Film director Jimmy Hayward’s imagination has brought us films like Horton Hears a Who and Jonah Hex, and he’s contributed to several Pixar films. Thankfully, he’s finally channeled some of that family-style energy into something that’s a little more adult: Legend of the Seagullmen. Hayward created and produced this nautical-themed band — and its spaghetti western-style saga — with an impressive cache of buddies that includes Mastodon frontman Brent Hinds, Tool drummer Danny Carey, Dimitri Coats from OFF!, and a seemingly endless list of additional genius-types.
To Billboard, Hayward floats the story of when he came up with the group’s extremely deep concept with vocalist Dave “Doctor” Dreyer, with whom he shares a “crazy relationship, like Lennon and Lenin”:
He had this whole idea of this Japanese diver. The eve before his wedding, he’s undersea doing his job, and a tsunami hits that causes a reactor to release all this radiation into the ocean. Suddenly, you’ve got this 150-foot deep-sea diver who’s enraged that his wife is killed, so he goes and sacks the city.
Legend of the Seagullmen, the sloop-ergroup’s debut album, comes out this Friday, February 9 via Dine Alone Records. Track listing and cover art below, as well as a stream of the whole damn album (thanks, Billboard!) Pre-order is available here.
Legend of the Seagullmen Tracklisting:
01. We Are the Seagullmen
02. The Fogger
03. Shipswreck
04. Curse of the Red Tide
05. Legend of the Seagullmen
06. The Orca
07. Rise of the Giant
08. Ballad of the Deep Sea Diver
The Related Rabbit Hole
