Big hairy elephant.
Troy Sanders talks about Brown Deep, of the most important album of the career of Mastodon according to himself and how a band is rebuilt after 25 years after the departure of a founding member.
Mastodon It has been one of the most important bands in contemporary metal for more than 25 years. From Atlanta they built a catalog that ranges from the heaviest sludge to the most ambitious progressive rock, and along the way they earned a place among the bands that defined the genre in the new century. Brown Deeptheir new album released on August 28, arrives at a time of reinvention: it is the first album without the co-founding guitarist Brent Hindsand the first with the guitarist Nick Johnston and the keyboard player Joel Noguera fully integrated. Troy Sandersbassist and one of the three voices of the band, talked about the process, why each album is the most important of his career and about the desire to return to Mexico.
Indie Rocks!: Tell me a little about how you made this new album. What’s it like making an album after all these years?
Mastodon: We started working on the music at the end of 2024, and in the spring of 2025 we really started to get into it. But we were also going through internal conflicts: we had to part ways with our co-founding guitarist Brent Hindsand that was very difficult at the beginning of 2025. But together with the new guitarist Nick Johnston and our keyboard player Joel Noguerawe focus even more on the writing process.
We had a summer tour of Europe last year, and we took a mobile studio there. Pro Tools and we work on new material every day, heading towards recording in September 2025. It’s been almost a year since we started recording. It took us about a year to write it, we recorded it in September 2025 and almost a year later we are about to release it to the world. We take our time. The five of us collaborate and contribute a lot of time, energy and emotion to the album.
It’s beautiful when you have five bandmates who are very involved and very proud of a body of work, because we all still care deeply about this band and where it’s going. We work extra hard on each album to continue growing, instead of settling for: it’s okay, it sounds okay, that’s enough. We don’t think like that, and it’s very good that we care so much. We are very excited and proud right now. We are in a good place.
GO!: I’m very interested in talking to bands with a certain legacy that have been playing for many years, filling stadiums and releasing music. How have the years changed you and what is it like to continue doing all this?
M: It’s great. I think there are two main reasons. Number one is that we all still have the desire to create. Sometimes people have a creative block or want to change interests or careers, but we still love being creative with music, writing songs and lyrics, telling stories. And the second part is that we all really love our band. We started from scratch and 26 years later we feel that the shows are getting better, that we are playing in more cities and countries where we have never played before. Things just keep getting bigger and better. That excites us. Every tour is like: we have to play better than ever. And each album is the most important of our career. Things keep moving up, and that’s amazing.
GO!: About the singles you released, today’s and the previous two, what was it like choosing them and why those and not other songs?
M: It’s always difficult for us to release the first single before the album comes out, because we see the album as a complete work of art. If you have a book and you take out a single chapter, you have an idea of ​​what it is about, but you don’t understand the whole story. That’s how we feel about the simple ones.
The first one we took out was “Your Ghost Again”and the reason is that it represented the sound of the album. For those fans who had been waiting four or five years since our last album, curious about what we would sound like with two new members, we thought that “Your Ghost Again” It was a great taste of what was to come. I had all the pieces of Mastodon. And we also liked how it starts immediately, comes in heavy, comes out hitting. We wanted to cut to the chase and put out a song that was representative of the entire album.
The second single, “Snakes for Dinner”it was even more what Mastodon sounds, and we also had our friend Josh Homme of Queens of the Stone Age at the end of that song, which gave it an extra flavor, a swagger. And the song that came out today, “In the Ruins”is very different: it’s a little slower, but then it gets very heavy, very atmospheric, with very personal lyrics. So now you have three singles, and the album is going to have nine more songs. These three should give you a good taste of what the album is going to be. But it’s difficult for us to choose singles because we see the album as a complete piece.
GO!: Speaking of having new members in the band, how was the beginning and how have they been adapting to the new roles?
M: It was an uncertain year, because we had to part ways with our co-founding guitarist. Brent Hinds. Then we find Nick Johnstonour new lead guitarist, and Joel Noguera He had been touring with us for five years, but this is the first album where he was completely involved in every song. They were both so excited to work on new music. Now we have five guys who want to contribute to making the song the best it can be, and there’s no ego involved. If one of your parts has to come out for that section to improve, that’s okay, because everyone understands the greater good of the song. It’s a wonderful way to collaborate and write as a band, because no one wants to step on each other’s toes. You sit back and see the big picture.
