Tool dressed as Led Zeppelin at Monster Mash: photo credit Rynne Stump

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Tool guitarist Adam Jones freely discussed progress on the much speculated about new album from the enigmatic band , and their upcoming US tour with Primus. 

band. A few excerpts from Jones:

On touring:

“The way we’ve always done our live thing is to put as much money as we can afford into the production and make it as exciting as possible,] “Our whole outlook on putting out a CD or making a T-shirt or a poster or doing something live is, ‘What would you want if you went, and did you get your money’s worth or did you get more than your money’s worth?’ I don’t want to make any promises, but we try to make it a really great visual experience. To me, it’s always been the visuals are first, and seeing the band is secondary. That’s what we would want if we saw a concert.”

 

On the new album:

 

“My philosophy has always been, ‘It’s not good when it’s done, it’s done when it’s good,'” Jones says.

 

On tour partners Primus:

We’ve done a lot of one-offs together. We’re always talking about how we should do a tour together. We’re big fans.

Yeah. I got on the plane to go home, and I’m sitting next to some guy and he goes hi, and I go hi, and he goes, “Adam, it’s Larry [LaLonde] from Primus.” And I’m like, “Oh, my God. I didn’t even recognize you.” The last time I saw him, he had his hair dyed and it was shorter. We started talking and I said, “We’ve got to play together; we’ve got to tour together.” And he’s like, “Absolutely.” I got back and our manager had already talked to their manager about possibly touring together. The stars were aligned.

And changing up the set-list for the new tour, dusting off old songs

Yeah. Usually, Maynard picks set lists because he’s the one who’s gotta sing and get through it. Sometimes his voice is a little sensitive so he picks a certain kind of set list and sometimes his voice is right-on. I like playing different songs. I don’t want to keep playing the same songs over and over again.

 

On the new track played at Monster Mash Music Festival on Halloween, Descending:
Yeah, it’s a working title. We have a song that’s probably about 13 or 14 minutes long, so what we’ve done with it is … I don’t want to call it a “best of,” but it’s a shortened, different approach to it. It is a new song. It’s like a vague movie trailer to the real movie [laughs]. Sometimes we do jamming between songs or some kind of segues, and it’s usually involved in some kind of new material. But that one’s just a little taste of things to come.

 

That was more than a segue, though — it was written onto the set list.
Yeah. But sometimes you’ll see it and it will say, “Justin,” and Justin [Chancellor, bass] will do an intro or it will say “Jam” and we don’t have a name for it yet. “Descending” is the newest title of the song. We were calling it “B.G.” or “Bluegrass” or something. It had a funny name. Now it’s “Descending.”

…Yeah, the song’s amazing. It’s one of those things, too, where we’re playing this “movie trailer” version of it and we just want to go into the main part of it. The main part’s the best part, I think, but we just don’t want to give that away yet. We’re just doing a little taste test all the way through and put it together. I’m glad the response has been really good. But again, we don’t want to go too far with it because we’d rather just hear the end piece, and we don’t want people to hear the end piece until it’s done and everyone’s happy with it.

 

On the progress of the new Tool album, expected in 2016
I’ll tell you, it’s wonderful. Things are really flowing and going really well, and I’m just blown away at the stuff that’s coming together. I’m excited and can’t wait for it to be done. It’s something I’ve been missing for a long time [laughs], that beautiful collaboration that we have because we’re all so different and have different tastes. But again, when you are all meeting in the middle and that thing you do that meets in the middle is just beautiful, it’s very rewarding. So yes, I’m very happy.

We probably have 20 potential song ideas now. Of course, 20 won’t be on the record. We’re just jamming. But I’ll tell you, there’s nothing better than having too many good songs then not enough. It’s great. You pick your faves.

 

If Maynard has heard the music yet, often one of the last steps in finishing new music for the band:

Yeah. We have an FTP and a Dropbox and we’re in communication. He’s got other stuff he does, so we keep him in the loop, and he has written lyrics, but he’s still working on that and he’ll commit. The best thing for all of us is when the song is done. I don’t write leads until the song is done. You want to get a vibe. And Maynard can work on lyrics, but until the song’s done and he knows how the end is, he’s still figuring out the flow.

The thing with Tool is you have four critical thinkers who like different stuff, so our process is not an easy one but it’s a very rewarding one. So yes, he is exposed to new music. It’s always been this way and it probably will always be this way and it’s just how people work.

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