Metal Anarchy

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Adam Jones was asked about Tool’s new album, as well as their upcoming tour with Primus. You can sread some of his comments regarding new music below.

Here’s what he said about the band’s new album progress:

“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.”

Here’s what he said when asked if Maynard James Keenan has been actively involved:

“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.”

He also commented on a new song titled “Descending,” which they previewed at their Halloween show:

“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.”

“…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.”

You can read more of the interview over at Rolling Stone.