Halloween was a rare day off for Brent Hinds and Mastodon. Two nights earlier they had appeared at the VooDoo Fest in New Orleans and the day after All Hallow’s Eve they’d be playing in Los Angeles. Hinds took this break in the schedule to talk about The Hunter, the band’s first non-conceptual record and a major step in a new direction. The album was recorded as an homage to Hinds’ brother Brad — who was fond of hunting — and the resulting collection of songs dug deeper and resonated more resoundingly than anything the band had ever recorded. Crack The Skye had balls — The Hunter is epic. Brent has stepped out from behind the curtain of a prog metal stylist to showcase his stunning fingerpicking licks, dramatic songwriting skills and vocals that push and pull like a tug-of-war between dinosaurs.
The Hunter was produced by
Mike Elizondo, a rap veteran who had previously worked with Eminem [co-writing "The Real Slim Shady"], 50 Cent and Fiona Apple. Not exactly artists living in the metal world. But Elizondo was exactly what the band needed, someone to prod and poke them beyond their prog metal roots into an area populated with epic melodies and ambient passages that weren’t completely cluttered with a dozen different guitar parts. There was a more organic feel where songs developed naturally and every note wasn’t written out and planned. The album was one of the last records tracked at Sound City, a legendary studio in Hollywood, California that was the home for such timeless albums as Nirvana’s Nevermind, Ronnie Dio’s Holy Diver and Tom Petty’s Wildflowers. The original facility has since been torn down and rebuilt. So the guitars scream with a sort of classic majesty and at the same time embody a very modern and even timeless element.
After a brief, "Happy Halloween, man" as Brend Hinds came on the phone, we launched into the new album and into the head of the Mastodon mastermind.
UG: Did you feel Mastodon had run the course with Crack the Skye in terms of those concept types of records?
Brend Hinds: Yep, I did.
Did you say, “Where do we go now?”
No, I didn’t say, “Where do we go?” I said, “We’re not gonna go over there again.”
You weren’t sure what you wanted to do next?
Well of course, I knew exactly where I wanted to go—I wanted to dedicate an album to my brother and I wanted to pay homage to the fallen loved ones. That was basically my idea.
Since Crack the Skye came out two years ago, had you been listening to any new music or looking for any new input?
Well, my buddy had given me one of those little sticks that you put in the side of a computer and it had 72 Frank Zappa albums on it that I hadn’t heard yet. And so, no, I’ve not been listening to anything new.
You don’t hear a whole lot of Frank Zappa on The Hunter?
Yeah, me neither. What I listen to and how I play guitar are two totally different things. I’m listening so I don’t have to listen to my thoughts. I listen to music so I don’t have to hear my thoughts rambling in my head and the silence that’s inside all of us. That’s why I distract myself constantly with music but it doesn’t necessarily translate every time. It has translated before but it’s not really what it’s there for. It’s there to keep me busy.
You worked with 50 Cent and Eminem producer Mike Elizondo. Was he involved early in the recording process?
Yeah, he came down to the practice pa and watched us play music and we felt his vibe and he felt our vibe and we were all copasetic with each other. And we’re like, “Yeah, man, let’s work together. You’re totally an awesome dude. I don’t care if you’ve produced rap music—I could care less. I just need someone to get this album done for us you know.” Originally I was pushing Warner Bros. to let me produce it but I don’t have enough releases yet to have that kind of a faith in such a corporation I guess at this point in my life. We took Mike and he said he was available and he was ready and he was stoked and that’s all we need—we need availability and we need excitement; we need new faces. A familiar situation can kind of get you back where you were and you don’t wanna ever go backwards when you’re creating art. You kinda wanna move forward with it and kinda get your palette cleansed all the time and for me I thought it was a really refreshing move to have a new artist, a new producer, a new sound, a new look. Shit, I even lost 30 pounds.
Going for something new, you approached The Hunter a little more loosely in developing song ideas and not having every note previously written?
