Mastodon are apparently considering doing something faster and more straightforward—or, at least, guitarist Bill Kelliher is thinking along those lines.
In an interview with Guitar.com, Kelliher admitted the band has considered “doing, like, a punk rock album where it’s much quicker, faster, straight to the punch kind of really fast music.” As a reference point, he talked about the latest record from Turnstile, Glow On.
“I want to write music that’s really fucking heavy and to-the-point,” he adds. “I want it to sound like Mastodon but steer away from the long, drawn-out songs. I feel like we’ve been on that kind of kick for a while, and I want to move on to something a little more tangible.
“The stuff I’m working on is the sort of stuff that comes out swinging, you know? I’ve been listening to a lot of Turnstile, and their last record, Glow On, to me, is fucking great. I just love their guitars, and their production of it sounds great. Their songwriting is really good. It reminds me of Bad Brains, but if they were more modern, with some Jane’s Addiction mixed in.”
He added that he appreciates that Turnstile bring back a sound he loved in the 80s and 90s.
“That Turnstile record kind of (piqued) my interest in writing in that way. It’s like, ‘Well, you guys are bringing back all the cool things about the bands that I used to listen to and really look up to. I wanna do more of that.’ I’m a product of the 80s and early 90s when all that kind of stuff was really popular.”
Mastodon are currently on tour with Gojira and Lorna Shore:
4/18 Portland, OR Veterans Memorial Coliseum [Tickets]
4/20 Concord, CA Concord Pavilion [Tickets]
4/21 Los Angeles, CA The Forum [Tickets]
4/22 Phoenix, AZ AZ Federal Theatre [Tickets]
4/23 Las Vegas, NV Virgin [Tickets]
4/26 Dallas, TX The Pavilion at Toyota Music Factory [Tickets]
4/28 Houston, TX 713 Music Hall [Tickets]
4/29 Austin, TX Moody Center [Tickets]
4/30 Oklahoma City, OK Zoo Amphitheatre [Tickets]
5/2 Nashville, TN Municipal Auditorium [Tickets]
5/4 Boca Raton, FL Sunset Cove Amphitheater [Tickets]
5/5 St. Augustine, FL St. Augustine Amphitheatre [Tickets]
5/6 Atlanta, GA Ameris Bank Amphitheatre [Tickets]
5/7 Asheville, NC Harrah’s Cherokee Center [Tickets]
5/9 Richmond, VA Virginia Credit Union Live [Tickets]
5/10 Baltimore, MD Pier Six Pavilion [Tickets]
5/11 Reading, PA Santander Arena [Tickets]
8/9 Cincinnati, OH MegaCorp Pavilion [Tickets]
8/10 Cleveland, OH Jacob’s Pavilion [Tickets]
8/11 Pittsburgh, PA Stage AE Outdoors [Tickets]
8/12 New York, NY Coney Island Amphitheater [Tickets]
8/13 Syracuse, NY OneCenter [Tickets]
8/15 Detroit, MI Masonic Temple [Tickets]
8/17 Toronto, ON RBC Echo Beach [Tickets]
8/18 Montreal, QC Place Bell [Tickets]
8/19 Portland, ME Cross Insurance Arena [Tickets]
8/20 Boston, MA MGM Music Hall [Tickets]
8/23 Milwaukee, WI BMO Pavilion [Tickets]
8/25 Hammond, IN Horseshoe [Tickets]
8/26 Omaha, NE Westfair Amphitheater [Tickets]
8/27 Minneapolis, MN Waite Park Amphitheater [Tickets]
8/29 St. Louis, MO The Factory [Tickets]
8/30 Kansas City, MO Azura Amphitheater [Tickets]
9/1 Salt Lake City, UT USANA Amphitheater [Tickets]
9/2 Denver, CO Fiddler’s Green Amphitheater [Tickets]