Sept. 21, 2026

Louder Than Life and Beyond: Mastodon’s Troy Sanders on the Heart of Metal Festivals

Show Notes
Transcript

In this vibrant conversation recorded at Louder Than Life Festival, Pipeman sits down with Troy Sanders of Mastodon to talk festival experiences, the evolution of live music in the US and Europe, creative longevity, bucket-list bands, personal passions beyond music, and what makes performing so magical for both artists and fans.Main Topics Covered

Mastodon’s history with Louder Than Life and Wimmer festivals
Festival culture: comparing US and European experiences
Artist hospitality and what sets Wimmer events apart
Recent highlights and magical moments from Mastodon’s career
The art of sustained musical creativity and writing new material
Tour bucket lists and favorite bands
The joys of domestic life and cooking while off tour
Early concert experiences and their lasting impact
The irreplaceable magic of live performance and fan connection

Key Discussions & StoriesPlaying Louder Than Life & Wimmer Festivals

Troy Sanders reflects on Mastodon’s many appearances at Louder Than Life, highlighting a particularly memorable set opening for Ozzy Osbourne about a decade ago 00:49.
Troy Sanders praises the Wimmer team for thoughtful artist amenities (A/C, bathrooms, catering), contrasting with European festivals like Hellfest, and emphasizing how these details reduce performer stress 01:20.

Comparing US & European Festivals

Discussion on how US festivals have evolved to match the scale and quality of European giants thanks in part to Wimmer’s research and innovation, including learning best practices from events like Hellfest 02:04, 04:01.

Magic Moments & Touring Legends

Troy Sanders shares that his standout recent memory was performing at the final Black Sabbath “Back to the Beginning” show—a dream come true that still gives him a buzz 04:35.
Mastodon’s opened for and toured with icons: Iron Maiden, Black Sabbath, Slayer, Judas Priest, and Tool, fulfilling almost every dream on their tour wish list 05:09.

Sustaining Creativity & New Music

The band still writes prolifically thanks to an undimmed creative passion, crediting each member’s unique contribution 06:53.
Mastodon’s new record was released just three weeks ago, and they’re already writing new material while on tour 07:21.
Troy Sanders discusses avoiding complacency, seeking out new musical and geographical frontiers, and always looking forward 08:13.

World Tour Aspirations

While having played in over 40 countries, Mastodon still dreams of visiting places like Korea, China, and South Africa 08:39.

Passions Beyond Music

Troy Sanders finds joy in domestic routines at home—especially slow-cooking meals using the Crock-Pot and even mowing the lawn—activities he misses while touring 09:22.

Formative Concert Experiences

The first concert to truly “floor” Troy Sanders was Metallica’s “Justice for All” tour with Queensryche 10:45, especially the theatrical stage show and the electric audience participation.

The Magic of Live Performance

Troy Sanders cherishes the unique, intangible energy between band and crowd—whether in front of 4 or 40,000 people—and calls it “the most beautiful thing I’ve ever witnessed” 13:00.
Pipeman proposes the ultimate solution to world peace: a global metal festival where everyone, except political leaders, sorts things out in the mosh pit and hugs it out after 13:53.

Notable Quotes

“It’s a good problem to have when you can’t remember how many times you’ve played a magnificent festival.” — Troy Sanders 01:06
“Live music is very alive and healthy, and it’s unbelievable. It’s magic out there.” — Troy Sanders 02:22
“We’ve toured with Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath and Slayer and Judas Priest and Tool… it’s been a magical ride.” — Troy Sanders 05:12
“If I could pick one that’s fresh on top of my head, it’s the Black Sabbath show last year.” — Troy Sanders 05:16
“This fire…has yet to be extinguished in all five of us.” — Troy Sanders 07:30
“It’s not a handshake, it’s not a hug, but it’s this thing in the ether…the most beautiful thing I’ve ever witnessed.” — Troy Sanders 13:21
“One major metal festival the whole world’s required to attend…” — Pipeman 13:53

Resources & Links Mentioned

Mastodon (Band): Official Website
Louder Than Life Festival: Festival Site
W4CY Radio: Radio Site
Danny Wimmer Presents (Promoter): Official Site
Hellfest (France): Festival Site
Download Festival (UK): Festival Site

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WEBVTT

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Hi, you're listening to Adventure on W4CY Radio. This is

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the Pipe Man here on the Adventure's Pipe Man W4CY Radio,

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and I'm here with.

