{"id":655570,"date":"2026-08-25T11:50:19","date_gmt":"2026-08-25T11:50:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/655570\/"},"modified":"2026-08-25T11:50:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-25T11:50:19","slug":"mastodon-on-losing-brent-hinds-and-launching-a-new-chapter-as-much-as-were-going-through-grieving-we-feel-emboldened","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/655570\/","title":{"rendered":"Mastodon on losing Brent Hinds and launching a new chapter: \u201cAs much as we’re going through grieving, we feel emboldened\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mastodon<\/a>\u2019s Brann Dailor has spoken to NME about their new album \u2018Marrow Deep<\/a>\u2019 \u2013 their first record since the death of his mother and the unexpected passing of longtime bandmate Brent Hinds<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Arriving five years after their last record, \u2018Hushed And Grim<\/a>\u2019, the new album will be out on Friday (August 28) and comes amid a tumultuous period for the band. Last March, they confirmed that they had parted ways with founding member, guitarist and co-vocalist Hinds<\/a> \u2013 leading to tensions being high between the members<\/a> and Mastodon enlisting guitarist \u200b\u200bNick Johnston in his place. Later, drummer and co-vocalist Dailor revealed the death of his mother, and around that same time, news broke that Hinds had died following a collision on his motorbike<\/a>.<\/p>\n

At the time, the remaining members of Mastodon were already underway with work on a new record, but soon found themselves channelling the grief of both deaths into new material \u2013 leading to the new album centred around loss and heartache, as well the idea of holding on long enough to gradually see a spark of hope.<\/p>\n

\"Mastodon.Mastodon. CREDIT: William Lacalmontie<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s hard [to explain] the pain and the anguish of losing someone in those circumstances,\u201d Dailor told NME, reflecting on how Hinds\u2019 death impacted them. \u201cThis is someone we were so close with, and while we left on bad terms, we all thought that we were going to bury the hatchet at one point. I had hope that he was going to come back into the fold.<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cWhen that [hope] had gone, it felt like the best thing for our group just to lean on each other during that moment and prop each other up with music. There was no scenario where any of us wanted the record to be about any of that stuff, and I\u2019d trade every riff and every lyric to get those people back\u2026 but that\u2019s not the reality of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo the best thing that we could do for ourselves and our mental state was to power through and write about it. \u2018Marrow Deep\u2019 is the culmination of that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Check out the rest of our interview with Dailor below, where he told us about enlisting Black Sabbath<\/a>\u2019s Geezer Butler<\/a> and Queens Of The Stone Age<\/a>\u2019s Josh Homme<\/a> for the album, whether Mastodon they ever considered calling it quits after the loss of Hinds, and why they believe it is \u201cimperative as an artist\u201d to be honest and vulnerable with fans during tough times.<\/p>\n

\"MastodonMastodon \u2018Marrow Deep\u2019<\/p>\n

NME: Hi Brann. What\u2019s it like to be back promoting new music again? After going through such a challenging year, it must be strange to be talking about everything in such a public way?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Brann Dailor:<\/strong> \u201cIt\u2019s been challenging, but it\u2019s not something I\u2019m unfamiliar with. I know my way around it at this point, and I\u2019m just trying to be open and honest\u2026 or as open and honest as I can be without spilling too much about people\u2019s personal lives.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the [2009] \u2018Crack The Skye\u2019 cycle for instance, I was confronted with talking about my sister\u2019s suicide every single day, which is something I really didn\u2019t care for. But over the years, I started meeting people outside of shows and having them be open and vulnerable with me in return. It started feeling like we had a connection, even though we didn\u2019t know each other, because I decided to be vulnerable about something that I had gone through.<\/p>\n

\u201cI guess what we crave is personal connection, and people to connect through music. I just see it as hopefully the things we leave behind on this earth are things that may be helpful to somebody else. That, for me, is a lot more important to me than feeling a little bit uncomfortable for a moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mastodon have been through a lot of heartache lately, but you\u2019re determined to say that this album is about coming out the other side stronger and starting a new chapter. Why do you want to emphasise that?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI miss Brent. I want him to be here as much as the person who wants him back the most, but I\u2019m also a human being who expresses himself through art and music and I have been putting every single thing I have artistically into Mastodon for almost 27 years. It\u2019s the same with Bill [Kelliher, guitarist] and with Troy [Sanders, bassist]. There is no shortage of ideas and no shortage of passion. We still want to play live, write music and put music out there. Now if people don\u2019t want to listen to it, that\u2019s totally fine, but Mastodon is still very much alive.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs much as we\u2019re going through this grieving process, we also feel pretty emboldened because we feel like we still have something very special to say musically. I\u2019m not going to stop playing the drums and thinking about riffs and thinking about cool heavy metal T-shirts ideas\u2026 and I still want all that stuff to be wrapped up in Mastodon, like I always have.\u201d<\/p>\n

