In another excellent interview, Justin Chancellor talks about Tool with the UK edition of Bass Guitar magazine. He talks about the writing process, his use of various different basses and effects to achieve the sounds you hear on Fear Inoculum.
Perhaps most interesting is discussion of a signature Crybaby wah pedal:
I’m also developing a signature Crybaby wah pedal with Dunlop. It’s going to combine two different character wahs with an engageable distortion effect.
Sounds pretty sweet to me! Looking forward to hearing when this will come to fruition!
You can get a copy of the magazine here.
So Hellboi, how has your Speleological interest been going this year?
Last two weekends we’ve been focused on cave rescue, with a practical exercise in the Flinders Ranges, and then the ACRC National Rescue workshop last weekend. Had the who’s who of caving down in SA for some very informative discussions and planning
Have you ever got yourself into dangerous situations doing this?
It’s inherently dangerous, but we take safety and risk management pretty seriously. On the trips I’ve been involved in we’ve encountered nothing other than minor injury.
I have an interest in these things. Have you undertaken similar exploration such as sewers, mines, etc…?
Haven’t been to any mines that weren’t tourist attractions. Did some drain exploration back in the day, but not for years. It’s not as appealing as it sounds when you’ve been to some decent caves, and Adelaide doesn’t have a super interesting drain system.
Please tell of your most memorable expedition. Have you made camp in them before so you can explore further?
Overnight trips are infrequent, as the environments of caves are delicate, and everything taken in must be brought out (literally everything). For this reason overnights are only done for special reasons – at this point I haven’t had a good enough reason to do so.
More memorable trips for me include visiting Kubla Khan cave in Tasmania earlier this year. Caving in Tasmania is generally pretty amazing: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2016-02-16/the-hidden-underworld-tasmanias-cave-history/7084386
Made several expedition style trips to the Nullarbor, where the caves are also spectacular, mostly in scale rather than the beauty of Tassie.
Wow that cave is awesome
Epic, have you ever done any NZ missions? Harwood’s hole is incredible. The caving and climbing around there is quite advanced, but i did the abseil down into the hole (180m).
Had some buddies, over a decade ago, who tried to do it ill prepared (the Starlight Cave route out) and ended up getting a rescue helicopter – long story 😛
Absolutely phenomenal terrain though.
That’s mental. Wish I could do stuff like that. I have insane fear of heights, hands start sweating, feel totally weak and drained. Fucking sucks.
That does suck man, sounds intense. Pretty natural response to imminent death drop potential though. I’ve taken a few foreign people to the place mentioned (Harwood’s Hole) and plenty wont go anywhere near the edge.
I got used to heights early on / as a kid, we used to go fishing of cliff tops and lived next to a mountain too.
Yup it’s shithouse. Would love to go skydiving too.
Never been caving in NZ before – it’s on the bucket list! The caves there are super challenging in comparison to ours though, so I’d need some training!
What upcoming caving expeditions do you have planned?
Not a whole heap planned at the moment. Might be a quiet year in 2020. Most likely heading to the Nullarbor in 2021
Great cave discussion. Lol
I really love the bass line in invincible. I always find myself listening to Justin’s bass lines. I think I prefer the mix in 10,000 days. The bass really stands out and they sound like a 3 piece.
Also I’ve been reading the articles and comments since 2010. Great site.
I genuinely wondered if Justin and Adam switched tasks, using their own instruments. Then I heard from Adam that indeed Tool does do this. Adam will play bass lines with his lead and Justin will create lead riffs with his bass. I don’t have the ear or guitar knowledge to know when this is happening but it is impressive just knowing these artists love pushing their own limits.
I think it is more a result of their experimentation. Adam said in his interview that he or Justin bring in a riff and they both will try playing that riff while the other comes up with something to compliment it. Whichever makes the hair stand up. Danny plays something to bring it all together and music is born. That’s what I gathered anyway..
I really have enjoyed listening/reading the interviews with Justin. I haven’t had the chance to read or listen to an Adam interview yet.
I’ve been very disappointed with the interviews promoting the album. All very boring. Barely touching on technical details of recording the album. All seem so fascinated with the album taking a long time to happen, and asking excessive and shitty questions about that.
I enjoyed the Ernie ball podcast with Justin. But I do agree that a lot of the discussion has been about why it took so long.