Confidence as the Key to The End

Confidence is probably the center point of why this record feels different from the last few. Finding my own identity as my own artist and songwriter has been my biggest journey, with my family lineage and everything.

I think this was the very first time that I just stopped thinking about everything and stopped caring, because comparisons will always be drawn no matter what I do. So I just let go of that anxiety and tried to do something I unabashedly loved without worrying about what people were going to think. I think that's where the confidence comes from. You can hear it in my vocals, in my guitar playing, and in the overall songwriting. That's why it comes through on this record.

The Meaning Behind the Title

It has a multitude of meanings in so many different ways - personal, and also reflecting the state of the world at the same time. I was writing the lyrics during the Los Angeles fires last year, and we lost about three weeks of recording time because I was focused on making sure I had everything of my father's saved in case we had to leave at any given moment. There was that kind of anxiety always underneath the creative flow, which is not very conducive to creativity.

We were very lucky to be OK - a lot of people weren't - so it was a very scary time. Throughout that lyric-writing process, this sort of doom-and-gloom anxiety was persisting throughout everything, and I realized that the concept of "the end" - and what it could mean - seemed to be a through line. It was almost like a concept record without fully going for it. I realized that every song was closely related in unpacking what that could mean. That's usually from a negative place, but the very last song is a positive exploration of what "the end" could be all in good time.

Music is a really therapeutic thing for me, and I think it was me just working through that panic. That's where it really shows through the lyrical process.

The Song That Unlocked the Record

I think the very first song, "One Of A Kind," is the one that really felt like the biggest kick-off to the songwriting process. It was super fresh, super different - we'd never done anything that involved that heavy of a tempo change before. It was an exciting sort of fake-out at the beginning that keeps returning, almost like the song has these waves. It felt like we were breaking new ground, and it was really inspiring.

That allowed me to stop worrying about everything. That's where the song "The End" came out. And once that song seemed like it was going to be the first thing people heard, it really felt like the centerpiece of the record. It felt like the right time to stop caring about what people were going to think about me, and it also felt right for it to be the first titled Mammoth record. A lot of people were thinking it was going to be Mammoth 3, but it just felt right, given the growth compared to the last few records and the fact that we were finally able to drop the WVH [Mammoth was previously known as Mammoth WVH]. It was the end in a lot of different ways, and the beginning in a lot of different ways too. It just seemed to fit.

Balancing Heaviness and Melody

I really enjoy heavy music - I'm wearing a Meshuggah shirt right now, actually. I love the power that a heavy drop has in a song, and just things sounding huge in general. But in the context of the Mammoth world, I don't think that should ever come at the expense of melody. That's why every one of our songs has a chorus you can sing along to. The melody is always something catchy. You should never sacrifice one for the other. The ability to marry those two things is really important to what Mammoth is. It's about trying to find that balance rather than just alternating between the two. It's about weaving them together.

The Hardest Part of His Job

When it comes to playing in the studio - laying down drum tracks, guitar, all of it - that's probably the most comfortable thing for me. Being a frontman is still a very tough thing. It's not really my personality type. I'm a really shy, reserved sort of person. I think a lot of people might take it as me being rude because of how quiet I can be in social situations, when really I'm just paralyzed with social anxiety.

That's still the biggest challenge: being the face of it all. I know I need to be, because I feel like I need to represent the material I've worked so hard to create. That's what pushes me to get more comfortable with it. I'm a lot more comfortable now than I was four years ago, and if you keep doing something over and over, you should hopefully get better at it. I think I am, a little bit.

Writing as Therapy

Sometimes you think you're writing a song about something because of the way you're feeling when you're writing it, and then you'll hear a verse later in a completely different context, even though you're the one who wrote it, and think, "Oh, wow - that makes sense here too." It's almost like your subconscious is adding another layer without you realizing it. I always try to write lyrics from a pretty personal place, but I like to write from a perspective where you can insert yourself into it, so it can almost change meaning a little depending on who's listening.

Becoming a Songwriter

I didn't really make the full push [into songwriting] until around 2012, 2013. I was on the second Van Halen tour and had an acoustic guitar with me, always writing little things. It just seemed like the logical next step. I'd been playing with my dad for a while and we'd just done a record, so I thought maybe I should see what I'm capable of. There was an interview I did for Bass Player magazine around that time where they asked what I saw myself doing in the future, and I said I really wanted to see if I could play every instrument on a record, like Dave Grohl did on the first Foo Fighters record. It's a trip to look back on that now and see where I am - that I was actually able to do it. Pretty cool.

