It's been a long time between drinks for rock's favourite intergalactic bugs, Alien Ant Farm – nine years to be exact.
However, like all the other surprises 2024 has been throwing out, the band infamous for that cover of 'Smooth Criminal' have spun out a new record that's harder than your Sunday hangover and crisper than your mum's iceberg lettuce.Reflecting from a warm summer's evening outside his Californian home, frontman Dryden Mitchell lays down exactly why the band took their time. "We wanted to make it right for those that care, and I'm one of them. We wanted to make it up to par with the proper way to do it. It felt like writing a love letter to myself.
"I write music on the daily, but just because you can [release it], doesn't mean you should. I wanted to make sure in ten years time, I wouldn't change anything for that little snapshot of my life."
'Mantras' is the band's sixth album offering, and the first where Mitchell has immersed himself in taking the creative reins, a role that hits home.
"Every once in awhile you hit the bullseye. That record for me is the moment, artistically, creatively. I edited all my own vocals, sometimes I'd do 50 takes trying to find my little Dryden moments. No one's gonna care as much as you when you're doing these things that we love. So it was fun and tedious, all the things that it should be.
"I tuned everything using Melodyne and found I sing slightly sharp of the note almost every time. I started to see that not as an insecurity. That little push is what makes me, me. I didn't wanna lose that completely, and all of a sudden you get this AI version of me. Nobody wants that."
Walking the fine line between unpolished brilliance and laboured excellence was a theme for Mitchell throughout the production of 'Mantras', a dichotomy he enjoyed both sides of.
"Some songs, when it's time to emote, two or three takes is it, all your emotions are gonna be gone after that. So you might as well do it like the love letter I'm talking about.
"Usually you could always make it better with repetition, but there's something cool when there's an excitement in your fingers or in your voice that can't be replicated. Demoitis, it's almost a sickness. A $12 microphone sounds better than this $20,000 mic. It's weird.
"A lot of the songs on this record have a couple of versions, which are not changed a little bit, they're completely, lyric and melody. Specifically 'Last DAntz'. I love that song so much. The original version was really cool but I felt that I could beat it. You just keep taking your notepad out, until you feel you've won this weird little Rubik's Cube pattern.
"Sometimes, the first thing that falls out is a beautiful thing, and then sometimes it's surgical."
Mitchell's immersion in the production process was not coincidental, but the result of laying down burdens he speaks openly about. "I've been sober for a few years and I feel like that created a lot of anxiety in me, but the music fared well by my sobriety.
"Maybe I would have stuck with the first thing that came to mind if I was still drinking. I used to love to get sad drunk and write and write, but that was the only thing that it was good for. Everything else was falling apart around me.
"It's a different lens I'm looking through and I can enjoy other aspects again. I don't know that I'd be editing my own vocals. I used to do a bunch of takes and go, 'the engineer's gonna fix it'.
"I don't want anything to be fixed that I don't approve, it's so personal. It was nice. Sometimes I'd have people in the room and respectfully take their criticisms, and other songs I didn't want anyone but me to hear it."
The writing process comprised staying out of the other Ants' way, something Mitchell finds magical. "I usually get riffs from Terry [Corso, lead guitar] or drum-machined parts with a root noted bassline I can scat over. It's like Double Dutch, to weave my way in there and not disrupt anything. That's the funnest part of music, the smallest footprint can make the biggest splash for a song.
"I start singing some angsty breakup song. They're always breakups with myself, I'm usually coming from her talking to me, and I don't think the guys wanna hear my take on another spoiled relationship, but by the end, they're like 'damn dude, it's pretty cool'."
After far too long, the Alien Ants are tunnelling their way down to Oz (alongside CKY) with the classics and 'Mantras' in tow, and there's one thing they're looking forward to most. "A warm welcome. It's been so long.
"We've brought up going to Australia so many times. From my experience being there, out of the gate, the shows went so great, it's hard for me to wonder why we haven't been since, but, I can't dwell on that, just be excited that we're finally coming back."
Just one question remains, which mantra changed Mitchell’s life? "In the distance, there's a big hill and a cross. I'm not religious, but I take my dogs up that hill. It's quite a pain in the ass to get up there.
"I just wish I'd done more of that, clearing my head. Maybe it's my little glitch, I'm like, 'I have to go up the hill'. Maybe losing my addiction to cocaine and alcohol, that's my security blanket, that hill up there.
"Finding a healthy distraction is huge. I wish that people would find 1,000 healthy distractions."
Alien Ant Farm & CKY 2025 Tour Dates
Fri 7 Feb - The Princess Theatre (Brisbane)Sat 8 Feb - Metro Theatre (Sydney)
Sun 9 Feb - Northcote Theatre (Melbourne)
Tue 11 Feb - Lion Arts Factory (Adelaide)
Wed 12 Feb - Magnet House (Perth)
