Last we heard about the near-mythical new Tool album was that bassist Justin Chancellor was in the studio laying down the low end. The band has been promising the new album to drop in 2019, and I actually do believe that for once – Tool has been announced for an awful lot of festival appearances to have nothing to promote.
Guitarist Adam Jones discusses the process of the new album in a Q&A session as transcribed by Alternative Nation. It should be noted, these interview clips are transcribed from some of the meet and greets Tool arranged this past May.
Jones doesn't really give a timeline on the new album, but does talk about how it has come to be and adds that a "lot of the songs on the new record are in 7, it's pretty incredible."
"I don't know if you've noticed but we've kind of this sense of quality. We want good music, we want good art, we want quality t-shirts. We want to put things out when they're ready. I know, sore subject.
"To jump to that burning question: 'When's the record coming out?' I appreciate it, I appreciate it. A year ago this month, the four of us met at a place called Dave's Place in LA. It's a little a rundown but very cool-vibed studio in the valley just to see where we're at. We were about 70% there.
"We continued to work on stuff and we broke from that and on and off continued to get to the finish line and just before we came here, for just over a month we were at another studio and what we usually do is we get the drums because it just doesn't work with our band to like record the guitars and get the drums.
"You have to build off the drums. Dan [Carey] has such an eclectic set. Yeah. So it just, that's the secret to our record – just kind of going into a big room, recording the drums and the last two times – it's usually Maynard [James Keenan], me and Justin [Chancellor] are all in separate rooms.
"But the last two times Justin was like, 'I wanna be in there with Danny!' So he was in there with Dan and he had his set up and then he has another set up in the room for separation.
"We're going to move into another studio and the rest of us will hit hard and then we'll figure out how to do that propaganda thing we do and we'll get it out to you guys.
"We love Joe [Barresi, producer]. Joe is a guitar guy but he's also like a music guy. The guy is just like, obsessed, and he is a really good listener. So he's a drum guy, a bass guy, a vocal guy, and I think his work speaks for itself.
"We're approaching it the same way we have a long time. So we self-produce. Also, in the old days, I think we used to like to work with a different engineer, someone who captures what you're doing and bring in a different mixer, someone who you know balances all the music and thought that was a really good idea.
"But I think we found that having the same guy do it, he could set it up like having wet blankets on your speaker and pulling them off and just going, 'Oh my gosh.' A lot of the songs on the new record are in 7, it's pretty incredible."
So, maybe a new Tool album in 2019?
