into the studio and really knock out some great drum takes and do some singing and all that good stuff.

But, yeah, I’m really looking forward to it. It’s going to be some super heavy Mastodon stuff coming everybody’s way.

It’s Full Metal Jackie, Brann from Mastodon with us. Go see Mastodon, Lamb of God and Kerry King out on the “Ashes of Leviathan” tour. Super excited! And Brann, I just got to tell you, the last time I saw you play live was this Gojira and Mastodon tour and Lorna Shore that came through town. Can we just acknowledge how great it is that Mastodon and Gojira, two bands that love whales so much and that it just fits together. Why don’t you call that the whale tour?

We invented Whalecore. I was telling the audience that after every show, because we did. There’s not a lot of whale bands out there, but we’re two of the main whale bands that you’re going to come across. And we invented Whalecore.

I encouraged everybody in the audience to go out and start their own Whalecore bands. There needs to be more of it.

I agree completely. Thank you so much, Brann. It’s always a pleasure and looking forward to seeing you this summer.

Thanks to Mastodon’s Brann Dailor for the interview. Stay up to date and get ticketing info on the “Ashes of Leviathan” tour through the tour’s website. And for all things Mastodon, check out their website, Facebook, X, Instagram and Spotify accounts. Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie’s weekend radio show here.