Yeah. There was some preproduction. I had this guy named Steve that came down and he worked some engineering magic on doing some demos because you always have to keep the wolves at bay with Warner Bros. hot heat breathing down your neck. They’re like, “Yeah, let’s hear somethin’ boys.” So I’m like, “Alright, get Steve down here and get him to press record and we’ll see what we can drum up” to keep the wolves at bay basically.
Where did The Hunter begin?
The first song that I wrote for that album was “Blasteroid.” Bong ner ner ner bong ner ner ner [sings the riff]. What happened was Brann [Dailor, drummer] followed me around the whole entire time on the Alice in Chains tour with his iPhone because there’s not really a lot to do on tour but basically smoke weed and play music. Those are the options I choose to do is sit around and kind of enlighten myself as much as I can by just being there with the guitar and trying to just get time to pass so I can get where I need to be, which is on the stage. And not sitting backstage in a neon lit-up room and stuff like that.
"It was a really refreshing move to have a new artist, a new producer, a new sound, a new look."
There was a lot of stuff where it was a stream of consciousness and I didn’t even know that I was writing an album.
“Blasteroid” clocked in at 2:35—it’s not easy writing a good song in under three minutes.
No, it’s not it can be tricky but I think it’s best when you’re not trying. And like I said it was a stream of consciousness type thing and “Stargasm” was the second song that just kinda came up. You just kinda let it flow naturally. I did and let what happened happen because I don’t really have any control over any of it anyways.
“The Thickening” was a really different kind of song for Mastodon.
That’s one of mine right there, yeah.
That long picked intro was really elaborate but had so much passion. Did that part come to you in a stream of consciousness?
No, I had been sittin’ around on that actually. That’s a pajama party right there—that’s Brent Hinds on the couch with some Cheshire flannels on just sittin’ around and playing acoustic guitar. I sit around and I play guitar and I watch shitty horror movies just for background and my girlfriend sits around and she paints and does her textiling and whatnot. And she kinda lets me knows and is like, “I really like that.” I’m like, “What? Was I doing something you liked? Do you like that really?” And so she’ll be like, “Yeah, that’s really pretty, Brent.” Or whatever. And I’m like, “Wow, thanks babe. Cool, I’ll try to remember it then.”
Then you offset those kind of shimmering intro guitar parts with a real lo-tech sounding fuzz guitar solo.
Yeah, now here we go with Mike Elizondo. I’m glad you said that because this is the reason I’m glad I worked with Mike Elizondo. See I wouldn’t have, I didn’t hear that; Mike heard that. He was like, “Right here if you would just indulge me please, Brent, would you play a little bit of a guitar solo before you go into your next verse you’re about to sing.” I said, “Oh, man, that’s interesting. I’ve never done that before. Yeah, I will do that.” And it worked like a fuckin’ piece of strawberry cupcake. It just fit in there nice. I was happy. When I hear that part, I’m like, “I love this part.”
Were you trying to bring out different guitar sounds and various pedals?
Yeah, I used a bunch of Kevin Burkett electrical guitars. That’s the main guitar I used. Live it’s a real buzzy, fuzzy-type sounding guitar but in the studio it takes on a different texture. I used a lot of different amps and a lot of different pedals than I used on any of the albums before. A lot of combo amps. I probably only used a big amp that I used live once or twice on the whole entire album. I was playing little tiny amps like combo amps on it. They get bigger tones and they save more space in the studio so they’re much more of an important tool than the big amps.
Cranking a Marshall up to 10 in the studio is not how you can create huge guitar sounds.
Exactly. It’s just blowing the diaphragm in the microphone then.
“The Sparrow” was another example of your cool fingerpicking stuff on acoustic.
Yeah, that’s one of my proudest guitar solo moments. I recorded the album in May and then I went on tour in June and July and came back and got the album because I didn’t want the album. I wanted to take two months away from the album and the album had not been fully mixed. It had been fully tracked but not mixed. Brann took a copy with him that wasn’t mixed and wasn’t ready and we listened to that sometimes. We got drunk at night and told each other how proud of each other we were of our new endeavor. So when I got back and heard that guitar solo I was like, “Hey, man, I really gotta put a guitar solo on this part” and I didn’t even know that I had put the guitar solo there. I get back and it’s, “What do we still gotta do there? As far as I know, I gotta put a guitar solo on “The Sparrow” and I gotta put a slide guitar here and blah blah blah.” And Mike was like, “OK, well, you already put all that stuff there.” I’m like, “I did? Well let me hear it.” And then I heard it and I was like, “Wow, it’s like Billy Gibbons stepped in here for a second.”
