Publication: n/a
Date: April, 2001
Transcribed by
cebul (cebul47@hotmail.com)
cebul (cebul47@hotmail.com)
page: title: TooL WebCast author: TOOL WEBCAST -- 4.17.2001 [this was an audio webcast broadcasted over toolband.com during april 2001, the voice which asked the band questions was one of those computer voice-simulation programs] ------------------------------- thank you for joining us today, we are here with maynard, adam and justin, they will be answering the questions that you emailed about their new album, "lateralus" adam: hi maynard: hi justin: howdy how does lateralus fit into the tool epic, is it a continuation of aenima, or a separate event altogether? maynard: i think its definitley a continuation from aenima... we've learned how to communicate better and... it fits into that mold somehow. justin: it's a logical progression. maynard: there you go, see i told you you should've answered that question. is there a theme to lateralus? maynard: yeah, we all wear doctors outfits, and take orders on clipboards... and... its kind of a "doctor" theme, with uh, [laughs] bedpans and... go on. adam: it's... there's a James Bond theme... justin: [laughs] adam: it's from "man with the golden gun". maynard: and it's happy hour between 6 and 7 adam: this is when the kids go: "they are such fuckin dicks!" justin: [laughs] adam: but yeah, i guess, the thing to me is that it's alot more personal, kind of a more retrospective, you know, kind of band and personal politics, and ah... .. ...help me out. maynard: definitely kind of a "saturn return" theme, in some way, re-evaluation and re-assesment of personal and group patterns, introspective... retrospective, definitley. is lateralus the equivalent of metallica's "black album"? maynard: i think that what they might be asking is... in a way, metallica kind of... they did their own thing and they really held their ground about their approach to music and their exposure in the world of music, and i think finally all their efforts paid off when they finally put out the black album. it was kind of like they had arrived and their crowd had kind of followed them the whole way, and in a way we've been around for quite awhile, and we've kind of established ourselves on our own terms. and a really interesting pairing was watching metallica and nine inch nails at woodstock, kind of watching the old guard and the new guard kind of exchanging time on the stage. where you have nine inch nails had kind of like been the child coming in in the new year, and metallica was like the old wizard kind of handing the torch over... i think that we're kind of that way, we're kind of like this more established band in a way, thats been around, and there's gonna be a new "something" coming up, who knows what it's gonna be, but it'll be something that's influenced by our peers, and a whole new thing, but we are definitley like... i dunno i kind of see us - that this as being our "black album". justin: also that album kind of led alot of people, new fans, back to their old albums, so that could be the same with this album for us. how do you feel it will mesh with the current music scene? justin: hopefully it will pull it wide apart, kind of push boundaries back further, and i don't think it really has to mesh with anything else, just kind of stretch the horizon a bit. maynard: yeah hopefully it will re-teach kids how to have an attention span, hopefully. did you guys put alot of pressure on yourselves during recording, knowing it was the follow up to aenima, or did the long wait basically take away that pressure? maynard: yes justin: [laughs] adam: actually, the album has alot of reflective elements of that whole process in it that come out in the words and music, so, the answer is yes. justin: yeah, i mean we just... pressure was put on us by ourselves, in other words we pretty much shut ourselves inside and tried not to pay too much attention to anyone elses expectations. adam: yeah i don't think we were really worried about the commercial aspect... justin: no... adam: ...just reaching our own personal, you know, standards of what we like and what we're trying to get out. will aloke dutta be on it? adam: aloke dutta, will not be on it. maynard: he's not on the record, but there is some tabla, and i think that danny was instructed by aloke, so in a way alokes influence will be there. adam: yeah dan's... you know, he's been studying tabla and most of the times he's taken samples and played them on his Simmons, and a couple times on the album he actually played live tablas and it's really, really good, it came out great. did you guys experiment with different measures, and how did this change the sound? justin: yeah, a little bit, mostly just looking for sounds and patterns that we hadn't heard before, and they tended to come out in different measures, alot of 5, a bit of 6½, and it does tend to like make for a different kind of soundscape, especially sticking different ones together and trying to keep the flow in there. maynard: yeah it's a difficult task when you're hearing things in a strange rhythm to somehow translate it to ears who don't really have a frame of reference for it, so it was quite the challenge, but i think once you hear the record you'll see that we did a fair job at that: keeping the rhythm and the flow going and at the same time still having some strange time signatures occuring, but not obviously. adam: but it was kind of a natural process, i mean it was amazing to me how many times i kept going "oh my god that's in 5 again" not that we were trying, going "let's write a song in 5" or "let's write a song in 6½", you know, so... justin: it's like a weird type of kicking, you know... adam: right justin: ...some new weird ingredients... adam: right justin: ...just trying to get the recipe right. adam: it's exciting, you know, leads you to the end, it's something where it just kind of came out in playing where you just kind of seek new territory, seek new grounds and you go down a path, and you're like "wow, i'm here". is lateralus a more pyschological or emotionally charged album? maynard: i would say that our earlier records were a blend of that but more physical, and i think this is definitley more toward a blend of the psychological and the emotional. since most of the songs exceed the "radio friendly 3-minute formula" will you be editing songs to use as singles in order to get more airplay? maynard: the answer is no. adam: yeah we've always kind of taken a stand on what is tolerable, and how much time, you know, just kind of let things flow, we want people to experience that. and we've found through other bands that when they have edited their songs the radio stations have edited the edited songs, and if you guys remember, maybe not everyone will remember this, but during aenima when stinkfist came out, KROQ in L.A. and new york edited the song, they took out the whole middle part, and 2 weeks later, thanks to you guys calling in, they started playing the entire song. so that's the kind of approach we go at is we just send them the song, cuz we can't stop them from editing it. so if you hear an edited version of our songs, we didn't do it, it's the radio station. justin: yeah, MTV even changed the name. adam: right... track one... why are you so protective of your music as to prevent any songs from leaking out before the release date of your albums? adam: we're not, you can download it right now, it's on napster. maynard: at "kissmyass.com" adam: [laughs] maynard: "fuckinsendmeacheckfortenbucks.com" do you feel you've accomplished everything you set out on this record? adam: i think it's very fulfilling, there's alot of still little open holes that i'm personally feeling, but i think they'll get worked out through touring, you know, developing, when you just start playing the songs over and over and over and you've played 60 gigs in a row, or 100 gigs in a row the songs start becoming so fine tuned and we always kind of go "oh god i wish we had done that on the album" or "oh i wish we could've played the songs for like 3 months before we recorded them", but that's just part of the process, you have to look at the songs as a snapshot, like a photograph, polaroid of that place in time... justin: yeah at some point you have to make a decision, but we dont limit ourselves to just that, it's kind of like a seed we can take on the road then, just have the freedom to let it change and take different direction and grow... turn into different.. you know, like we reworked pushit, and just keep the whole process alive. but as far as the album you do have to stop at some point and make a decision that it's done, and that's what that is at that time, i think the biggest accomplishment was just getting it done and staying together. have you taken a different approach this time round and written about things more personal and internal like relationships? maynard: well i think all the songs we've ever done have been about relationships, just because a relationship is with, you know, between larger bodies of people or someones perspective on what's happening in the world or whatever, it's still a relationship and it still affects you as an individual, and intimately, so, ah, hard question to answer i guess, yeah i mean these are definitley about more intimate, personal relationships than, say, a britney spears album... so... yeah, ok. justin: yeah there's some attention to the relationship between the music and the words too, i think, it's a little different than before. with lateralus will you head in the direction that you seem to be exploring with pushit and third eye? adam: i guess so, i think all of our music is kind of handled like that, you know, if it wasn't then justin would just walk in with a song and go "here's the song", or maynard would walk in and go "here's the song", you know, but all of our songs have gone through that same process that those songs have, if i'm getting that question right, unless they mean "is it gonna change?"... maynard: ah, no i think they're comparing to songs like sweat or hush, which are far more quick and to the point, third eye and pushit are far more exploratory, and have alot more of a soundscape and depth. adam: but we explored in those songs too... maynard: i mean as far as like length and movement there's alot more, you know, there's definitley alot more. those songs are more like 'apocalypse now' and probably the songs on opiate are more like 'reservoir dogs', where it's pretty direct and minimal... still explored as much, so maybe that's what they're saying, and i guess... yes. justin: [laugh] maynard: yes adam: sure... justin: [laugh] the cover art of the new album is much different from the past 2, what ideas did you run through in order to arrive at this concept? maynard: i think the artwork for this album is kind of one those "as above so below" sceniarios where alot of the album concept is kind of dealing with communicating more and letting go of things, and all those kind of midlife concepts. and i think that having brought another artist in for the designing of the cover art was kind of a step in that direction, where we kind of like just let the music itself be pure and heard by someone, and then letting them interpret it... someone who's a master at their art interpreting it and what they hear. and so in that way it was different because it was done by an outside person rather than done within the band. who designed and created the cover art? adam: it was alex grey. and i basically had the idea of looking at any average encyclopedia, in the "A" section under "anatomy" they usually have a plastic, clear coated anatomy breakdown of the different layers of the body and the organs and the nervous system and the circulatory system, and i thought it would be really kind of appealing to strip like ideas of the songs and the band in that manner, so, we had a conference call with alex grey and the band, and talked to him about ideas and maynard sent him the lyrics, and we didn't really send him too much of the music but from that conversation we told him just to take what he's heard and the lyrics and go off, basically, and to stay within that paneling, clear plastic, peeling away the surface levels. and what he came back with was just mind-blowing because he is truly a modern master in any rights of art history, and he will completely be remembered as such, we just are still blown away that he wanted to do something for us. justin: thanks adam: yeah thanks, alex which album does lateralus sound most like, or is it a new tool sound once again? maynard: it's kind of a cross between 'plasmatics coup d'etat' and 'i like big butts'... wait, what was the question again? did you ever feel you could never top aenima? justin: i don't think it's about topping it really, just exploring some new ideas, perhaps trying to compliment it... adam: we're not writing pop songs, you know, it's not something that we're trying to top, there's definitely resources of challenging yourself, but it's just exploring music, and to go to places we haven't gone or thought of, so we have to look at it like that, and i personally look at all those albums as completely different... so, if you mean that topping, i don't know if you mean in sales, so... we'll see. maynard: i think they meant: did we want to put whipped cream on it, like as a marketing tool... adam: right maynard: ...with a cherry adam: right... then, yes did the record company want to change anything on the album, and if so how did you guys deal with that? maynard: originally they wanted us to do a covers record, but all the songs we picked out i couldn't understand what britney spears was saying so i couldn't really undertsand that, and adam had a hard time figuring out the chord progressions to some of the ricky martin songs so we just kind of abandoned it and decided to just write our own record. will lateralus be released on vinyl? adam: no, PVC maynard: PVC... [laughs] 8-track adam: yes, it will be justin: it'll be thick vinyl did you use analog tape for any of the recording, mixing or mastering? maynard: yes justin: yes do Jungs theories: shadows, male and female, positive and negative, etc have any influence on your work? maynard: yeah, uh.. i guess so... ah adam: yeah he was over here like yesterday maynard: [laughs] we channeled him, it was a weird thing, we were making jello and had the hot water running and i spilled some water on the floor and in an electrical charge, and i channeled Jung, and he told me that i was fuckin up the jello. who engineered and produced the new album? maynard: carl jung ...i mean david bottril adam: dave bottril did, and tool did, and you read that sometimes and you think "oh the band just puts that on there for their own ego" but we really, the 4 of us, while dave's working, breathe down the back of his neck the entire time, the entire process, and it's bad cuz we all have bad breath. justin: david's really essential in kind of consolidating all of our different ideas, really kind of glues everything together in a cool way. adam: yeah, i think do you feel that your music is over-analyzed by some of your fans? adam: just the ones that kill themselves. maynard: yeah, actually not by the ones that are armed... those are cool, those guys are cool, the ones with knives and whatnot... they're fine. but yeah, it's over analyzed by all the other ones, the safe ones that aren't armed. do you think that tool is fulfilling its potential as musicians? justin: definitley, i think that's the most important thing to all of us and what we do, is just to push further and further the sounds that we're trying to create, just kind of mastering, like anyone, you know: master your trade, strive to get better and better. could tool survive the loss of one of its members? maynard: well that depends on the member, i mean if it was me and i lost a leg i'd still be able to sing, if it was adam and he lost a leg he would be able to play guitar, but if danny lost like a hand or a limb... that particular member would, ah... what's the next question. justin: [laughs] any new bands you guys like and respect? maynard: i love buddy holly, you guys like anybody other than buddy holly? justin: not really... maynard: [laughs] when you look back at your past work are you happy with it, or do you think you could've done a better jôb? maynard: i think we always could do a better jôb, a jôb well done is the best way to do a jôb. justin: [laughs] what do you want people to get out of your music? maynard: i would hope they were just inspired, and kind of do things for themselves in whatever line of work or art they're into, it would just be like a catalyst for them to expand their horizons more. adam: yeah and just appreciate the music as much as we