Feist is sampling southern rock legends Mastodon on her upcoming Pleasure album. Despite being an unlikely friendship, Mastodon and Feist have been close since meeting on an episode of Jools in 2012 where they were both featured as guests. In 2013 they reaffirmed their relationship when they released a Record Store Day 2012 spilt single where they both covered one of the others songs.
And now earlier this week Feist announced that Mastadon would be sampled on her upcoming LP Pleasure, furthering the odd bond. The sample is from Mastadon’s track “High Road” from the album Once More ‘Round the Sun and will be featured on the song “A Man is Not His Song.”
Feist told Pitchfork recently, “I wanted a sonic representation of the feminine/masculine binary, and Mastodon is like a flamethrower of guy-sound and feeling.” She went on to explain:
“It felt right at the end of this observation that a man is not his song, and nothing is really what it purports to be. I know a lot of men, and a lot of them write songs, and I know the difference between what they are and what they sing. And it’s same for me — there is your pedestrian voice and your maker’s voice, and it just felt notable to observe that some people can be subsumed by the voice they’ve made, and others keep it in check.”
Luckily for us the sample will do exactly what Feist intended and give the song a huge burst of power with the distinct southern sound of Mastodon. This cross genre collaboration is something that should be tested more often. It gives listeners a safe way to try something new and often leads to amazing things, so please give it a listen when the album drops April 28th. Check out the title track below.