Publication: Sain Magazine
Date: May, 2001
Transcribed by
Ray (rcollard@start.com.au)
Ray (rcollard@start.com.au)
page: 40 title: Better Late Than Never author: Unknown Tool fans must live by the creed "patience is a virtue". They had a five year wait for a follow up to 1996's Ænima. The highly anticipated third CD Lateralus was titled Systema Enchephale and set to be out on april 17. That was singer Maynard James Keenan's Birthday. It's now out May 15, Arriving with secrecy. The 13 tracks have titles Tool fans would expect - "eon blue apocalypse","Triad","Faaip de oiad","Mantra","The patient", "The Grudge","Schism","Parabol,"Parabola","Ticks and leeches","Lateralus","Disposition" and "Reflection" Keenan explains that part of the reason for the silence was that Tool was working out "Business" problems, mostly with their old record company. He points out though, That of the five years, the art-metal band was touring for two. Then Keenan toured with his other band, A Perfect Circle Now Tool are back in the action. This month they do four shows in the U.S bfore starting out on a month long tour of Europe from May 25th. Guitarist Adam Jones concieved and directed the video for the first single "Schism", which was shot in Los Angeles. Jones handled director for the videos "Stinkfist" and "Ænema" from the last album, and "Prison Sex" from their 1993 debut album Undertow. Q:When you started in 1992, you started this new rock sound with Nirvana, Smashing Pumpkins, Pearl Jam, Soundgarden and Rage Against the Machine. How do you feel that so many of your contemporaries are no longer around? Maynard:"Like i should be looking forward to a pension plan (laughs) I want a retirement homr in Florida" Danny Carey (Drums):"It is satisfying to see that we had the strength and the courage to maintain a relationship with each other. It's tough. It's tough to stay married to one person for 10 years, let alone stay married with three people for ten years. We've had one change along the way, but it's all worked out." Q: What do you think is the key to your longevity? Justin Chancellor (bass) "Just having alot of respect for each other and really respecting each other's ideas and keeping an open mind." Danny: " Keeping that white-hot vision of the end product in mind. It's worth suffering through each other's pet peeves and all that stuff if you know what the end product is going to be and that's so rewarding. That's why we're still together. If that wasn't there, we would've kicked each others asses ages ago and broken up." Q: Four or so years is quite a long time. The general public's attention spans are short and music has changed considerably. Was there any concern that four years was too long? Maynard: "No." Justin " We wanted to come up with something unique, ya know. It takes alot of experimentation. It's Discovery. Q: Any songs on the new album that will surprise the hell out of your fans? Danny: "Yeah, there are a couple of songs that people would never imagine us doing. On this record, there are a couple of departures. They're towards the end of the record. It gets weirder as it goes." Q: You've toured Australia a couple of times, any fond memories? Danny: "Eating pies and watching The Bombers." (Laughs) Adam: "Yeah. Aussie rules was fun. For me, and my perspective of the band, it's definetly been one of my favourite places to tour." Danny: "We definetly look forward to going back, hopefully in your spring." Q: How do the Australian fance compare? Maynard: "They seem more intelligent." Adam: "They're really passionate, but they're not as knuckle- headed as the fans are here in the U.S and I consider myself to be knuckle-headed. It's like, they are still going nuts, but they're still really respectful at our shows." Q: I certainly hear a natural musical bridge between Ænima and this album. Do you agree and is there a lyrical bridge? Maynard: "Sure. We're right in the middle of it, so it's hard to figure it out, but definetly we write from our own experiences. So it's four years later, so we're more mature people and we've seen alot more thing. When you get to a certain age, you start to get a better perspective, you get more hindsight and your write from that place, and it's certainly going to be a different place, but a natural progression." Q: Maynard, did your touring commitments to A Perfect Circle alter the way you guys wrote songs for the album? Maynard: "Scome of the process. We all worked on alot of music before I left. The actual arrangements tightened up once I was gone. We used FedEx a lot this time basically." Q: You are renowned for keeping tight control over what you do. Do the powers that be try to infiltrate your world? Maynard: "They gave up. At one point they probably were trying to, but they went "Oh Fuck it, we can't Fuck with these guys, coz they'll stop doing things until we go away." Adam: "They still try to find that loophole to try and suggest something, or to try and bend you. But we've made it this far making our own rules, so I think that they know what to do." Danny: "Usually it's more like trying to over-expose or market us. They know better than to attempt to tell us to make a short song, or play this way. They would be severly chastised." Q: Ænima broke down a number of barriers for Tool. What barriers do you hope the new album can break down? Danny: " We've established ourselves in what we do. It's great if it keeps on growing. But there's certain sacrifices that need to be made beyond the level we are. We're pretty content where we are, not having to plaster our faces all over TV shows and magazines everywhere. We're pretty discreet about that and by doing that, we've been able to keep a quality of life that is high. We can still go to most of our shows and walk into the crowd and watch the support band play and people will not bother us. It's not as easy for Maynard, as he is much more of a focal point, but for us three, we can still get away with that and that's a pretty rare thing in this business. So I'm fine with the way progress is going right now. If it gets bigger, that's fine, but we don't want to sacrifice our integrity in any way." Q: What do your fans want to know? Danny: "It's those things other bands are displaying all the time. There's a stupid show on MTV called Cribs or something, where the viewer sees where you live, what you like, what you eat and stuff. It gets to the point where it's go ridiculous. I want to hear that they are saying artistically or musically. The face behind It dosen't really make any difference. But that's what gets exploited all the time and I think that's kind of grim."
Posted to t.d.n: 06/27/01 11:17:20