We were recently given the bummer news that Tool would not be releasing their insanely anticipated new album this year. If you've been wondering exactly why, though, frontman Maynard James Keenan has shed some light on the whole thing, revealing that the band haven't even recorded anything yet.
Keenan has popped up on the Joe Rogan Experience, where he went in depth on the new Tool album and its delay, Consequence of Sound points out. And in a way, Keenan kind of lays this all on his bandmates, saying, "My desire is to move forward and get things done, [but] I'm always butting heads with the guys in the band."
"I like to release records and write things a little more quickly than those guys like to write. Their process is very analytical," Keenan explained. "As far as the way Danny [Carey], Adam [Jones], and Justin [Chancellor] write, it's a very tedious and long process, and they're always going back over things and questioning what they did and stepping back and going back further."
He continued: "In a way, they are laying a foundation, they're putting in the footings for a house. I can't write melodies until the footings are in place, I can't write words until the melodies are in place. If they keep changing the foundation… the footings, the melodies change, and the story isn't getting written. So that's where we are: there's a lot of footings that keep shifting, lots of awesome footings, but they keep changing, they keep changing their minds. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, it's just their process."
And while Keenan went on to say he's "always butting heads with the guys in the band," he added that "It's just not their process. It took me a while for me to go, this is not personal, this is just the way they have to do it and I have to respect it, and I have to take my time and they take their time."
As far as how much progress has been made so far on the new Tool album, it sounds like there is a long ways to go still, like it or not. Keenan explained, "Nothing is tracked yet, nothing is completely finished, there are a couple songs I think that are finished, but nothing is actually recorded, they're just written."
Yes, you read that right — nothing is actually recorded yet.
While you come to terms with all this, you can watch the entire interview below. Of course, Tool last delivered 10,000 Days in 2006.
Keenan has popped up on the Joe Rogan Experience, where he went in depth on the new Tool album and its delay, Consequence of Sound points out. And in a way, Keenan kind of lays this all on his bandmates, saying, "My desire is to move forward and get things done, [but] I'm always butting heads with the guys in the band."
"I like to release records and write things a little more quickly than those guys like to write. Their process is very analytical," Keenan explained. "As far as the way Danny [Carey], Adam [Jones], and Justin [Chancellor] write, it's a very tedious and long process, and they're always going back over things and questioning what they did and stepping back and going back further."
He continued: "In a way, they are laying a foundation, they're putting in the footings for a house. I can't write melodies until the footings are in place, I can't write words until the melodies are in place. If they keep changing the foundation… the footings, the melodies change, and the story isn't getting written. So that's where we are: there's a lot of footings that keep shifting, lots of awesome footings, but they keep changing, they keep changing their minds. I don't know if it's a good thing or a bad thing, it's just their process."
And while Keenan went on to say he's "always butting heads with the guys in the band," he added that "It's just not their process. It took me a while for me to go, this is not personal, this is just the way they have to do it and I have to respect it, and I have to take my time and they take their time."
As far as how much progress has been made so far on the new Tool album, it sounds like there is a long ways to go still, like it or not. Keenan explained, "Nothing is tracked yet, nothing is completely finished, there are a couple songs I think that are finished, but nothing is actually recorded, they're just written."
Yes, you read that right — nothing is actually recorded yet.
While you come to terms with all this, you can watch the entire interview below. Of course, Tool last delivered 10,000 Days in 2006.
