Once a Tool...
By Matt Reekie
Maynard James Keenan took time out from the annual grape harvest to discuss Tool’s impending Big Day Out appearance with Matt Reekie.
What’s one thing about you people would be shocked to hear?
This wouldn’t happen every day but today I craved hearing Foreigner. I probably won’t feel like that tomorrow but for some reason I just had to hear “Urgent”.
So what did you do?
I did nothing, because who the fuck wants to hear “Urgent”?! A moment like that should pass untouched.
What do you generally get up to when Tool is not working?
I run two wineries, six vineyards, do Puscifer, A Perfect Circle, y’know… stuff. I’m harvesting grapes right now. I make wine and it’s our harvest right now.
Tool is rumoured to be working on a new album, what stage is that at?
It always takes a long time. It’s amorphous for a long time and then suddenly you look back and you go, “Oh, there’s something happening.” So right now it’s in the amorphous stage. It’s evolving. It’s still a foetus. I go in and out of LA on occasion and pop in on the other guys jamming, but when the amorphous part starts to take shape is when we put aside all other things and focus on it, but that hasn’t quite happened yet.
With record sales lagging is it getting harder to afford the luxury of spending a lot of time crafting a record, as Tool has in the past?
I guess we have a certain built-in fanbase that appreciates the time that we take to make it. They know that we’re not going to do it unless it’s the right time to release it. So we have an audience for it. We’ve never concerned ourselves with what’s happening in the music industry in general. So in a way we’ve been able to weather whatever the storm was because we were never aware that there was a storm – if that makes any sense? To be honest I’m always running on fumes because I’m always into a project that ends up costing a lot to make it run. Ask anyone in the wine industry and they’ll tell you it’s pretty much a black hole of expense to get things going and keep it going. So money has never been a motivator. Even when I was in college and didn’t have any money it was never an issue. I always write the way I want to write and make the decisions I make based on how I feel, rather than financial decisions.
You’ve made a few albums now, is writing any easier now that the band have established a chemistry and a certain way of working?
Some parts get easier but some parts get more difficult. You’re trying to challenge yourself. If you’re writing from the heart and you’re writing from where you are, you have to remember that you’re a different person to who you were two years ago or three years ago or five years ago. So it makes it more difficult because you have to figure out who you are today as opposed to who you were before.
Do you find that you are you getting angrier or mellower as you get older?
I think I’m better able to allow my Irish-Italian anger to come out when it’s needed and not when it’s not needed. I’m able to temper it.
Got any pets?
Yeah, I’ve got a Yorkie, a Yorkshire Terrier named Miho, after the character in Sin City. It’s small enough to fit in your hand but it’ll tear your ankles right off. Ferocious like a lion.
Tool has a good relationship with the Big Day Out, you played it in 2007 – how was that connection forged?
No idea? When it comes to promoters they don’t really care who you are, as long as you’re going to put bums on seats.
What’s your favourite Australian city?
Every city has something fantastic. I’m going to have my fiancée with me this time, and I’m going to show her some stuff that she’s never seen before. When you show somebody something you know about a city, it’s kinda like you’re seeing it for the first time yourself, so it’s going to be great showing her all the sights.
Got any favourite restaurants that you like to visit when you’re here?
Yes I do.
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