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My name is Troy Sanders, the band Mastodon.

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I'm very excited to have you here at louder than life.

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I've been following you around cause I do festivals all

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over the world and been able to luckily get to

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go to your sets and you guys really kill it.

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So how many times have you played louder anyway?

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Thankfully it's been a multiple times. Uh, I don't know

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the number.

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It's that many.

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I remember the memorable one was with, uh, Ozzy was

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the headliner.

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Oh, there you go.

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This is maybe 10 years ago. Um, And we got

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to do it before that. We did it here two

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years ago while we were on tour with Lamb of

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God in the States. And there's been more than that.

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I just have lost track. It's a good problem to

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have when you can't remember how many times you've played

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a magnificent festival.

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And you play all the Wimmer festivals.

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Yeah, they're great.

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What I'd like to ask is, how does Wimmer treat

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the artists?

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It's great. I mean, you're welcomed. You have nice facilities,

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you know, the It's not like a Hellfest in France,

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which is an amazing festival, but there's AC here, there's

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nice bathrooms, there's good catering. It's the little things that

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when you're on tour, non-stop, being welcomed with a little

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sense of appreciation makes the artist feel amazing no matter what.

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no matter what your band is. Oh, yeah.

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I always say that, like, listen, it's stressful enough to

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come do a festival, especially when you're a band that

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has your own sound people and everything. So load in,

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sound check, how you're treated determines how much fun I'm

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going to have at your show because you're going to

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have fun without the stress.

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Over the years, all the times that Mastodon's been lucky

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enough to go do the European festival circuit, it's phenomenal.

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And over the past 20 years, watching the United States

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produce more and more amazing festivals, and a huge part

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of that is for all the Wimmer ones that he's doing.

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It's incredible.

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It's awesome to see because if you come to a rock,

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heavy rock, metal, whatever this is that it encompasses, you

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see how live music is very alive and healthy, and

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it's unbelievable. It's magic out there. There's 40,000. I don't

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even know what the number is. It's enormous, and it's

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just proof that This community is such an incredible thing

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to be a part of, from the artist's perspective, from

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a fan's perspective, and everything in between. I'm thrilled, personally,

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and our band is so lucky to be able to

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do these. I think we're all grateful that these festivals

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are continuing to grow to this size across the United States,

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similar to the festivals overseas that have been very strong

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and healthy for many, many years. So it's awesome. It's

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awesome to see it.

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I love that you're saying that, because I was also

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going to ask, as somebody that does European festivals too, like,

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we always looked at the European festivals of, oh, that's

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the pinnacle of the festivals, and I was going to

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ask you how you compare, so you answered it, Ray,

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and for me, like, I've been doing the Danny Wimmer

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since the very beginning, and They are more like European

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festivals now than ever. But then the bonus, like you said,

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the air conditioning, like when I do interviews at Hellfest,

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oh my God, one time.

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Oh, you've been there. Oh, every year. It's amazing.

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You said that.

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And on the side note, Hellfest is one of the

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most incredible things I've ever been a part of. Oh

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my God. It's not just a festival, it's a fucking city.

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It's unbelievable, right?

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So I'm not knocking on Hellfest by any means, but like,

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for example, the And they're very welcoming in there, too.

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So I just wanted to clear that. So not knocking

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Hellfest by any means.

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Oh, I've heard great things from ours about that, too.

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But here's the thing that I don't know if you know.

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Wimmer over the past few years has been going to

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Hellfest so he can make these festivals better. And that's

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something I love about him, too. It's like you're doing

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the research of what people like.

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Yeah, he's done his homework. And the proof is what

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we're experiencing today and all weekend.

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Exactly. A hundred percent.

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So one memory, good or bad in your whole musical career,

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what sticks.

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Out in your mind most?

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Just anything.

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Anything. I don't care what it is.

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The most recent one is, uh, Macedon was fortunate enough

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to be invited to play the, uh, back to the

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beginning final Sabbath show last year. And I'm still buzzing

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off that. Right. That over a year later, I'm still just, I.

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Think you'll buzz about that for the rest of your life.

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Right. So yeah, that was a magical moment. So there's,

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We've been... Mastodon's been together 26 years, and we've done

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hundreds and hundreds of unbelievably magical, amazing things. You know,

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there's been some weird, you know, a couple, you know,

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fucking curveballs and shitty moments, but the unbelievable moments far

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outweigh the anything bad. And thankfully, we've gotten to tour

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with all of our favorite bands. We've toured with Iron

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Maiden and Black Sabbath and Slayer and fucking Judas Priest

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and Tool, and, you know, it's been a magical ride, but...

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if I could pick one that's fresh on top of

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my head, it's the, uh, black Sabbath show last year.

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Is there a band that you haven't toured yet with

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that's on your bucket list to tour with?

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Man. Um, I dude, we did motorhead. We did Sabbath.

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We did priest.

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Yeah. There's not too many when you've done that, that

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you haven't done.

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Right. We, we, uh, we do want to tour with, uh,

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Queens of the stone age. Cause we've been good friends

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with them for the better part of two decades. But, um,

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You know, we're friends and that's good enough. So I

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feel like almost every box has been checked on our

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dream list of tour buddies, you know?

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I love it.

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It's amazing.

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Is that wild?

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Like, when you first got into this, could you imagine

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saying that today?

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No, no. And I'm glad I didn't know this because

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my teenage brain would have exploded.

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Right.

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You know? So it's best to not know the future sometimes.

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Exactly.

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And it's like, if somebody would have told you at

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that time, and you'd be sitting here at Louder Than

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Life talking about how you played at Ozzy's last show,

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what would you have said?

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I either wouldn't believe future me or my head would explode. Right.

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Or implode. I don't know. Explode, implode.

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Either or.

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Either or. Neither or.

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I don't know.

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Both at the same time.

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Now, you dropped some new music recently.

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I did.

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I also want to know how do artists have been

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doing as long as you still write great new music?

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Like, how is there still those ideas flowing?

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Yeah.

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I think it's just the passion that you have for creating.

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Very fortunate that our guitar players, Nick Johnston and Bill Kelleher,

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they are riff machines. Our drummer, Bron Daler, he comes

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up with a lot of music. Our keyboardist, JoÃ£o Nogueira,

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he has a lot of input creatively. I chip in

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as often and as much as I can, so we still, thankfully,

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maintain the fire. It's still burning, so we want to

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keep working on music. That's good. And our new record

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just came out three weeks ago, and we're already working

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on a whole batch of new songs while we're on

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tour now. Looking forward to the next release. So thankfully,

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it's this fire that has yet to be extinguished in

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all five of us.

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I love that because, too, like even what you said,

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you're already writing new music again. It seems we're getting

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a resurgence of what that used to be like that,

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opposed to... bands that nowadays have like dropped an album

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every four years or whatever. So I love the fact

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that after all these years, you still have that passion

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to finish a record and not just ride that record,

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but already writing.

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Yeah. Thankfully we're in that position. Um, cause I could

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easily understand if you have writer's block or if you

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get burnt out or if you're just, um, complacent with,

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you know, you know, I guess complacent, we don't, we

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don't fit into any, we don't feel any complacency. Um,

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And it's a good thing because we're all just very

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much looking forward to what's next. We still have countries

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that we've not played in. We have a lot of

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musical territories that we've yet to tread, writing songs to

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branch out to this vibe, this thing, this various inspiration.

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So there's still a lot to be done.

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Is there any countries that stick out in your mind

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that you really want to play in?

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Yeah, we've never played Korea or China or South Africa.

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And so we'd love to, you know, if the opportunity arises,

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do that. We've been very fortunate to play, I think,

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40-something countries. Wow. No complaints. But, you know, if we

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can play a place that we've never played before, then

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that's a big piece of excitement to look forward to

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when you see something on the agenda in a few months.

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Say we're going to, you know, whatever, Cape Town. Like, oh,

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my God, that's amazing. So, yeah, keep going. We're trying

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to do as much as possible all the time.

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So let's say we knock music out of the answer.

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Now what's your passion? What are your passions outside of music?

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I like to use the crock pot in my kitchen

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at home. The crock pot is my best friend.

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Nice.

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You know, you plan for it the night before, drop

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it in the morning, you set it and forget it.

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House smells great, you come home later, delicious meal. The

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aroma is flowing through the house, tickling all your senses. Yeah,

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I'm a crock pot guy.

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You know, I find that a lot of artists are

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into cooking. Yeah.

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Which is cool.

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It's also the domestic things that you miss when you're touring.

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Yeah.