do, and the work that went into it, it's like working on a sculpture or a painting a really long time, instead of just doing something really fast that just kind of marks just that second, you know, something that's been really kind of scrutinized, and the effort that went into it, and the thought that went into it and the movement that it caused... instead of "does it got a good beat?" and "does it hold my attention?", i think it's more on the long term side of thinking and remembering, instead of the short term. what do you think are some common mis-conceptions about you guys? adam: we're not gay maynard: we're not brazilian justin: i'm not australian adam: and we're not scientologists maynard: we're not scientologists or republicans, i get that all the time... adam: we're not christians maynard: ..."youre a republican, right?" [laughs] no, i'm not. adam: we're not sober maynard: are you a republican? adam: nope maynard: you're a pedestrian adam: no, believe in nothing justin: i'm republican do you think it is possible for any one band to save the music industry and the direction that it is going? maynard: um adam: the music industry has always had it's bad side, there's always the yin and the yang, there's always gonna be just complete crap... maynard: [laughs] adam: ...ah, ok let's not answer the next question maynard: [still laughing] oh come on! adam: ok, ok ask the next question have you ever considered performing with an orchestra? maynard: ah... [laughs] adam: yeah! but we, the 4 members will each have their own orchestra... at the same time. maynard: we were talking with... we were hangin out with metallica and uriah heep, and we did like the 'paper- scissors- rock' to see who was gonna do the orchestra album... and metallica won [laughs] adam: kevin willis told me that everyone plays that game wrong, that it's 'paper-scissors-rock-dynamite', and i was playing with him and then he said its 'paper-scissors-rock- dynamite-and-cameltoe', and cameltoe beats everything. maynard: [laughs] so metallica pulled out cameltoe and they got to do the orchestra album... adam: mmhm maynard: ...and we didn't get to do it. adam: mmhm do your songs take on new meaning for you as time goes on? how!? maynard: [laughs] adam: [laughs] justin: [laughs] adam: wait do it again... do it again, do it again do your songs take on new meaning for you as time goes on? how!? adam: [laughs] justin: [laughs] maynard: [laughs] justin: ...and how adam: yeah that one needed a comma there maynard: ..yeah, well i think, you know, the we write things kind of evolve, as adam said earlier, as time goes on we re- evaluate the songs and play them live repeatedly, we start honing in on different areas of the song that have room for adjustment and all that, and so ah... adam: yeah, when maynard writes lyrics, he writes them in prose, and they take on different meanings and they can affect all of our lives in different ways, and you have to look at the music like that, too, you're in a headspace when you're writing it, and then you're in a different headspace when you're playing it after a year, so absolutely. and the same thing with listening to music, if you're a fan of some band, when you first heard it you had a certain reaction, and then when you heard it 5 years later you have a different reaction, you know, or you may have the same reaction i don't think so though, but still it's all just a stimulous and a way of thinking and it kind of reflects time, just like, kind of like.. i guess like a tattoo or something. justin: it's kind of mixed that way too, i think, where you can really delve inside the music and find different layers with time, with each new listen you can explore, like a new.. you might catch a new relationship between a phrase and what's happening in the music that you might miss the first time. it's got a depth to it that allows that to happen. what impact do you feel your music has had on the industry, if any? maynard: well hopefully we've, like we said earlier, hopefully we've expanded the attention span of people, that's the biggest problem it seems nowadays is just everything's such a fast-paced, disposable society as far as music, television, you know, fast food, everything, so i think if we've had any impact at all i would hope it would have something to do with consciousness expansion and getting people to take a moment and take a deep breath, and just feel the subtle nuances of life in general. justin: and hopefully inspire people to be true to what they believe in, and just ignore what everyone else is saying, and just plow straight ahead with your own idea and try and fulfill it somehow. i have a hard time keeping a good flow in my songs while adding changes to keep it interesting, how do you wedge together ideas that change the parts of the song yet maintain the overall melody of the music? maynard: acid adam: i don't know, come jam with us, can't explain it... have you considered doing an acoustic session? maynard: do they still have rainbow gatherings? are those still going on? ok then yeah, as long as there's a rainbow gathering we'll do an acoustic set. adam said of lateralus, in the new guitar world: "we just wanted to go further than we had before and have fun doing it", do you as a band feel you've accomplished this goal?" maynard: yes adam: well i'm not gonna answer that justin: [laughs] the fun has only just begun... maynard: and our final question? did you really record aenima using a tascam 8-track? maynard: yes, and thank you, goodnight. end transmission transcribed by cebul
Posted to t.d.n: 07/30/02 17:15:10