Mastodon Talk Mediums

Mastodon drummer Brann Dailor tells Rock Sound what new album 'Crack The Skye' means to him.

Posted Wednesday, 25 March 2009 in

‘Crack The Skye’ is an album full to brim with story, meaning, ideas and imagination. But for Mastodon drummer Brann Dailor even the more ethereal things expressed on the record are deeply personal and remind him of family and those close to him.

''I relate a lot of the record to my grandmother,'' he admits. ''When I was a kid she read tarot cards, tea leaves and runes. She actually first read my cards when I was six years old. She was pretty plain about everything to me and would tell me when she saw spirits or guardians. She would tell me when she flew out of her body and went travelling in outer body experiences so it has always been in the back of my head that this sort of thing happened.''

''My grandmother took my sister and I to a lot of places,'' he continues. ''We went to see the Mitchell-Hedges Crystal Skull and we went to visit a psychic community in upstate New York called Lily Dale. It is a town full of psychics and mediums; it was a pretty intense place. She took us up there when we were kids and there were always books about crystal skulls lying about the house, it was interesting growing up round that.''

'Crack The Skye' is in stores now, check below to see footage of Mastodon playing 'Emerald' for the first time ever with Thin Lizzy's guitarist Scott Gorham: