Mastodon interview (excerpt)

Guitar World: Let me posit something: You guys definitely have prog elements to your sound, and yet you’re exciting and valid — you’re cool. Why do you think you’re cooler than a band like, say, Dream Theater?

Hinds: Because we don’t have a little Chinese girl playing bass! [laughs]

Guitar World: Yikes!

Hinds: And they dress all gay, too. I mean, look at them: they wear those cheesy leather pants. The lead singer especially: he’s got that really gay thing going on with his hair. Plus, he sings like a f**king opera singer and sh*t. Their hair, their clothes, their music...They’re gay.

Guitar World: Now, wait a second. Are you calling Dream Theater a “Brokeback” band? Not that there’s anything wrong with that.

Hinds: No, I don’t mean ‘gay’ like that. I just mean...gay. [laughs]

Kelliher: I think what might make us ‘cool’ and them ‘uncool’ is the lack of egos in our band. We don’t try to show off our amazing versatility every second.

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MP: I wasn’t gonna chime into this thread, but then figured I should just to help cool things off...

a) Brann (the drummer) is still a bro and has already emailed me apologizing for the other guy’s stupid remarks...

b) Brent is simply a “don’t give a shit” guy who rarely speaks seriously and could care less what people think or say about him or what he says (this isn’t a Neil Peart interview we’re getting worked up over here!!) - but Brann did tell me he felt bad and apologized...

c) Re-read the question that provoked this response...it was totally a loaded question trying to provoke an insult towards us...if anything, the magazine are the real a**holes for asking such a stupid question. But really, stuff like this (and Metal Sludge, etc.) can’t be taken seriously...they are just trying to get a rise....

d) I could care less about any of this...I still totally dig this band...

The cold reality is: I’m very used to DT being ragged on by other bands for not being “cool”... Hey, we are not at all a part of that whole OzzFest/Headbanger’s Ball world....so we are definitely “outsiders” to them all... Plus I know we’re not exactly everybody’s cup of tea to begin with anyways....

And on the other side of the coin, the rest of the guys in DT have never even heard Mastodon, Lamb Of God, Shadows Fall, Opeth and 90% of the metal bands out there right now.. I’m the only one that pays attention to that whole scene... So it’s not like they aren’t detached from “our” world as well...

The reality is, we don’t really “fit in” anywhere... We’re too prog for the real metalheads and we’re too metal for the prog purists. That’s why we all (including you DT fans) kind of exist in this own little bubble of our own!

And I’ve come to accept and embrace this fact....

And for every Mastodon, Children of Bodom and Blind Melon potshot we get, they are WAY outweighed by the compliments and respect we get from everybody from Rush to Iron Maiden to Steve Vai to Avenged Sevenfold to the Dixie Dregs to Megadeth to Yes, etc. etc. etc.

Different strokes for different folks...