Mastodon’s Brann Dailor has spent lockdown drawing 101 clowns, and it’s as brilliant as it sounds

Mastodon’s Brann Dailor has revealed that he coped with lockdown by drawing 101 different pictures of clowns.

Speaking exclusively in the brand new issue of Metal Hammer, the drummer says that he embarked on his epic art project to cope with the “horribleness” of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It’s this meditation that’s been important to my mental health throughout this experience.” he says. “Everyone is dealing with it in their own way, but for me it was imperative that I sit down and do this. I draw these two clowns hugging, like, ‘I needed that’, you know what I mean?”

The images Dailor drew include a clown version of Iron Maiden’s Number Of The Beast album cover, a clown-inspired Jaws poster and his dog, Thriller, depicted as a clown.

He says that he sent some of the pictures to friends and other musicians, including Lars Ulrich, Joey Jordison, Gojira’s Joe and Mario Duplantier, Deftones’ Chino Moreno and more. 

“Everybody’s fragile, and feeling kind of sad,” he says. “Sometimes the clowns would pick them up, and sometimes the clowns would remind them of how special human relationships are and how much they miss everybody.”