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 title: The touring Tool machine
author: Lawrence English

Tool has not made it out to Australia since their brief visit to play 
the Alternative Nation festivals in 1995. Since that time, the band's 
profile has soared, the result being an almost completely sold-out 
Australian tour. Add to this the sales of the band's latest release 
Aenima, which has seen them maintain a position in the top ten albums 
for a considerable length of time and one can begin to understand 
exactly what Tool must be experiencing. Drummer Danny Carey was quick 
to explain exactly what Tool was about for him.

"We don't really have a message," Danny begins.

"We play songs and we want them to act as vehicles through which we 
can grow as a band and as individuals. The songs, albums or any other 
projects we are involved in are the vehicles and as long as we are 
growing and learning along the way then that is great. It is what we 
aim to do. I think we really just keep in mind that we are the ones 
who have to play the songs night after night. If we're happy with it, 
then we figure that people who like the band will be happy with it 
also. We don't try to play down anything down, we keep ourselves in 
mind first and if people want to come along for the ride then that is 
great.

"Tool was one of the easiest things I have ever had to do. I mean, I 
spent a lot of my life trying to avoid having to do normal work, so 
for me Tool was the perfect escape. I could still let out aggressions 
or explore new territories on a daily basis. There really isn't that 
many other things that I would rather be doing. Sure, I'd like to be a 
professional basketball player, but I'd always like to continue 
playing in Tool."

With extensive touring commitments, Tool are far from short of things 
to do. With a major tour of the US already completed and another tour 
of college towns just finished, Tool have been on an almost non-stop
schedule.

"We have done a fair bit of touring already. We have covered the 
States once already, now we are hitting more secondary areas - college 
towns and smaller cities, that sort of thing. The over-all buzz of 
this tour has been bigger than the tour we did last time. On average, 
the venues have been a little larger and the atmosphere at the shows 
has been excellent."

Does the band enjoy touring?

"It really depends. At the beginning of a tour we are all keen to get 
out on the road and play, but I think it really comes down to the idea 
that 'the grass is always greener on the other side'. When we are not 
on the road, we want to tour and when we have toured for a long time, 
we can't wait to get back into the studio to record. That is usually 
is the way it goes. Fortunately, for us, we are not at the point where 
we have families. We do have girlfriends, but we don't feel as much 
stress having to go on tour as some other bands might."

Apart from touring, the band has been involved with several other 
projects - among them video clips. Tool's clips have always been a 
strong point for the band. Take for example 'Sober' and their latest 
big single 'Stinkfist' both of which are some of the more artistic 
film clips to be released in the last few years.

"The visual arts side of Adam really has a lot to do with that," Danny
explains.

"Adam is the most gifted in that area, he is the director of all our
videos and he also has the final say on the album artwork. We all make 
our own contributions, but he has the most to do with that side of the 
band. We try to keep all the various sides of the band to ourselves. 
We can't see the point of farming out various parts of the band out to 
other people, so we do it all ourselves. If we did pass things on to 
other people, there is a chance that the impression we want people to 
get of the band may become distorted. I guess we're lucky because we 
have the ability to execute everything we need to, if we don't feel 
that it is important then the record company can step in and take over 
that one element."

Tool play Festival Hall on April 7. Aenima is out now on BMG Records.
Posted to t.d.n: 05/06/97 17:17:20