Tag Archives: Interview

Yet another Danny interview

Sick of Tool interviews yet? I know I feel like I’ve spent all day reading and posting them. This one is from The Rock FM which is a New Zealand radio station. Tracy had a chat to Danny about a range of topics which you can listen to here. For those not willing/able to listen, here are the main points:

  • Danny has recently done some recording with Jason Bonham and 12 other drummers for the upcoming Superman movie
  • There is plenty of material recorded, and footage available for a live album/DVD. It’s not on the radar at the moment but will probably happen sometime in the future.
  • They’re trying to concentrate on the new album for now, and Justin seems to be the main driving force behind this particular album
  • Tool hoped to play in Christchurch as well, but a lack of a suitable venue not earthquake damaged was a problem.
  • Danny still hopes they can release a new album this year

Interesting interview, it’s only 6:32 and is worth your time.

More Tool interview snippets

As Blair promised in the last Tool newsletter, there’s a bunch of new Tool interviews out this morning (it appears as though there was an embargo on the tour dates and the flood gates are now well and truely open). Here’s a few choice cuts from what I’ve read.

From David Farrier, who’s full interview should be in NZ’s Rip It Up soon, Danny talks about the newest track they’re working on:

David Farrier: I hear you are working on a big “Lateralus” type song for this album… how is that coming?

Danny Carey: Um, really good. I mean we’re still – believe it or not! – still working on it [laughter] – it’s like an ever-evolving thing, it’s probably going to turn into a thing that’s like, uh, a big trilogy type of feel to it, sort of life, just like Disposition and Intension and Triad, like on the Lateralus record or something. It will probably be over a 20 minute piece when it’s all finished, so it will be a good part of the record. We’re dealing with it in sections, but it’s coming together really well, we’re having lots of fun working on it, that’s for sure.

In the Fasterlouder interview I’ve already posted, Adam talks about plans for the Australian tour:

Adam, you’re responsible for the visual side of things. The Australian tour that you’re just announcing, what should we expect from the visuals on this tour?
AJ: I don’t know. We haven’t gone through the process yet, but it’s a process of talking, agreeing on a setlist and talking to our people and then we have a budget and deciding how can we really push that budget and make it mind-boggling and dark and entertaining for people and, again, give them their money’s worth and have fun, so you just evolve with the ideas. The first step is picking the setlist and then going out there and setting up video screens and lasers and lights and smoke and seeing how you can make it apply and advance what you’re doing on stage. It’s a reflective thing; it’s what I would want to see if I went to see a band. I want to see how they can enhance what they’re doing visually.

Have you talked about a setlist, yet?
AJ: No, sir.

Do you think we’ll be hearing any of the new songs?
AJ: I don’t know. We’re still in negotiations on that.

In the New Zealand Herald there’s a brief snippet from Justin talking about the new album, or possibly some other project. Not sure when the full interview is being released:

TimeOut talked to guitarist Adam Jones and bass player Justin Chancellor last week; they refused to divulge much about the new album – or say when it would be out.

“We’re currently involved in the biggest project of our lives,” is all Chancellor would reveal.

And that’s about it for now. No doubt there will be some more – seems as though Fasterlouder are the only Australian media outlet to put out an interview, but I expect there will be more.

Adam & Justin speak with Fasterlouder

Adam and Justin recently had a chat with Australian site Fasterlouder and answered some questions about a range of topics, including this:

Back when you started working on Lateralus Maynard was still busy with A Perfect Circle so you guys started working on the music without him and I was wondering whether you’ve ever been tempted to become an instrumental band?
AJ: People have different styles of working. It’s like painting: some people can do a painting in five minutes and other people take six months to do something and it’s just different styles of the individual people in this band and it works really well. We jam and make riffs and at some point he comes in and does what he does and we’re all really happy with that.

JT: And the answer is “no”.

It’s an excellent interview and I strongly recommend you all take a look. No new albums news, just in case you were expecting it!

Maynard discusses Puscifer and not Tool with Phoenix New Times

Gene sent me a link to a new interview with Maynard this morning, where he talks about mainly Puscifer, as well as the state of the recording industry:

“The illusion is gone,” Keenan says. “There’s no longer blank checkbooks. I remember playing a show ages ago, where Helmet got offered a [record deal worth a] million dollars. Oh, my God! A million dollars. Of course, all that did was make every other band with ego throw its dicks on the table and say, ‘Well, I want a million five.’ ‘Well, I want two million; I’m more popular.’ There was never any rhyme or reason to what those numbers ended up translating to at the end of the day. If you go back and track what somebody actually paid for something, it’s not nearly as dialed-in as, say, a video-game corporation saying, ‘No, we’re going to sell exactly this many units of this game.’ It was never that calculated. The people running [the business] weren’t qualified to run it.”

