Guitarist Bill Kelliher opens up about working with David Bottrill for the first time on Mastodon's new album: "The result is amazing…"
We already knew that Mastodon had a ton of music to whittle down for album number eight, and now the band have confirmed that they are currently "halfway" through mixing their highly-anticipated new record – the follow-up to 2017's Emperor Of Sand.
Looking at a potential September or October release date, guitarist Bill Kelliher tells Talking Metal (via Blabbermouth) that everything is going great so far, the band teaming up for the first time with producer / mixer / engineer David Bottrill.
"Honestly, I hadn't really heard of him before last year," Bill admits. "We were kind of tossing around who we were gonna use for the new record. We have a couple of different producers that we like; I mean, we've liked everyone we've used in the past. But I think, with this record, we kind of were just, like, 'We might need somebody new – somebody really fresh and brand new.' And we got on the phone with David, and we had a couple of other people we had been talking to. With COVID and everything, a lot of people just weren't available or willing to come to Atlanta."
Read this: The 13 essential progressive metal albums you need to know
Discussing the producer's approach with Mastodon's demos, the guitarist continues, "He came in and he was diligent. He had all kinds of notes written out. He had done his homework. And he was, like, 'For this song, I have this idea. For this song, I have these ideas.' And he kind of spouted them off to us on the phone. And I said, 'Are you willing to come to Atlanta and work with us here, sight unseen, at our studio?' And he was, like, 'As long as the studio's got the certain equipment that I need, and it's a decent-sized room and everything…' We had done a lot of other records there with other bands. And he was willing to come down."
Bill reveals that, at first, he "wasn't really into trying anything new", but as time went on, "I was like, 'You know, this record is really special, and it's different, and times are different right now.'"
He adds, "So we all just kind of [went into it] with open minds, and the result is amazing. It's the fullest-, biggest-sounding record we've done so far."
Check out the full interview below:
