“The goal was to create something sexy, danceable, with a hallucinatory vibe”: Inside the second album from Brann Dailor’s sci-fi synth outfit Arcadea

At the end of Mastodon’s show-stealing set at Bloodstock a couple of weekends back, Troy Sanders announced that, with their summer of festival touring wrapped up, they were returning home to Atlanta to work on a new record.

That’s gonna be a wait. But good news: drummer Brann Dailor already has new music about to drop, with the second album from Arcadea, The Exodus Of Gravity, coming out this Friday.

It sees Brann once again teaming up with Core Atoms for a synth-driven funk-prog journey into the future, where the the Milky Way and Andromeda galaxies have become one, and spore-riddled AI machines are in charge and becoming the next stage of evolution.

It’s as weird and wonderful as it sounds. To unpack it all, Brann took us through their mystical journey to the stars to explain the concept, the creation, and why he’s planning to perform live as “a debonair clown…”

It’s been a while since the last album, and a lot of people would have guessed it was a one-off. Was the vibe just right to pick it up again?
“I just really liked the project, but it's so busy and life happens. The way it came about in the first place was through my buddy Core, who I've been friends with since the early ’90s. He's a guitar player, and he had this band called Gaylord, who I ended up being the drummer for. It was kind of funky Mr. Bungle worship type of thing. It was pretty fun. He ended up moving to Atlanta a number of years ago and getting a keyboard. While I was on tour he was like, ‘Hey man, I wrote all this music on this keyboard.’ So I checked it out, and it was great, and I said, ‘Let me do some drums on this, and I’ll do some vocals.’
“So that was the first record. It was already done and I just jumped on. When we discussed possibly doing a second one, I said I'd really like to get more involved in the writing side of it, him and I putting things together. We did that in my basement, he’d come over and jam his keys. Lo and behold, we had a spine for a new album. Two years later, here we are.”

What were you looking for when you were jamming?
“The core of something cool. If we had the core of a decent song, we can branch out from there, do your noises and stuff. It really comes down to the mix – put too much stuff in, and then start subtracting from there to make sure that everything grows in the right way. We definitely wanted the new one to be more dancey. That was more of an emphasis that I wanted to put on, because I already have a pretty proggy band, which is fun, and there's still those elements, but it'd be cool to just have something a bit sexy.
“That was what we were going for, and I think we achieved it. For me, it's always about hooks. I need hooks to like music! I don't feel like I'm one of those people that can go without them. Something needs to get the hook in me, and I know lots of people are the same way. I do enjoy some music that's outsider crazy stuff, but I don't enjoy it for that long. If there's nothing to grab onto, I can't grab onto it. We were looking for those, but I think there's enough balance. There’s some weird, far-out moments, some of it’s a little bit ’80s and ’70s, synth worship, there’s some new wave parts that remind me of New Order or something, and some bits have a Bowie vibe.”

Was that an intentional influence?
“Yeah, I mean, for the vocals I go for [Genesis singer] Peter Gabriel’s solo stuff, or Station To Station-era Bowie. I'm always looking at Bowie with this. When I’m recording I think, ‘I need to close my eyes and get into my best early ’80s Bowie.’ My buddy Tom, who engineered it, knows what I'm going for. He can be like, ‘Okay, yeah, I think you're in the realm.’ I'm never gonna sound like Bowie, but it's the thought that counts.”

Let’s talk about the lore. It’s set five billion years in the future, when Andromeda and The Milky Way have merged, and there’s super AI machines that have grown spores…
“Yeah. How did machines get spores? They just grew on them. They're broken down machinery at this point that was left over from previous administration. This was mostly an idea from Core, but I think it's an obvious thing almost saying: humanity needs to reset. Strip it down to the studs and start over with love being the main focal point.”

It’s almost like Dune, or hallucinating in space…
“That's sort of the goal: to try to create a hallucinatory vibe. I feel like most musical projects that I’m in or want to be a part of sound psychedelic in some way. That's what makes me most excited, when it gets psychedelic.”

Did working with synths unlock something creative? It’s different playing around on one and finding noises, than coming up with riffs on a guitar.
“Yeah, and I love it. In Mastodon, we've always tried to fold in those big synth moments, especially since Crack The Skye. I'm a huge fan of Yes and King Crimson and old Genesis, when they would get into those big keyboard parts with Tony Banks and he would go off on those musical tangents. I remember saying to Core, ‘What if we had a band that was just all that stuff?’”

Was it cool as well having something like this where you can just do it, without it becoming a whole big thing like when Mastodon put out new music?
“That's one of the best parts about it. There's no pressure, no expectations, and we can just do whatever we want and make it how we like it, and then it doesn't really affect anyone. Hopefully some people dig it once it comes out, and hopefully we can play some live shows. I hope we do. I am going to step out in front for that. I'm singing way too much on the record, so I'm going to get a drummer to play my parts, so that I can stand up there and clown it up, like in the Fuzzy Planet video. That's how I'll be looking. I couldn't really see myself just rolling out with a pair of shorts and a T-shirt.”

Did you always have designs on taking this on the road?
“I mean, we played three shows before. We played three shows in Atlanta, and that was it. Then the pandemic hit so then we didn't play anymore shows, and then Hushed And Grim was in full effect, and the Mastodon machine took over my life. Which is fine – Mastodon is everything to me. But now, I'm excited to get back home and dig in on doing some live shows. I want to do one in Atlanta and just do it, and then from there, I want to see how it is for me standing up front. How's that feel? What's that like? I have ideas of how it's going to be, what I want to do, as far as being that ‘debonair clown guy’ and the kind of mischief that I can get into. I’m excited. It might be pretty fun.”

The album’s pretty different. What would you say to someone going in on it for the first time?
“Keep an open mind. Don't expect it to be heavy metal just because it’s me. I would say that the absolute perfect experience for this record would be under the stars, maybe at the beach, with a little bit of mushrooms, staring up at the sky where you can see the Milky Way. That would align pretty well. I've yet to do that, so I might have to when we get home.”

The Exodus Of Gravity is released on August 22 via Relapse

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