Bill Kelliher says Mastodon plan to write new album next year, opens up about difficulties of touring

Mastodon guitarist Bill Kelliher has revealed that the band will be writing a new album next year. He also opened up about the current financial challenges of touring that face his and other bands.

Speaking at the Guitar Summit in Mannheim, Germany, Kelliher was asked about the band’s future plans for touring and writing the follow-up to its 2021 double-album Hushed and Grim. Mastodon recently wrapped up a tour with Gojira and are next slated to play Lamb of God’s Headbangers Boat cruise before embarking on a South American tour with Gojira in November.

“Hopefully when that’s over, December and in the beginning of next year, we can start sitting down and actually riffing out and writing a new record,” Kelliher said [as transcribed by Blabbermouth]. “Because it’s already time to — it’s past time to write a new record, even though Hushed and Grim was a double album, and I feel like there’s a lot more juice for the squeeze of that record, but we just haven’t — because of COVID, we didn’t tour enough on it. We haven’t done a proper European tour. There’s a lot of places we’ve missed and it’s, it’s hard these days to get out and tour because everything has changed.”

Kelliher then opened up about the financial burdens of extended touring that currently face the band, which lost its longtime manager Nick John after he passed away from a battle with pancreatic cancer in 2018.

“The price of everything, the price of gas goes up,” Kelliher said. “And that trickles down to us as a band. When we go out on tour, we have to come up with half a million dollars just to support the tour, like of our own money that’s supposedly saved, which I don’t have that much money — we don’t have any money saved. Every time we do a tour, we spend all the money — we give, ‘Hey, here’s your paycheck.’ ‘Cause we were home for two years from COVID, and try not working for two years. It’s difficult. Luckily, my wife works; she’s got a very good job. So it’s been very difficult.”

He continued: “Our manager passed away a few years ago, and that kind of put us in this crazy tailspin, ’cause he was our everything. And COVID happens, and the way the world is going right now, it’s not the easiest thing to get out there and just start touring and trying to make money.”

The guitarist went on to say that because of Mastodon’s limited touring in support of Hushed and Grim, the band has only premiered a handful of the album tracks live, calling it “good problems to have” and “ammunition in the bank” for live material when Mastodon are able to hit the road more extensively. That said, they might have even more new songs to squeeze into the set by that point.

“The answer to your question is yeah, next year we are gonna write a new record, and I’ve already started writing and I’m very excited about it,” Kelliher said. “It’s a nice time. It’s just — I guess what I’m getting at is, like, it’s already time to write a new record and take time off when my wife’s, like, ‘You need to get out there and work. You guys haven’t worked in the past three years. You’ve only done a month a year.’ It’s not a lot of time out there. But I’m, like, yeah, well, the world is upside down and the gas prices are crazy. And everybody’s on tour trying to make back their money from the lost wages. And it’s a mess. But I’m not gonna let it stop me from writing the next right-turn record.”

Check out the full interview with Kelliher below.