Adam Jones and Danny Carey Blame Lawsuit for Delay of New Tool Album
The last Tool album, 10,000 Days, was released so long ago that a second grader has lived his entire life since it came out. The wait between Tool albums has never been short — since 1993’s Undertow, they’ve never managed to get a new release out in under three years — but this is STILL the longest period of time that has ever passed in-between records. So what gives?
In a new interview with Rolling Stone, guitarist Adam Jones and drummer Danny Carey share some insight into the seemingly-never-ending delay — and it would seem that an ongoing lawsuit is to blame:
Initially, in 2007, a friend of Jones’ claimed that he had created artwork for the group that he wanted credit. But the suit got complicated when an insurance company that Tool thought would defend it against lawsuits turned around and sued the band over technicalities regarding the case. The band then filed a countersuit to defend themselves against the insurer’s claims and now, seven years later, Tool are still deeply mired in litigation with the insurer. The case is scheduled to go to trial in January.
“The whole thing is really depressing,” Carey says. “The bad thing is it’s really time consuming. As we’ve gotten older and our priorities have changed, it’s hard to get the band on a good, solid schedule as it is. People have kids now. And there’s lots of other things that pop up. To throw this into the mix, it makes everything that much worse and stresses people out.”
Jones goes on to lament that the suit is “costing millions and millions and millions of dollars” in legal fees, and that the constant postponement of the trial “has just drained our creative energy.”
This isn’t the first time legal woes have sidelined Tool — they had a massive dispute with their label, Volcano Entertainment, in-between the releases of Ænima and Lateralus. But, again — only HALF of much time passed in-between those two releases as has passed since 10,000 Days, and with this trial not kicking off ’til 2015, it could easily end up being a full decade before we finally get some new Tool music.
The silver lining, slight though it may be, is that the band has managed to work on some new music… and the descriptions of that new music sound enticing:
So far, the process has yielded one song that Jones describes as “pretty much done.” Carey says the yet-untitled track is at least 10 minutes, in which it “goes through lots of changes and it’s got really heavy elements.”
In fact, “heavy” is a word both band members use to describe their new sounds. “Sometimes I feel we get a little too proggy or too into exploring time signatures but not getting heavy enough for my taste,” Jones says. “There are some good nose-bleeding riffs happening, and I’m really happy about that. It’s not out-of-the-gate crazy heavy, but there are these little journeys with nice paths that end up very heavy.”
“It’s all a little more ‘metal’ sounding, if I may,” Carey says with a laugh. “I’m having fun drumming on it. There is one other song [beyond the 10-minute tune] that I would say is pretty much there. It’s another one that’s pretty gnarly with some good double-kick [drumming] going on in it.”
Heavier? I’m on board! Now if they could release it sometime this century…
[via The PRP]
