Who else is excited forMasotodon’s new album?!Brann Dailorcaught up withMetal Insider to reveal the meaning behind the name ‘Once More Around The Sun’ (the title of the new album for those not quite up to date), the writing process for the new album and the relationship that they have with their label! Check it out!
Youve named the new albumOnce More Around the Sun.What does itmean, man?
Once more around the sun? Repetitions, A year in the life basically.
Is that a lyric in one of the songs?
Its usually something I say to people on their birthday. Like hey you made it! Once more around the sun my friend, Congrats. Its likeall the things that can happen in a year. This past year, being a lot of craziness. A lot of crazy things happen every year, of course. But seems like the themes that appeared on the record have a little more to do with what has happened, what has transpired throughout the year. Rather than previous albums dealing with subject matter in the past.
This is your second album thatdoesnt have an explicit concept or theme. Did you feel like you were writing yourself into a corner by doing that with your first four albums?
No, I dont think it was that conscious of a decision. If it comes up again that we want to do another concept album, its there for us. We have the capabilities but, yeah I guess maybe we sort of felt like we were becoming a band that was predictable almost. Like oh yeah its that band that does crazy concept albums and 15 minute long songs, thats what those guys do. We dont want to be that band that everyone figured out.
Youve mentioned that you may bereleasing another EPwith some songs that didnt quite fit with this album. Is that something you thought about while recording the record?
Well we knew going in that we were going to have too much material, but liked all of it. We put it all together and listened to it as we were starting to finish and it was a little bit exhausting. It was like 1 hour and 15-20 minutes. And it was just really 2 separate feels going on. It seemed to me that it be a cool idea to, because we have this small group of songs that were a little more moody, a little more slow and chill. And since this record is coming out in the summer, it a mover and shaker. We want it to be present at every 15 year old party in the woods. Like when I used to go to a party in the woods, whatever just came out in the summer was the soundtrack for it, and it was some of the best time of our lives. You know what I mean?
Im sure you werent expecting mass radio play when the band formed over a decade ago. Another thing thats changed is the rise of streaming services. How do you feel about that?
It is what it is, so theres no way to take control of it. The band that we are and the band weve become over the years, I dont know, a lot of it might be due to the fact that those people heard it for free. I dont know how much of it equates to legal or illegal. Who knows? I get told all the time that If it was the 90s you guys would be selling this many records. Im like really, you think so? Who knows that? All I know is its hard to sell records and we kind of go about our business and play lots of live shows and were still old school in the thinking that we want to put out a record that makes sense from start to finish and we arent too interested in releasing singles.
We like the idea of The Album from start to finish and the vinyl, and the packaging and cool art to go along with it. Thats where were at, were slowly becoming dinosaurs. But i think vinyl over the past five years or so, has slowly picked up and were the kind of band that is sort of a collectible band. So were all set with all that because kids like the vinyl and we like the vinyl and well release the monster edition ofOnce More Around the Sunon crazy vinyl.Were releasing it more for ourselves then anything else because we wanted to see it, because the art is really out of control and amazing. The artistSkinnerdid a four-panel piece thats really ridiculous.