It’s interesting that you hear Billy Gibbons and I heard David Gilmour.
Yeah, I get that as well. It’s both of them and it’s intentional.
Wasn’t “The Sparrow” one of the last songs to come together on The Hunter?
No, I mean that’s another thing where I was sittin’ around the house just kind of playin’ guitar and my girlfriend thought it sounded pretty and I was like, “Yeah.” It was actually kind of a song I had written for one of my other bands, Fiend Without a Face, and it was gonna be one of their songs. Then I played it in front of Brann and he was like, “Oh, dude, this sounds cool” and he started playing drums to it and the next thing you know we had the song wrapped up.
You and Brann Dailor are obviously very closely connected on a musical level.
Me and Brann work so efficiently together that there’s really no sweat happening with that. I gotta be careful what I show Brann basically.
The acoustic fingerpicking on “The Sparrow” is a throwback to your banjo days of yore?
Yeah. I still sit around and play banjo of course.
Pete Townshend started off as a banjo player and you can hear that influence in his rhythm playing.
OK, yeah. I think it’s great. My father was a genius and he was like, “You’re not playin’ any goddamn thing ‘til you learn how to play the acoustic guitar and the banjo.” I hated him at the time but now I praise him for it. If I were to rear a child, I would take him down the same road. I’d say, “Look, I know this is no fun right now but you’re gonna have fun with it later.”
It’s like, “Sit down, learn piano and shut up.”
Yeah, man. You’ve got to listen to your mothers and fathers out there kids.
“The Creature Lives” was like this ponderous and heavy fairy tale type of song.
Funny story. I was in this studio with West End Motel that day on the other side of town and I just been in the studio earlier with Mastodon. I had to go finish some studio session work with my other band and I said, “Look guys, I’m not gonna be able to work with you,” talkin’ to Brann and Troy [Sanders] at the time. And they said, “That’s cool, man.” I think Troy had written the music and Brann wrote the lyrics and I did the keyboard intro.
"I wanted to dedicate an album to my brother and I wanted to pay homage to the fallen loved ones. That was basically my idea."
Well, it was my idea to have the keyboard intro. I made my imagination manifest through someone else. You know what I mean? I don’t know how to twist all the Moog knobs but I was saying, “Hey, like this, like that. No, not that like.” But I was really shocked that day because I couldn’t make it there that day to work with Troy and Brann and so I left them there and said, “I hope you guys get somethin’ done today. Good luck. I’ll see you guys tomorrow.” And I come down the next day and they got that fuckin’ “The Creature Lives” song and I was like, “I love you boys.” Because The Creature From the Black Lagoon is like my alma mater like I had it tattooed on me and I have tons of memorabilia. I’ve swam in the Black Lagoon and met Rico Browning [performed underwater stunts], Ben Chapman [played the title role in the 1954 film] and Julie Adams [main actress in the movie]. I just felt like when I wasn’t there that day—that I was there.
They channeled Brent Hinds.
Yeah, that’s brotherhood talkin’.
“The Hunter” was a sweet type of ballad with more acoustic guitar. You and Troy are doing the vocals?
Uh huh, yeah. I like that one a lot. That’s a tearjerker.
“The Hunter” is the opposite side of the spectrum from a song like “Octopus Has No Friends.” They fill you in different ways.
It’s funny you say that because I have different sides. I’m like a little prism person. Yes, it does fill me up with happiness and sadness.
“Octopus Has No Friends” is a pretty insane riff with that melodic vocal line over the top.
