It has been nearly seven years since we received Tool‘s 10,000 Days, and with some stirring from Maynard James Keenan in the A Perfect Circle world, along with keeping busy at winemaking, the next logical question is: When will Tool release some new material? Well, in a recent interview with Rolling Stone, the enigmatic frontman answered some questions, while still keeping us in the dark. One thing that he did make clear is that making a Tool album is “a very tedious process.”
Keenan told Rolling Stone, “I don’t write the music. They write the music,” he says of his bandmates. “I wait for them to bring music to me. They tend to go back over and over stuff. It’s a long process. For a person like me, it can be a very tedious process.”
He explains the very high standards of each band member, including himself, “In some ways, they are bigger perfectionists. But you can only help support their talent so long. They don’t have to go through it 700 times. They can trust that first thought. But that’s their process, so you gotta let them do it.” And is that process happening? “I couldn’t tell you,”
He continues, “…as an artist you don’t want to become a greatest hits version of yourself, either,” he says. “You want to push the boundaries. You want to figure out how can you challenge yourself to discover something new, discover something different about yourself. What are your limitations? What avenues can you push and expand? That is life. I don’t have any interest in coasting yet.”
While we aren’t any closer to a new Tool album, at least from what Keenan has let on, one thing we know for certain is that when that album does come out, it will be fresh, new, and will push the limits of what Tool is capable of.
To read the entire interview on Rolling Stone, click here.