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It sounds nuts to some people. Like, I look forward

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to mowing the grass. Right. Seven weeks when I get home.

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I get it, though.

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As somebody that does festivals like almost every weekend I

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get it it's like you get home and it's like

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you could do something normal you.

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Know keep a running list of groceries and meal preps

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that I want and go home mow the grass and

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throw some groceries in the crock pot.

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What what's your best meal that you create in a crock.

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Pot well I'm very fond of the slow cooker ribs,

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barbecue ribs, but I do a lot of chicken dishes,

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a lot of veggie dishes. I mix it up.

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There you go.

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I'm still searching. Just like guitar players have this eternal

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search for the best tone, well, I'm in the kitchen

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searching for the best slow-cooked meal.

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There you go.

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It will never cease.

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What was the first concert you ever went to that

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you went like, oh, my God, I love this?

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It would have been... Justice for All on Metallica. That

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particular leg was a Queensryche opening. 1989, 90? Don't remember exactly.

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It wasn't my first concert, but that was the first

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one that floored me. And I was like, that's unbelievable.

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What was it about it that floored you?

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It was the whole crowd doing the Die, Die chant.

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As well as the statue, Lady Justice, doing how it

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would crumble at the end. I had never seen anything

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theatrical like that at a concert. And then just the

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sheer ferocity of their live set, yeah, was incredible.

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And that was always them, like live. I was at

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their first show ever.

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Nice.

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And Slayers.

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Awesome.

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And it's like those shows, even those first ones where

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they should actually suck, were like just unbelievable because there

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was nothing like it, you know? And it led to

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where we are today.

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Like, look at this.

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There's going to be 240,000 people here at Lateran Life.

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Over the weekend.

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Can you imagine for a metal festival, if you went

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back to when you started, could you imagine that?

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I could. I remember seeing photos in the rock magazines

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of that time. You know, the hit paraders and circus

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and whatnot of Donington. And that was like, that just

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seemed like, that's overseas. That's something you'll never see or witness.

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But the photos are amazing.

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Right.

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Yeah, and that's all become our reality right now, which is,

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it's unbelievable.

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And I cover Download every year too.

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Nice.

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And the year Metallica headline, people complained 15 miles away

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that they could hear Metallica loud and clear because whatever

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sound system they were using, it's like, This new system

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they use where no matter where you are in the festival,

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you can hear them like you're up front. Can you

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imagine 15 miles away being able to hear a concert

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clear as day?

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It's wild.

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And they should have just soaked it in and be like, hey,

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this is one night only. I'm in my house, but

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I can hear Metallica playing.

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Right, exactly.

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They'll be done in two hours. Don't complain about it.

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Yeah, exactly.

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Just enjoy the sounds.

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What's your favorite part of doing what you do?

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It's the time that we have on stage and the

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magic that happens in between the crowd and ourselves and

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back and forth. It's an intangible thing that's hard to describe.

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And never gets old, right?

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No, no. Whether there's four people in the crowd or

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400 or 4,000, it's the same energy. It's magical. It's

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not a handshake, it's not a hug, but it's this

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thing in the ether, in the sound waves going back

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and forth that's It creates a connection that you would

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have never had with that person or people. Unbreakable. And

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it's just the most beautiful thing I've ever witnessed.

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I love hearing that because that is what it's about, right?

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You know, like we're just one big family here. And

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I call it a transfer of emotion. You guys are playing.

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And it's the best therapy there is. Listen, I have

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a solution to all the world's problems. You want to

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hear it?

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Yeah.

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One major metal festival that the whole world's required to attend.

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I like that.

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No political leaders. They're banned.

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Security's told, you know, cross out that wristband. And we

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just put everybody in a mosh pit. And we'll all

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just work it out in the pit and hug each

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other when it's all over.

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I think you're on to something there.

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You'll be on the bill when I figure out how

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to do that, for sure.

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Please invite us.

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But for now, I can't wait until you're set here

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at Louder Than Life. And thank you for being on

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The Adventures of Pipe Man.

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Thank you. Appreciate it. Hey, this is Troy Sanders from Mastodon,

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and you're listening to The Pipe Man on W4CY. com.

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Thank you for listening to The Adventures of Pipe Man

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on W4CY Radio.

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Thank you.

Louder Than Life and Beyond: Mastodon’s Troy Sanders on the Heart of Metal Festivals

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