The album is underpinned by grief, but you actually started work on it long before the loss of Brent and your mother. What was the mindset like when you first started out?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we first started writing these songs, it was just business as usual. Bill and I had three or four skeletons of songs in the back of our heads and we were sifting through them \u2013 it only took a while to come together because we did a 20-year anniversary tour of \u2018Leviathan\u2019. That broke up the momentum of working on a new album, but also we weren\u2019t pressuring ourselves to get it finished.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be honest, I was hoping that during that time I could talk to Brent and have some heart-to-hearts with him. I wanted to be honest with him and tell him: \u2018I want to write with you, dude. Let\u2019s do this. Let\u2019s get in the room or wherever we have to do\u2019. But you can\u2019t force anybody to do anything. He was also having a hard time. I think he was going through a break-up, and when he got off the Mastodon tour he went directly out with one of his other bands, so I couldn\u2019t get him to come down and jam because he just wanted to go do his own thing, which is totally fine. I would\u2019ve loved it if he wanted to come and do it, but like I said, you can\u2019t force anybody to do something that they don\u2019t want to do.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t even know if it was that he didn\u2019t want to do it, it was more like he went wherever the wind took him, and the wind was not taking him down to the practice space.\u201d<\/p>\n

So that was when you introduced the new members (guitarist Nick Johnston and keyboardist Jo\u00e3o Nogueira) into the fold\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, when Brent was no longer in the band we hired Nick to come on tour. Then we started showing Nick some of the skeletons of songs that we were building. It was around then when my mother passed away, so then the focus shifted to my mom, and then the turmoil with Brent [falling out with us] was happening at the same time.<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring that time, I didn\u2019t want to do anything, but I was picking myself up out of bed, going to the practice space and trying to put everything I could into the new material. I wasn\u2019t really in a good place, mentally. I\u2019m usually the clown guy that tries to cheer everybody up, and I was really trying to still be that person but I just couldn\u2019t do it. It was probably the most I\u2019ve been depressed since around the time my sister died. I just felt this heaviness. And with the Brent turmoil before he passed, it just was very hurtful to see everything that was coming out in the press. It just sucked, and I hated it. Pair that with the grief I was having for my mom\u2026 I wanted it to be over.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/blockquote>\n

It must have been tough to keep on persevering with new music at that point. It wasn\u2019t long after then you found out that Brent had passed away too\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYou get to a point with grief where you want to be done with it, but it\u2019s not done with you yet. So we went on that anniversary tour and got pretty preoccupied with that, then we went to a mobile studio to get back to the album. I was writing a lot of lyrics just about my mom and dissecting how, for her whole life, she\u2019d been through a lot and life was very unfair to her. So I figured that the album was going to be all about that\u2026 then as soon as we got off tour, Brent passed away. It just hit like a tonne of bricks.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went into the studio to start pre-production for the album a week later, and I really questioned whether or not [channelling the grief of Brent\u2019s passing] was a good idea or not. But soon after questioning it, I thought \u2018Well what else am I gonna do?\u2019 I wanted to dig a hole under the house and lay there for a while, but I also knew that if I got up and went to the space and worked on this new stuff for eight hours, I\u2019d feel a little bit better. It worked. It worked to just bash my drums for a little while and try to make these songs as good as they could be.\u201d<\/p>\n

During all of this, was there ever talk of calling it quits with the band, or going on a hiatus?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNo. Next to my most near and dear relationships in my life \u2013 including my mom, Brent, my wife and my dad \u2013 Mastodon is the most important part of my life. So if there\u2019s any possibility that it can keep going, then I\u2019m going to keep it going.\u201d<\/p>\n

What was it like trying to introduce new members into the mix under such difficult circumstances?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThose guys were ready and willing to do whatever it took to make sure that the three of us were comfortable. They are two very empathetic human beings, they\u2019re very artistic and they\u2019re sensitive dudes. Which is what we needed.\u201d<\/p>\n

