Brann Dailor of Mastodon is the latest guest on the Full Metal Jackie weekend radio show. The drummer talked about the band's new double album Hushed & Grim and how the band became a continuous vehicle to express their emotions as they deal with painful moments in their lives.

For each member of this veteran band, as personal as music, Dailor said that they will not exchange feelings with each other through conversation, but "play their inner feelings." After more than two decades of their professional career, he insisted that the original cause of the mastodon is still intact today, which makes the creative process so exciting.

Dale also talked about a different creative muse. He painted clown paintings for 101 days, and these paintings were compiled into a book.

Read the full interview below.

Spirituality is very obvious in most of the works of Mastodons, and now this new record is available, even more so. Why is music so helpful to convey these themes?

There is an almost invisible force in music and sound. It just manifests in this way, especially for all of us, it is the way we connect with others, and it is also the way we connect with each other through musical instruments.

We don’t sit down and talk about our feelings, but play with our feelings, so this is how we can truly express ourselves as human beings and understand some of the less interesting moments in our lives. When these things are combined, all you have is a captured primitive emotion, which may be a spiritual thing for many people.

The music of the mastodon usually counteracts loss and grief. If the music is cathartic, what treatment responsibilities do you have for the people listening to your album?

I don't even know this is catharsis. I hope it is, but I have never really lived without it, so I really don't know what the other side of it looks like. When I need it, I always have drums or other things to ask for help. If something tragic happens in my life, there will always be drums and music to get me through it, whether it is listening to music or playing music.

Except that I hope it helps, I'm not sure if I have really considered any type of responsibility. I really am the first and most important thing, just want to understand any tragic situation that happened to us. For this record, we lost our dear friend and manager Nick John, because of pancreatic cancer, it is very difficult to go through all this. It was horrible to watch him deteriorate, and the way we deal with all these things is to put it in the music.

I hope that the honesty we express and the emotion we are immersed in music can help those who are going through difficult times.

Hushed and Grim is a two-person album. When given extra breathing space, how does the influence of the song change?

Like everyone, we have a lot of rest time-we didn't go on tour. When we are writing and recording, there is always a tour imminent-a cycle that has been going on since our band began. We ended the Crack the Skye anniversary tour and entered writing mode, and then we basically wrote for two years. With all the extra time for writing and recording, it changed the composition of the album and turned it into a two-person album. We won't have so much time to really dump the extra material.

When we have about an hour of material or 50 minutes of material, we will cut it there, then enter and record whatever we have. But at the end of the demo and ready to enter the recording studio, we had more than 20 songs. We had to really tear it down, the best we could do was 15 songs. No one wants to cut anything else, so we decided to go with the flow and make an old two-player album, yes, about 90 minutes of material. So hope this will give our fans, they will keep them busy for a while.

The 101 Clowns of Coronavirus is a new book featuring your illustrations. What are the creative similarities between illustrators and musicians?

Apart from the creative process of coming up with an idea and using your taste and sensibility to execute it in the way you see fit, I'm not sure if there are other creative similarities.

I don't think I am talented in painting, but I can express my views. Half of the fight is creative and trying to convey a certain emotion. You don't always have to be the most proficient in that particular art form, it just needs to resonate with other people or yourself.

This also has a lot to do with creating music-you don't always have to be the most skilled performer to express your opinions. I did learn something about myself, I am a bit like a creative monogamy because it is difficult for me to be a mastodon and devote myself to painting or being creative in this way. I'm either all in on the mastodon or I draw a clown every day, so it's fun.

Earlier this year, Mastodon used a very interesting video to commemorate its anniversary as a band. What is the biggest change in the band over time?

Each band has its own unique environment. Like every relationship, their starting point is a bit different at the beginning-you may be young, you don’t have a family, you just have each other, you travel in a van, and that and that... Over time, people get married and have children. .

The fact that it is still the same central figure for more than 20 years is outstanding. I am proud that we have been with the same four people for so long. What has changed is the time together-there is not so much time, because people's family and life are far away from the band, but the relationship is the same. We love each other, we respect each other, and we love each other's games.

The reason why Mastodon was originally formed—excited by the potential of our co-creating music—is still very active. This is why we come back for more.

Thanks to Brann Dailor for accepting the interview. Get a copy of Mastodon's "Hushed and Grim" album here and follow the band on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Spotify. Find out here where you can listen to Full Metal Jackie’s weekend radio show.