Tool Drummer on 13-Year Wait for New Album: “We Actually Rushed it a Bit”
It’s hard to believe an album that took 13 years to make could be considered “rushed,” but Tool drummer Danny Carey said exactly that about Fear Inoculum in a recent interview.
It’s not quite that simple, of course; the band weren’t working on writing and recording new music for that entire 13-year period. But once they started in earnest, approximately five years ago (still so long, lol) he felt pressure to finish the music so the three non-vocalist members could pass everything along to Maynard.
After explaining to the Inside Track Podcast that the band took a couple years off after the 10,000 Days cycle before getting back to working together on new music, Carey elaborated:
“I kinda wish I could say it did take 13 years to make. There’s nothing wrong with that. We actually rushed it a bit.
“The thing is, the way we write is all jams and bits and pieces that get pieced together and sometimes things are written with intentions of being a song, and then all of a sudden the main riff of this song, six months later turns into a verse or a chorus of another song.“We don’t have anybody in our band that’s like a composer so it’s, like, we’re all in there doing it together day by day, and I don’t suggest this to any other band [laughs], but that’s the way we do it, and that’s the way we’ve always done it.
“It takes us long for a reason, but the end result is: we all completely believe in, not just every verse, every chorus, every bar is scrutinized, and that’s the result of what you’ll hear on this record.
“The way that we also work with Maynard [James Keenan, vocals], we don’t give it to Maynard until we do that, like, this is me, Adam [Jones, guitar], and Justin [Chancellor, bass] we’re talking about now, and then we send that to Maynard because Maynard, he has to commit to this concept.
“And it’s like nothing bums him out more than, like, when we send him this thing and then we change it. Once we give it to him, he commits and that’s it, he doesn’t want to change it.
“We went through the whole bit trying to do that on the previous records, like, sending something and then all of a sudden we go, ‘Oh, wait, let’s change this chorus.’ Maynard will be, like, ‘So, you’re pretty much saying I just did all this work for nothing.’ I understand his point of view.”
I’d say they did a damn fine job with Fear Inoculum in spite of any perceived rush. How about you?
Tool are on tour in North America now. Tickets went fast, but you can still find some good last-minute deals here. Remaining dates below.
October 31 Milwaukee, WI Fiserv Forum
November 2 Indianapolis, IN Banker’s Life Fieldhouse
November 3 Chicago, IL United Center
November 5 Cincinnati, OH US Bank Arena
November 6 Cleveland, OH Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse
November 8 Pittsburgh, PA PPG Paints Arena
November 9 Detroit, MI Little Caesars Arena
November 11 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena
November 12 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena
November 14 Boston, MA TD Garden
November 16 Newark, NJ Prudential Center
November 18 Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
November 19 Brooklyn, NY Barclay’s Center
November 21 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Casino Arena
November 22 Atlantic City, NJ Boardwalk Hall
November 24 Raleigh, NC PNC Arena
November 25 Washington, DC Capitol One Arena
[via Ultimate Guitar]