It’s an interesting article and well worth reading. As the title suggests though, there is no Tool update, though I’m sure none of you expect one from Maynard at this stage…

There’s also a short teaser video courtesy of Livewire of Puscifer rehearsing for upcoming tours:

Maynard talks about Ministry

A while back I reported that Maynard would feature in a documentary about the band Ministry. Well, for our viewing pleasure one thoughtful Youtuber has uploaded Maynard’s interview from the file, where he succesfully talks for about 3 minutes while saying he doesn’t really know much about Ministry:

You can grab a DVD of this movie from Amazon.

Billy discusses upcoming A Perfect Circle shows

I came across an interview with Billy Howerdel on Las Vegas Weekly today where he talks about the coming A Perfect Circle Las Vegas show, as well as the Soundwave and South American shows. He also talks about the probability of a new album:

The last A Perfect Circle album came out in 2004. Are you guys against putting out another one?
No, I’d love to—when the time is right. It would be awesome. I’m trying to write songs with that in mind, but … right now, I’m focusing most of my energy on a new Ashes Divide record, which is under way with 11 songs. Still working on finishing vocals and writing lyrics, and hopefully get that thing mixed in January or February.

Interesting interview, though doesn’t reveal anything especially exciting…

The Vine interviews Maynard

Andrew McMillen from The Vine got the chance to speak to Maynard recently, and discuss Puscifer, Winemaking, Australia and definitely nothing about Tool. It is an excellent interview and here’s a snippet:

Is that different to what you were doing when you were touring in your 20s and 30s?

Well, you know, back then you have a little more resilience, and you can kinda push it a little harder, move a little faster. You don’t necessarily have to pay attention to maintenance much.

I get the impression that all of your musical output these days – touring, releasing music – is done primarily to fund your wine business. Am I way off the mark?

Hmm… no. I think the touring is just because we like to play music and we like to perform. The wine business – it takes care of itself. Of course, there’s a lot of initial investment, from prior touring. I used a lot of that money to get it going, but that was instead of buying a Ferrari.

Enjoy!

Ethan Miller, Getty Images

Aloke Dutta Interview on LA Weekly

Things are pretty quiet on the Tool front at the moment, so to keep you guys coming to the site, I think I may start posting a little more “Tool-related” news than normal. Otherwise I just end up with nothing to post!

To start with, here’s an interview with Aloke Dutta on LA Weekly I came across this morning, which is well worth your time:

Dutta is a talented drummer, though he does not believe in talent. He believes, rather, in discipline and hard work and knowing what you want to do and sticking with it. People often remark on how fast he plays, on how his hands flutter over the drums. But, he says, “Pretty much every tabla player plays fast.” What he has learned to do, however, is to sense and manipulate the infinity of micro-beats between beats, as a skilled painter sees the many gradations of color between red and pink.

Enjoy!

Maynard chat with Joe Rogan now available

The much antcipated Joe Rogan show with Maynard is now online, and as expected is quite good! It’s a long and interesting conversation where Maynard touches on a range of subjects including Tool, A Perfect Circle, Puscifer, Wine making, Martial Arts, Drug experiences, Lateralus, wrestling Tool fans and much more. Well worth the listen.

For those taking notes nothing specific was really mentioned in regards to progress on the new Tool album, though Maynard did talk about the songwriting process.

Part 1:

JRE #246 – Maynard J Keenan, Brian Redban (PART ONE) from JoeRogan on Vimeo.

Part 2:

JRE #246 – Maynard J Keenan, Brian Redban (PART TWO) from JoeRogan on Vimeo.

Maynard on the Joe Rogan Podcast

There’s been a bunch of speculation lately that Maynard will be making an appearance on the Joe Rogan Podcast, and today via the magicks of Twitter it’s been confirmed:

maynard james keenan @puscifer is confirmed for july 27th

Should be an interesting interview. For those unfamiliar with Joe, he’s a stand up comedian who’s claim to fame (by Tool fans it seems) is that he’s a cannabis and mushrooms user.