page: 18
 title: TOOL
author: Mark van Schaick

*NOTE*: This text is translated (it's originally Dutch) so it 
contains some grammatical mistakes. Also, the text is not completely 
literally translated: some words are left out and some sentences are 
formulated differently, 'cause else it would sound silly.


TOOL

readingtime: 4'06 

"THE MUSIC TOOK IT OVER, SWALLOWED US UP." 

After over four years of business fuss Tool returns in 2001. A 
boxset, a new album, a worldtour; there's no stopping it. Drummer 
Danny Carey relieves his heart. 

Few bands can afford to not to bring out new material for almost four 
years long. Tool can. Maynard James Keenan, Adam Jones, Justin 
Chancellor and Danny Carey prove they have very loyal 
supporters, 'cause the boxset Salival, with DVD (on which the four 
music video's of the band) and CD (live -and restrecordings), shot up 
into the upper regions of the American albumchart after the release 
in December. Salival finally arrives , on importbase indeed, at the 
Dutch stores one of these days. The band promised that a new 
studioalbum will come out on 17 April, and we haven't even mentioned 
the announced appearances at Dynamo Open Air and Pinkpop. So for the 
TOOL-Update over to Californie, over to Danny Carey. 

IT TOOK A WHILE, BUT WE IN HOLLAND CAN FINALLY HOLD SALIVAL OURSELVES 
TOO. 

"It was a surprise to us that Europe kept behind with the release of 
the box. It took much too long, but hopefully we can get things 
cleared up more for our fans." 

-Didn't you have a lot more material? There's enough room for two 
CD's in that box. 

"Well, we don't have that much restrecordings. And the important part 
of the box isn't the audio, but the video's. Those were never 
commercially available and rarely on TV. In America only Sober was 
played regularly on MTV. Was it different in Europe? Our fans really 
had to wait till after midnight to see a TOOL-video. 
Frustrating, 'cause we put a lot of work in it." 

-Tell us about the artwork of the box. 

"As always it was Adam's idea. We discussed with the group about it. 
Creativity comes from the heart, the hands shape the creativity. 
Hence the figure with the glowing heart and the hands closing round 
the box." 

THE RECORD COMPANY GAVE ME TWO RESTRICTIONS FOR THIS INTERVIEW. I'M 
NOT ALLOWED TO ASK QUESTIONS ABOUT YOUR FORMER MANAGER, TED GARDNER. 
AND I'M NOT ALLOWED TO ASK ABOUT THE TITLE OF THE NEW RECORD. 

"You mean the album that's coming out in April? I don't see why. The 
title is Lateralus. You can also read that on www.toolband.com. We're 
not keeping it a secret, and the songtitles either. Maybe our record 
company has other plans, I don't know. And that thing with Ted, well, 
that's all a bit sensitive. They're working on a trial now, so that's 
why they rather don't have too much publicity on it. What it's about, 
is that Ted was fired for a reason, a reason he denies. We'll see 
what happens. Sometimes these kind of differences never make it to 
court." 

-The last few years you had a number of business differences. Can you 
name them all? 

"Sure: in October 1996 AEnima came out. After that we toured for a 
year or two, but ZOO, our record company at that time, was already 
standing on the verge of ruin at that moment. They had signed too 
many worthless acts and were losing money. Then some asshole with no 
knowledge of music or business took over ZOO. He fired everyone who 
did know how to do things, including the lawyers who served our 
causes. The result of that was that no one at ZOO knew when our 
contract had to be renewed. We let that date expire, so we were free 
to do whatever we wanted. And that happened when we were at the peak 
of our career. It couldn't be any better. Zoo claimed that there was 
talk of a verbal agreement about the renewal of the contract, but 
legally they had no case. However the discussion about that between 
our lawyers and theirs did take about one and a half year. One and a 
half year in which the atmosphere was fucked up and the creativity 
blocked. When it became clear to us that we were free to sign a new 
contract, we ofcourse began to talk with other parties. They were 
standing in line for us, which was a very luxurious situation. We 
could peacefully go down all options and make the best choice. Very 
educating, but that was also time-consuming. Eventually we stayed 
close to home. Zoo was sold to Clive Cauldor and the men of Q Prime 
Management, Peter Mensch and Cliff Bernstein. They changed the name 
into Volcano, threw almost everyone off the label and offered us a 
good new contract. They already had the rights of our old material, 
so that made negociating more interesting. After all these years in 
which especially others made money out of us, we finally have 
everything sorted out properly, both concerning new and old 
material." 

WHICH BRINGS US TO 2000. WAS IT HARD TO FIND YOURSELF AGAIN FOR THE 
NEW RECORD? 

