Mastodon are indeed working on new material for their next record; but it doesn’t look as though you can expect to hear it in the immediate future. In fact, it appears as though the band don’t plan to officially begin recording it until at least late this summer.
Speaking with ARTISTdirect, band bassist/vocalist Troy Sanders said of the direction of the new material:
“…To a degree, I’m going to say it’s picking up where we left off. It’s kind of an open game or a clean slate. Every single day I go to band practice, I feel like I’m going to a chef’s table for a food tasting because there’s an element of the unknown. I’m fascinated with that. Either Chef Brent or Chef Bill will present a tasty riff dish of the day and we all lock in and go for it. Nothing that is out of the box will be turned away. We’re doing this for ourselves and by ourselves.
We’re creating delicious sandwiches every day at band practice [Laughs]. Yesterday Chef Brent brought down some tasty turkey, and it was delicious. Brann decides what kind of bread is going to sandwich it. I’m just trying to create an intriguing mayonnaise or some kind of glue to hold this sandwich together. Who knows that’s going to happen today? We just don’t know…”
When asked about what’s next for the band, he offered:
“We’ve got the skeletons of enough songs for an entire album. We’re thinking of vocal ideas and putting together as much rough demos as we can before we go overseas so we can listen to everything over the summer. Then, when we return from the tour, we’ll know what we want to keep, delete, and add.”
Currently the band have a rather full dance card with European dates booked for the first half of June followed immediately by a Main Stage run on this years ‘Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival‘.
