A little while back we had a snippet of an interview with former Tool bass player Paul D’Amour where he talks about working with Justin as he joined the band. The whole thing is now out on Guitarworld, and it’s an interesting read, with plenty of insight into Paul’s time with the band, and his ultimate departure. Paul’s humble and measured replies are pretty interesting, and I enjoyed it quite a bit.
A snippet:
It must have been hard to walk away from Tool. What led to that decision?
“I think at the beginning of the band, we were all happy to be there. I’d written a bunch of stuff beforehand, and then those guys had some riffs. It was already kind of there in a weird way; we just had to sort of nurture it.
“We nursed that for several years and multiple tours, playing those same songs, and all that success came. And honestly, I feel like all of a sudden there was this sophomore slump. People started overthinking all the parts, and I never was that way as a musician. I was always somebody that writes out of instinct.
“When we got to writing Ænima, we spent a year and basically wrote five songs. That, to me, was so frustrating. And I think Adam was really in this moment where he was trying to find his voice as a guitar player.
“He was just so unsure about everything, and playing the same parts over and over and over. And I was just like, ‘Oh, my God, I can’t!’ I really couldn’t deal with it, you know?
“I just felt like that was never going to end, no matter how much we beat that into the ground and talked about this and that. I’d probably would have left that band 10 times by now because they still operate the same way.
“They make great music – but dude, you don’t need to spend 10 years to make an album, you know? They’re great riffs, but they’re not that complicated.”
https://www.guitarworld.com/features/paul-d-amour-tool-ministry
Well worth reading the whole thing.
I’d never heard the demos with Paul playing on Aenima.
Was interesting to hear them.