Mastodon, 'Crack The Skye'

What bands influenced you when you were growing up?

Brann: Well I guess when I was 7 and stole money out of my mom’s purse while she was sleeping I had three choices, Iron Maiden “Piece of Mind” AC/DC ‘Back in Black” and Kiss “Destroyer” and Iron Maiden won. I listened to a lot of Maiden and Judas Priest growing up. As I got older about 10 or 11 I went through this heavy-duty phase of music from the fifties, old jukebox music when I thought I was a greaser. Then I start getting back into metal like Metallica and Slayer and thrash music became big and I started listening to that. I was 15 in 1991 and moved to NY, saw this group called Mr. Bungle, from that I got into this whole thing with that guy John Zorn, Bill Laswell, Buckethead and Naked City, all these groups doing really crazy stuff and that got me into the world of avant-garde or weird music. Then I went backward because when I was a baby my parents would listen to Stevie Wonder, David Bowie, Genesis and King Crimson, prog rock, and Frank Zappa. Now I’m just really into that stuff it’s come full-circle for me. It’s almost like eating mashed potatoes and meatloaf it’s like comfort food style music for me. I can count on the stuff from the 70’s, early Genesis and Bowie, that’s where my head’s at right now.