And you went for Nick Johnston, a guitarist with a very different style to Brent\u2026<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, we picked him for a reason. He\u2019s a very original player, and that\u2019s what we would always look for. You\u2019re never going to replace Brent Hinds. The guy was a musical genius and he wrote some of the most beautiful compositions I\u2019ve ever heard.<\/p>\n

\u201cBrent and I had a very special relationship. I could always feel where he was coming from the most, and when we would dig in on a riff together, it\u2019d feed my soul. Brent was one of my true loves in music, and the feeling was mutual. We both had an endless amount of respect for each other\u2019s playing. I feel that with Nick as well, I just really fell in love with his playing and I know there\u2019s so much more that we can do. This is just the tip of the iceberg, because he came in after the songs were already in motion.\u201d<\/p>\n

Speaking of new additions on the album, what made you want to enlist Josh Homme on \u2018Snakes For Dinner\u2019?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI just heard his voice at the end there! That\u2019s usually how we treat any kind of guest appearance. It just has to kind of dawn on you, like \u2018Oh, maybe they would be good for that.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was fresh in my mind too because we were in the airport before a show when we found out that Brent had passed, and in total shock. That morning, though, Josh called and just started talking to me about some type of food I recommended. He didn\u2019t mention anything about Brent, but I knew what he was doing. He was checking up on me and he wanted to make me laugh for a second. I just really appreciated that. He\u2019s a thoughtful guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

You also have Geezer Butler on the album. How did that come together?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cIt came together because Sabbath was very informative of this album, and we were in a very Sabbath-y phase since we played at the \u2018Back to the Beginning<\/a>\u2019 [final show]. It seemed like a big swing to ask Geezer to play a bass solo for us, but not completely out of the realm of possibility.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember I said it out loud and everyone went, \u2018Yeah, we also want free healthcare for everybody and gun control laws in the States!\u2019 But I didn\u2019t think it was too out of this world to ask for it, so we went got in contact with him, and he said yes! We love the song. It\u2019s very different for us. It has that \u2018Planet Caravan\u2019 sound to it, so it just felt right.\u201d<\/p>\n

It feels poignant to have him feature on that song too because it tackles the grief of losing your mum, who was also a big Black Sabbath fan.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, the song sees me really opening up about my mom and sister going out into the cosmos and becoming these two constellations\u2026 and my mom\u2019s favourite Black Sabbath member was Geezer! She loved Ozzy Osbourne<\/a> to death, but she was always like, \u2018You know Geezer wrote the lyrics, man!\u2019 So I thought Geezer being on that song in particular would have made my mom freak out. She just would lose her mind.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe knew that we were playing the \u2018Back To The Beginning\u2019 show, but she didn\u2019t get to see it. She knew that it was happening though and she was in tears when I told her. At least she got to have that one last proud mama moment.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n<\/blockquote>\n

You mentioned earlier that \u2018Crack The Skye\u2019 led to you becoming a lot closer with fans because of the heavy topics covered. When writing this album, did you think about how it may be help fans in their own struggles?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cNot really. The lyrics I wrote were just things I had to get off my chest. Honestly, I was thinking about myself and the other guys in the room at that moment in time, but in hindsight, I\u2019m hopeful that it helps others.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did feel some trepidation with some of the lyrics, and there were some moments while I was singing in the vocal booth that I had to stop and collect myself. Those are the times where you know that you\u2019re tapping into something real \u2013 and that will always be relatable to somebody. I think it\u2019s imperative as an artist that you offer up your true self. If you\u2019re experiencing something delicate and raw, you should put it out there like that. It\u2019s a knee-jerk reaction to run away from it, and it was difficult to bear it all like that, but I didn\u2019t want to hide from it.\u201d<\/p>\n

You\u2019ve said that you want to embrace a new era for Mastodon. What does that future look like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m excited to dig in with Nick and Jo\u00e3o. And I\u2019d like at some point to start singing about mythological creatures like Bigfoot and the Loch Ness Monster! I had written this whole supernatural horror thing that I was going to use for this record, but then what happened, happened, so maybe next time. I\u2019m hoping the next records can be a little more fun, but for now I\u2019m looking forward to touring, playing a lot of this new stuff live and just seeing if anyone likes it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Marrow Deep\u2019 is out on August 28 via Loma Vista. Visit here<\/a> to pre-order.<\/p>\n