Troy has got his magic and he spools that stuff. He’s like a medicine man and he comes in and gets like “Hiawatha” on ya man. He really does. So after I’d written the music for “Octopus Has No Friends,” there was a lot of music to write, so pretty much at that point I’m like, “I’m done. I’m not gonna write any melody for this song. I wrote all this guitar shit. Now you guys do something, Jesus Christ, know what I mean” And lo and behold Jesus Christ did do something and his name is Troy Sanders.
As you were venturing off into this new direction, did you ever think how far you could stray off the path of what you’d done before? Did it ever cross your mind how far you could go and still have your audience follow?
It really doesn’t you know. Honestly it does not. I don’t think about what someone’s getting out of me. I usually think about what can I achieve with someone, with other people.
Did you try and push yourself as a songwriter into new areas?
No, I did not. I was just being myself—it was the only one I could be. I was just not really trying to change anything about what I was doing. I was just trying to do it again.
Can you talk about how you and Bill Kelliher recorded guitars on The Hunter?
We don’t record anything at the same time of course. So I never even saw Bill the whole entire time this record was happening. It’s more productive just to get one guy in there and get him out of the way basically so you can start putting your format down. And so I don’t really know what Bill did but like I said I used a bunch of combo amps and I used a variety from Gretsch to Rickenbackers and I was all over the spectrum with the guitars. A lot of really expensive microphones and a lot of very important room placements and very awesome locations and great people. That’s basically how my guitar sounds came about.
Do you typically record guitars before Bill?
Yeah, anything I write it will be fresh on my mind and I will not have taught it to Bill yet. Same thing with Bill when he writes something. There’s no point in teachin’ it to me right then and there just so I can play on the song in the studio. There’s no point in that and that’s just goin’ backwards. When you’re in the studio it’s $300 or something an hour, so you want to get in and out of there as fast as you can basically. We work smarter, not harder.
Certainly you need to know what Bill is going to play though.
Yeah, we know that. We don’t even have to talk about shit like that. We know what we’re doin’ with all that shit.
Do you think The Hunter aimed you in a direction that you might pursue on the next album?
I don’t have an idea right now. I have no idea what we’re gonna do next. I gotta be honest with ya. There are some things we talked about before and I wanted to pay homage. But, uh, maybe we might go freaky again. We’re pretty unpredictable so who knows? I really couldn’t say right now to be honest with you.
"There's not really a lot to do on tour but basically smoke weed and play music."
Yeah, I think so. I think there’s some transcendental meditation-type moments on this album to be honest with you.
Did your brother Brad get to hear any of this music?
No, he didn’t unfortunately.
That’s disappointing.
Yeah. I’m sure he’s heard it now.
I’m sure he has. Are you performing these new songs live?
Yeah, man, we’re playing it live right now. I’m on tour right now and playing the album. Not playing the whole entire album; we’re just doin’ about eight songs off of it.
What are some of the songs you’re playing?
We’re doing “Bedazzled Fingernails,” “Octopus Has No Friends,” “Curl Of the Burl,” “Spectrelight,” All the Heavy Lifting,” “The Creature Lives” and a few others. I can’t really think off the top of my head but we’re doing seven songs from the new album.
Can you tell how the fans are reacting to the new songs?
When I’m on the stage, I couldn’t tell you what’s happening out there. I could just tell you that I’m trying to get something out of me. I don’t know what the response is ‘cause when I look at the crowd I don’t see ‘em.
But it feels good for you onstage to be performing this new music?
Yeah, it’s like passing time without knowing that you’re going through it. It’s a really special experience that I’ve learned over the years to embrace more and more. And to really try and transcend a lot more into everyday life.
There was a YouTube video of you talking about Crack the Skye and saying it was “Mastodon’s Led Zeppelin IV.”
Yeah, I could definitely see that.
In truth, The Hunter is your Led Zeppelin IV.
Oh, right? I mean there are some Pagey moments in “The Hunter” the song.
Just in terms of going for something different.
Yeah, of course.
It’s a special record.
Thank you very much. I didn’t catch your name, man.
Steve.
Steve, very nice talkin’ with ya. Bye-bye.
Interview by Steven Rosen
Ultimate-Guitar.Com © 2011
