“Life in Tool right now?” ponders bassist Justin Chancellor from his home, as his bearded face breaks out into a big grin. “It’s really good. We’ve been taking a bit of time relaxing but we’ve also been writing music as well. We’ve been meeting a couple of days a week, putting some stuff together. It’s been really fun.”
As if the prospect of one of metal’s greatest-ever bands following up 2019’s excellent Fear Inoculum isn’t exciting enough, they’re also on the road. Up next, Tool – completed by vocalist Maynard James Keenan, guitarist Adam Jones and drummer Danny Carey – hit the UK for a string of arena shows. It’s the latest victory lap on an album cycle that has recently taken in huge U.S. dates and even a surprise performance at Maynard James Keenan’s ‘Sessanta’ gig at the Hollywood Bowl for his 60th birthday, where they appeared alongside A Perfect Circle, Puscifer and Primus. It was a rare chance for Tool to play a set without all of the visual trimmings they’re accustomed to. Hell, even the dressing room situation was a little different, for one…
“We had to show up at like three o’clock for soundcheck and then, literally, we didn’t play Ænima until 10:30pm,” reflects Justin. “The show started and it was a bit like, ‘How many songs to go before we’re on? Fifteen!?’ The three of us don’t normally share a dressing room – we keep to our own little areas, but we were all sitting there on this one couch, just waiting and making small talk with each other (laughs). But it was a really wonderful vibe with Billy Howerdel, Matt Mitchell, Josh Freese – everybody was saying hi. It was really cool.”
Here, the affable bassist talks new Tool music, the art of constructing setlists, onstage fuck-ups, playing Maynard’s 60th birthday, why planting vegetables in his garden may be helping him come up with new basslines, and why he may soon be needing the services of a robotic engineer for his MTVoid project…
Maynard once told Kerrang! about everything he needs to do in order to go on tour – including not only voice rest, but even changing his diet in the weeks before hitting the road. But what is required of you? Can you just rock up on tour anytime, or is a part of you like, ‘Shit, how do I actually play this song again’?
“For starters, yeah, you’ve got to remember the songs – especially if they’re older ones, it takes a little more working-up. But for me, the main thing is physical – there’s nothing like that moment when you stand onstage in front of thousands of people and you suddenly find that you start squeezing a lot harder on your instrument. No matter what preparation you do, you need to be really strong for it. It’s quite a physical thing standing there for two hours playing those songs.”
Songs, notably, that were written in a well-lit studio and yet you suddenly have to play them in the dark…
“We actually do try and simulate that a little bit in rehearsal. We’re like, ‘Let’s make it sexy and turn the lights down’ (laughs) because it is a necessity to be able to do that. The ol’ luminous dots on my fretboard are a life-saver!”