The Underappreciated Side of Mammoth

At this point, anything rock is maybe underappreciated. I understand that it went from being over-appreciated to where it is now, but I think there could be a nice balance. When a band releases radio singles, a lot of people only hear that one song and assume they know what the band sounds like. Somebody will hear "Don't Back Down" and immediately think they've got us figured out.

Everyone judges a book by its cover, but if people really gave us a chance, they'd see that we have a little something for everybody. There's softer stuff like "Distance" or "All In Good Time" on this record, and then there's stuff like "Optimist" on the second record that's a lot more metal-influenced.

I view our catalog as a spectrum. All the way on one end you have the softer stuff, and on the other end you have the more metal, harder, progressive-driven material. In the middle you have the core ideas. Songs like "Epiphany" or "Mammoth" are good representations of that, and on this record, "Something New" is a good example of what a core Mammoth song sounds like.

The Song He Wishes He Wrote

It would be "Ain't It Fun" by Paramore. It's a perfect blend of a pop song with really intricate musical execution, but I don't think a lot of people notice that. I'm a big fan of Ilan Rubin, who now plays for the Foo Fighters. He played the drums on that track, and I've always loved the musical execution of it. The bass is really great on that song, and obviously Hayley Williams is one of the best singers out there right now. I just think it's a perfect example of what I try to do with Mammoth, that blend of impressive musical execution married with really great melody to the point where there's something for both sides. A lot of people who listen to music will focus on vocals and melody, but then there's also the aspect of musicians who want to hear interesting musical moments. The ability to do both at the same time is a fun challenge.

Living With the Van Halen Legacy

It's always going to be a thing that gets brought up. It's always new for somebody, even though it's as old as can be for me. It's a tough thing. On one hand, it's wonderful to see the effect my father had on music and on guitar playing in general. But it's also a double-edged sword, because some people won't give me the time of day and will just assume things.

Some days it's tougher than others, but most of the time it's just stuff you can't really reason with. On this record, more than anything, I began to let go of worrying about that and just do what brings me purpose, what makes me happy, and what feels the most fulfilling.

What He Hopes Fans Hear

I think it would be really great for somebody to discover Mammoth and hear that it can fill a wide breadth of emotions while also covering a wide range within certain genres. There's something for everyone, and something for every mood. If somebody could go from "Optimist" to a song like "Circles" or "Waiting" and realize how wide the breadth is between those two, and that almost every space in between is filled, I think that's a cool thing a band can do.

What He's Most Proud Of

I think there's a lot to be proud of. There's a lot of expectation placed on me that is sometimes incredibly crippling. But now I'm in my 30s and beginning to let go, just trying to be my own person instead of trying to match up with other people's expectations. I think that's a lot of unfair pressure to be put on somebody, and I think I've handled it pretty well.

I'm not usually one to give myself a pat on the back, but on paper, I should be on a yacht with a coke problem, wasting my life away. The fact that I'm doing what I'm doing, given the criticism that has been leveled at me for more than half my life, since I was 14 or 15, I think I'm pretty well put together mentally, considering what I've been through.

What's Next for Mammoth

On the immediate front, we have a lot of touring planned this year, which is really exciting. We're about to go out on our second headline tour leg, and then we're going to be opening for Bush after that, which is going to be really cool. We're going to South America for the first time this year, opening for Iron Maiden, which is going to be insane. And then we're doing a headline tour at the end of the year in Europe and the UK, which will be a lot of fun. We've done a lot of opening slots there but never a big run of headline shows, so that should be great.

In the long run, I don't know if there's anything more specific than just hoping I'm able to keep doing this. If 20 years from now I'm still working on Mammoth 10, Mammoth 11, and people are still coming to see us, that's all I could ever ask for.

February 26, 2026

Further reading:
Our 2021 interview with Wolfgang
List of Van Halen Songfacts entries
Podcast episode with Eric Senich of the Van Halen News Desk

Get tour dates at mammoth.band

Photos: Travis Shinn

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