Paul D’Amour speaks in the latest issue of Bass Player magazine, mostly discussing his work with Lesser Key, however he does touch on his time with Tool and his reasons for leaving:
How did your time in Tool affect you as a musician?
That experience changed my DNA. To go from 0 to 100 miles an hour in the span of a year was incredible. All of a sudden, we were playing in front of huge crowds, and we had a ton of success. It gave me a lot of confidence to do anything I wanted to.Do you have any regrets about leaving Tool?
I wish it had been a better vehicle for me to create in, but it just wasn’t. Their creative process is excruciating and tedious, and I guess I never felt the desire to play a riff 500 times before I can confirm that it’s good; that’s why it takes them eight years to write an album. I always wanted to do other things, and it felt like I was too much in a box with that band. They’re set up where the bass player does the bass part and the guitar player does the guitar part and so on. I couldn’t be stuck in that paradigm—it’s too stifling. I’m not just a bass player; I’m a creator, I wanted to have a bigger role, and it just wasn’t happening in that situation. In the end, I knew leaving was the right decision.
Go and buy a copy if you want to read the whole thing! Thanks to coreyisonreddit for the tip!
That picture makes him look like the bassist for some shitty post-grunge band.
Interesting…I recall reading/hearing an interview with Justin where he said he felt as though he could do anything with the band, that it was a very openly creative environment to work in and that he could bring anything to the table.
Maybe things have changed since Paul departed. What do I know though…
Justin prob meant in terms of playing bass he can do whatever he wants. its no secret what paul is quoated as saying is true and it gives a little perspective from him other then what maynard and whoever said in the revovlver book of tool mag about why he left. i remember Maynard saying he left cause he was not liking the popularity thing and thought it made them too mainstream or whatever and he didnt like that. ah, whatever.
this sounds like something someone would say years down the road to make themselves feel better.
i can understand the tedious process being a bummer, but considering the role bass playing has in Tool, to say that it is limiting sounds like total and complete bullshit.
There aren’t many bands that allow so much bass freedom as Tool, so not sure what he’s talking about.
Meh… I’m just glad they picked up Justin… Justin is a much more creative figure than Paul is or was. I still like Paul as a bassist but Justin blows him out of the fucking water a million times over.
It sounds like sour grapes to me. Justin is a more creative player than Paul and arguably a BETTER player too. TOOL is a better band with Justin than it was with Paul.
Paul was awesome though, he had that big chuggy sound but over the tours Justin def has gotten better and better. the last few shows i saw i was on his side more so and man he goes to town on that thing! i hear ya about saying it now to make yourself feel better sorta. maybe he felt that way sorta but thats how she goes right as they say! 🙂
slight punctuation problem..sorry
Didn’t Justin say that he has that freedom that Paul said he wished he had? That the guitar and bass switch roles and registers, doing exactly the opposite of what is expected of those instruments? I certainly heard that in the last two records. Or maybe Paul was saying he wanted to play the synth more? Or maybe the sax? Meh. Seems that him and Maynard agree about the tediousness of the process, though.
I’d be pissed if a band mate wouldn’t let me play the saxophone. There would probably be a fistfight. If that’s the reason why he left then I say good for him. He doesn’t need those morons.
Metal and sax? Calabi-Yau by Tesseract comes to mind.
“I wish it had been a better vehicle for me to create in, but it just wasn’t. Their creative process is excruciating and tedious, and I guess I never felt the desire to play a riff 500 times before I can confirm that it’s good; that’s why it takes them eight years to write an album.” He’s with the band when they are their most productive; even after he leaves, the next two albums really don’t take much more than 6 months to a year of actual writing. It’s almost like he’s saying his reason for leaving is because *this*… Read more »