Publication: Defacto
Date: February, 1997
Transcribed by
Ed Phillips (Custard42@aol.com)
Ed Phillips (Custard42@aol.com)
page: title: Interview with Adam, Aenima Review author: Ed Phillips [Ed Phillips and is one of the editors of a regionally based alternative music magazine called 'defacto', based in Birmingham in the UK, and he seemed quite the cool guy. --K] I have sent you a review of Aenima and an interview with Adam Jones that we did earlier this year (I believe it is a UK exclusive as 2 mins in to the interview with 'Metal Hammer' Adam put the phone down...). They were both published in the February issue of defacto and if they are any use to you please use them. I know they are very brief and not as involved as your other articles but i think reading the interview will sum up what the mainstream reaction to tool is like in the UK. It's a real shame that we aren't given the access to Tool that you have in the states but as Adam explains I don't blame them for not coming here. http://www.strandloop.com/defacto Interview with Adam Jones: Tools latest album 'Aenima' was released in October 1996, three years after their first full length release 'Undertow'. In that time Tool have spent two years touring the States and Europe and then concentrating on the material for the latest album. Towards the end of 1996 Tool replaced bass player Paul D'Amour with Justin Chancellor, former member of UK band 'Peach'. They will be playing a one off UK date on the 23rd February at the LA2 in London. Tool make progressive rock for the 90's, sort of. They create something that is honest, pure, alternative and not hung up with pretentious wank which many bands make the mistake of relying on in their music. They are one of the most original bands of the 90's and they conform to nothing. At its roots, Tools music is very big, it's powerful, uncoordinated and distubing. Tool are not an easy band to understand and after talking with Adam Jones, Tool's guitarist I am left with more questions than I started with. The change of bassists : "The trouble started when we were getting the material ready for Aenima, there was a massive difference in direction, Paul was pulling in one way, we were pulling in another. He's doing another project and when you hear it you'll know why he left Tool. Justin has fitted in perfectly, it couldn't be better." Playing in the UK: "I don't know wether we will, we are not getting any support from the record company. The UK is really fucked, it's just this massive pop market. If you're not writing really stupid songs and making a lot of money, which we could do easily , then the industry is not willing to support you. We have some fucking intergrity." The reason for no single in the UK: "It's a real shame for our fans in the UK that we're not getting the support we need. I'm not saying America is the perfect place for us, but in the UK it's all about making money and shifting units, maybe if I owned a record company I'd think differently but that's the way I view it. That's why we're not releasing a single over there, we're not dealing with RCA when it comes to the UK, they suck and we're not a pop band and we're never gonna be a pop band so i guess we're not gonna be able to compete." Underground in the UK: "Even the underground scene in the UK sucks, I mean Mint 400 were a fucking amazing band but they got stomped on because they weren't immediately accessible, a bit like us and the music industry could'nt handle that in the UK. Everybody in Britain is up for making a fast buck, some things don't make money right away, they need investment and nurturing, the industry over there can't grasp that idea. I just feel sorry for the bands who don't play pop." Tool and metal: "I'm sick of that whole attitude, the one that puts Tool in with metal bands, not that there is anything wrong with metal bands but we're not metal. We have a hard edge but we're not metal, the press over there can't seem to distinguish between alternative and metal. Take Metal Hammer for instance, I mean what is so metal about it? It's so hard doing this and trying to keep your integrity, everyone want's to sum up your music in terms of whichever band is most popular at the time. I mean we're getting compared to Marilyn Manson,what the fuck is going on, I think the're a great band, really entertaining, very scary but Tool are nothing like them. When we first released 'Opiate' the press were comparing us to Nirvana then they were comapring us to Nine Inch Nails, I just don't understand it, it's like we're not allowed to be Tool?" Art, Taste and the UK: "Art opens doors for you, it's a fantastic thing to be involved in, it's not so much about having people imediately get what your doing, it's about stimulating a reaction in any way we can. People want that, there are alot of people that don't want to think. It's like "give me another song that I'll like, give me another video that I won't understand but is good to look at", they don't like it if it has to grow on them. It takes a lot in these days for someone to go with the underground, to go with something thats not safe, to explore. I don't think People in the UK are given that opportunity."
Review for Aenima: Tool Aenima Zoo Entertainment Listening to Aenima is like treading water in the middle of the deepest ocean you can possibly imagine, frightening. I am certainly not qualified to call it a masterpeice but, it is. If you take a songs like "Eulogy" and "Pushit", for instance, they become almost orchestral with the massive sounds that they create. Tool are not imediately easy to listen too though, "Die Eier Von Satan" quite soon became relegated to skipsville in CD speak and the begining to "Eulogy" is a test for anybody who knows what delights are to follow about 2 mins and 8 seconds into the track. That aside, as a follow up to the dark and disturbing "Undertow", Tool have excelled themselves. Go out right now, buy and play it very, very loud. As one of the Metal Professors put it, "they go somewhere, then they go somewhere else". It's true, listen.
Posted to t.d.n: 05/15/97 22:44:57