Nick and joel They are amazing musicians and are excited to be in this band. They understood that Brown Deep It was going to be the most important album of our career, so they were willing and able every day in the studio to contribute, rewrite the intro and make it more interesting. All the textures and flavors throughout the album that Nick touches everywhere and joel Also, they really help this album become something completely new for us, but still very Mastodon. It’s very exciting because we’re exploring musical waters we’ve never swum in before.
GO!: When you say that this album is going to be the most important in Mastodon’s discography, why do you say that?
M: With every tour and every album we need to keep working just as hard or harder. First because we want to, we have a lot of pride and we don’t want to release something that is only good. We want it to be great, really really good, and we want to be very happy and proud of it, because once it’s out, it lives forever. We take great pride in loving our art. And this is like our tenth album, tenth or eleventh, I don’t know, and we went through a member change after 25 years, so it was more important than ever. But we think like that with every album and every tour: everything is bigger, better and more important. We just keep growing.
GO!: Regarding the tour that you are going to do with Alcest in some places, what can we expect from this new tour and the setlist?
M: Good question. We’re talking about it right now, because the North American tour starts in about a month. We are this week in our rehearsal space here in Atlanta starting rehearsals. Like most bands that release a new album, you spend two years working on it, recording it, and that’s what excites you the most at that time. But we’re not going to play the whole new album. We’re talking about four, five or six songs of new material, and then we have like eight or nine more albums that we like to play one or two songs from each, because honestly we still love everything we’ve done. We enjoy playing it, we don’t get tired of it.
I think what excites us the most is that we haven’t done a tour. headline properly in several years in the United States or North America. It feels good to be in that position again. We bring to Deafheaven and Alcest. We think it’s going to be a great night of music, and we get to play a lot of new songs, something we haven’t done in a while in North America. We are ready to start.
GO!: Are there plans to see Mastodon in Mexico soon?
M: Yes, just very recently we mentioned to our agent booking that prioritizes going to Mexico. We love Mexico. I think we’ve only been able to go three times in our career, maybe four, but it’s never enough. We have every intention of doing some shows in Mexico very, very soon. I promise.
GO!: Why did you choose Deafheaven and Alcest to play with you?
M: We have come across Deafheaven a lot over the years, and they remind us of ourselves. They have worked very hard, they have built a very good audience. We believe we share many of your fans. But we also realize that many people like Deafheavenand there is a certain group of people who may prefer Mastodonso it’s great when you put that together to make a bigger package. We can play for new fans, they can play for new fans, and hopefully a lot of people will meet Alcest.
When you come to the show and leave, we want you to be very happy, because concerts are expensive. They take a lot of time, money and energy, and when you leave a show headline of Mastodon We want you to be very happy that you came. From the first band, the music between bands, the main support Deafheaveneven our complete set: everything has to be a great experience. Because we appreciate when people come to see us play and we know what it costs to come.
GO!: For someone going to a Mastodon show for the first time on this tour, what mindset do you recommend going with?
M: That’s a great question. Come have a good time with us, there are a lot of people cool. We are very flattered that so many people come to our shows, it makes us very happy. That community feels like one. I don’t know what to tell you to wait. Hopefully, come prepared for a good time, for a lot of songs cool, great guitar solos, cool visuals behind us and some lasers. Come with an open mind and a happy heart, and have a good time with us.
GO!: For someone reading this interview who doesn’t know Mastodon yet, but feels like there’s something here, what song would you recommend they start with?
M: Of any of our albums, I would say the track one of Crack the Skye“Oblivion”. I don’t know why that one came to mind, but it’s a beautiful song and we’re all in it: all three different vocalists are on it. It’s very atmospheric, very upbeat, it feels rock, it has a beautiful guitar solo. It’s got the whole package in one song, and I think it’s a good representation of what it’s like. Mastodon. So I would say start with “Oblivion” of Crack the Skye.
GO!: If you were a fighter entering the ringWhat song would you enter with?
M: It could be anyone, but I’m going to choose one of Mastodon: “More Than I Can Chew”, from the album Hunter. It sounds like a big steamroller coming towards you and you are about to be run over. It’s a good song for a fighter to come out with.
