Mastodon spent 2024 celebrating the 20th anniversary of their landmark, Moby-Dick-themed Leviathan album on their joint tour with Lamb of God. Last month, the Atlanta metal greats met up with the makers of a new, equally-Melville-centered opera called — you guessed it— Moby-Dick to discuss their respective takes on the literary classic, music and more.
The talk took place last Friday (February 28th) at the BRIC cultural center in Brooklyn, New York, and was moderated by composer David T. Little. Three members of Mastodon were on-hand, along with Moby-Dick composer Jake Heggie and composer Tamar-kali Brown.
Mastodon drummer Brann Dailor explained the origins of Leviathan, noting that he’d first read Henry Melville’s Moby-Dick as a kid, but he got lost in the old English and whale terminology. Years later, on a trip to Hawaii, he conceived the broader idea of re-adapting Melville’s sea-faring tome as a metal album. The book, after all, made mention of a “salt sea mastodon,” while he added that the crew of Melville’s fictional Pequod vessel reminded him of his bandmates. Their van at the time, however, apparently reeked like a rotting beast.
“We had an E-350 white Ford Econoline van that we called the ‘fartbox,’ but also called ‘Moby-Dick’ after Leviathan came out,” he explained, adding, “The insides sort of smelled like the insides of Moby-Dick.”
The conversation finds both Mastodon and Heggie discussing their works, while Dailor also discusses the emotional and aesthetic ties between opera, classical music, metal and more. Brown discusses her roots in metal and hardcore, among other things, but also reads excerpts of Melville’s original novel.
There are likewise clips from both Mastodon’s “Blood and Thunder” video, as well as rehearsal footage from Heggie’s staging of Moby-Dick.
You can check out the near-hour-long discussion up above.
As previously reported, Mastodon are due to set sail throughout 2025 for a number of tour dates. They’re taking part in this month’s TOOL Live in the Sand event in the Dominican Republic, but likewise have an upcoming tour on the books with Coheed and Cambria.
All of Mastodon’s upcoming tour schedule can be found here.
Heggie’s Moby-Dick opera, meanwhile, runs at New York’s Metropolitan Opera House until the end of the month.