"Yeah, it was, 'cause if you've been busy with the business side of 
the story for so long and you've only been talking with idiots, you 
kinda forget why you're doing all this in the first place, and how. 
We just began playing with the four of us and after a while 
jamsessions got going automatically. That was the beginning actually. 
That's how we knew again what we're able of. The music took it over, 
swallowed us up. The sound, the feeling, everything was back again." 

-Then A Perfect Circle intervened. And you lost Maynard. 

"Yeah, and the succes of that surprised us all, including Maynard. 
That was also hard, you know, when that really got going. We knew 
that he would co-operate on that record, 'cause Billy Howerdel and 
Maynard have shared an appartment for a long time when Billy was 
still our guitarroadie. Maynard was there in the very beginning of 
those songs. Billy did his very best on that songmaterial and because 
of that business going on with TOOL, he was offered some very good 
recorddeals. And then it's very logical that a record company that 
invested a few millions in such a project, also wants to earn money 
back. And for that Maynard had to go on tour and that's why the most 
TOOL-like track of the album was chosen as a single. I was pretty 
pissed off about that. It was also annoying that their tour just got 
longer and longer. We needed Maynard to fit the missing pieces in OUR 
puzzle. That took also longer than was planned. Still we eventually 
wrote and recorded Lateralus in a year, which isn't that long." 

-To run ahead of things; was it hard to make the new record or not? 

"Yeah, it was. But not harder that the other. It's a democratic 
process and testing every single suggestion of every bandmember just 
costs a lot of time and trouble. But afterwards the result is so 
gratifying. I hear in our new record the belief and the 
persuasiveness and the personal input of everyone. There's never talk 
of an idea brought up by one person that has to be carried out in a 
certain way." 

-Ever thought of quitting TOOL? 

"No, never. All the drudgery was worth it. I just got a copy of 
Lateralus back from the masterlab and I myself can't get enough of 
it. Even if it will take the next eight years to make an album, still 
we won't quit." 

-Eight years, hm. 

"I'll guarantee you that that'll not happen. And during one of our 
rehearsals we once looked how many idea's and material we had left 
from all of the jams and the recordings. A lot, so. Enough to work 
further again on new pieces soon. If the business side is alright...



  page: 72
 title: Tool - Salival
author: Mark van Schaick

*NOTE*: This text is translated (it's originally Dutch) so it 
contains some grammatical mistakes. Also, the text is not completely 
literally translated: some words are left out and some sentences are 
formulated differently, 'cause else it would sound silly. *ALSO* some 
names in the original text are spelled wrong, so I chose to leave the 
mistakes in the (translated) text.



TOOL - Salival (Tool Dissectional/Volcano/Zomba)

In this boxset you'll find a CD and a DVD. To begin with the last 
one: it contains the four music video's the band made for Sober, 
Prison Sex (of the album Undertow, video's made in '93), Stinkfist 
and AEnema (of the album AEnima, video's made in '97), plus a 
bonusvideo for Hush of their debut Opiate, that maybe once was made 
as lowbudget-video (naked bandmembers with 'parental advisory'-signs 
in front of the 'explicit parts'). The interactivity is minimal, with 
an almost Spartan menu. The four regular video's are based on idea's 
of the whole band and they were made under supervision of guitarist 
Adam Jones (who worked with special effects for among others Lucas 
and Spielberg in Hollywood). One by one they represent, in nearly 
psychedelic stop-motion-techniques, the feelings that are determined 
in the songs, but they leave enough room for personal 
interpretations. The video's fascinate, but at the same time feel 
uncomfortable with all that horror under it and alienation. Who looks 
at them one after the other, will never forget that there are people 
who have no clue of the video offer of MTV and TMF. Alright, now the 
CD. This contains live-recordings made in Salt Lake City, San Diego, 
Portland (OR) and Denver and also pieces out of the studio, all mixed 
by David Bottrill. The long version of Pushit (live) is very 
deviated, dreamy for the first eight minutes, with a tabla solo by 
Aloke Dutto. Other guestmusicians are keyboard player Vince De Franco 
in a phenomenal performance of 3rd Eye (live) and King Buzzo (of the 
Melvins) on guitar in the Led Zeppelin-cover No Quarter (studio). 
Unnecessary is a second version of the 'snack' (of AEnima) Message to 
Harry Manback (by the way, in the artwork it's spelled Messege -even 
controlefreaks make a mistake once in a while). Merkaba (live) 
illustrates Tool's Black Sabbath-side and You Lied (live) is in fact 
a jam with a drumsolo as point of departure. Ofcourse the CD contains 
a ghosttrack. Behind this joke that is Lame, is another song, in 
which Maynard James Keenan does his very best at the chorus with the 
words Maynard's Dead. Or is he singing Maynard's Dick? However, they 
both fit perfectly with the eccentric character of this 
luxurious 'snack'.
Posted to t.d.n: 03/21/01 10:39:48