Gearing up for the supporting tour of his new album, ‘Mammoth II,’ Wolfgang Van Halen recently discussed its content with American Songwriter. Mentioning the changes in his life since his debut album’s recording, he explained how these shifts influenced his songwriting in this release:
“I think that’s [what happened since 2018] why this album is a bit more aggressive, and much darker, and inward, lyrically. I think the first album was more outward, socially. My lyrical style is relationship-based, but this time, it was more inward. It was more of me fighting with myself and my own feelings and emotions than someone else’s.”
Referring to a seemingly positive song, ‘Optimist,’ the singer added:
“It is a really angry, sort of negative song, so it’s almost a sarcastic title in a way. Lyrically, it really reflects the darker tone. When it comes to the melody, I tend to magnetize towards more positive-sounding melodies, but lyrically, if it sounds positive, most likely it’s sarcastic.”
In addition to two nearly seven-minute songs, ‘Take A Bow’ and ‘Better Than You,’ Van Halen made use of his old song ideas like ‘Another Celebration At The End Of The World’ in the latest release. While using Eddie Van Halen’s original equipment in some of these tracks to ‘capture some of his history,’ the singer recorded the album at his late father’s studio, 5150, in Los Angeles.
Talking about how it felt working there in a chat with USA Today, he explained:
“I’ve been going up there my whole life. It just feels like home. To a lot of other people, they think it’s a public studio they can visit, but it’s very much a private home studio. And now it’s my private home studio. It feels like a rite of passage thing. It’s my duty to be making music in it for the rest of my life.”
Released on August 4 via BMG Rights Management, ‘Mammoth II’ is now available for listening.
