Wolfgang Van Halen has revealed he'd like to collaborate with rock royalty Dave Grohl and Myles Kennedy.
In an interview with Help Musician's I Never Thought It Would Happen podcast, Van Halen talked about how, despite being a multi-instrumentalist, he still has a bucket list of collaborators.
“I would really love to collaborate with my really good friend – he sings for Alter Bridge and for Slash – Myles Kennedy,” he revealed. “I think he is a wonderful human being, and an incredibly talented singer and guitar player. So I would I would jump at an opportunity to collaborate with him for sure.
“It'd also be fun to collaborate with one of my biggest inspirations, Dave Grohl. I'm basically ripping him off with Mammoth and the way that he started with Foo Fighters recording everything himself. I've kind of modeled the way Mammoth exists because of him. So if he didn't exist, I wouldn't.”
In the same interview, Van Halen also talked about the beauty of recording all instruments on the Mammoth WVH albums and the artist-producer trust that’s required, especially when recording to tape.
“My producer Michael Baskette and our engineer, Jef Moll, they're practically the other half of the band. I play all the instruments and write everything for Mammoth.
“There's obvious frustration some days [when] you're not feeling it. But I think that's the wonderful thing about doing it yourself is that's like, if this isn't working, let's just do another thing and come back to it.”
He continued, “And so while I can fully focus on that, [they can focus on] the production aspect and the recording, the complications. We record to tape for drums and guitar because I use my father's studio 5150.
“All the tape machines are there and ready to go. So it's like why don't we use it? But yeah, because of their high skill and my trust in them, there's really nothing to doubt or worry about when it comes to the production of Mammoth.”
Despite Van Halen very much steering the Mammoth WVH ship, the project's collaborative spirit extends to the live setup. “The fun duality of Mammoth is that I have a live band of really great friends and musicians to perform and reinterpret the music live, but also having my fun artistic expression in the studio.”
Mammoth WVH are touring extensively this year. The band recently supported Slash feat Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators in the UK and Europe. They kick off their US headline tour on May 4 in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and are also touring with Metallica and Foo Fighters this summer.
