ARTICLE BY: Aquarian
UNKNOWN DATE, 1996

TITLE - Tool: Things Are Going to Work Out
AUTHOR - Robert Makin

Tool are to metaphysics what Rage Against the Machine are to justice: a light at the end of the tunnel. Few bands have their priorities as straight as this thinking person's version of an L.A. hard rock act. Kind of like Pink Floyd for the mosh set, Tool's negative-sounding rage is actually a positive means to acceptance, unity and peace, a place where all living things appreciate their connection to each other and the universe, regardless of their differences.
A ritual magician-turned-frontman, Tool singer/lyricist Maynard James Keenan shared his insights about the band's chart-busting new album, Aenima, their third for Zoo Entertainment. His insight is much needed, because you could spend the rest of your life peeling away the disc's layers of meaning.
Swan song for the human race or calling card to the next generation to finally get things right? Find out when Keenan speaks--ever so softly as compared to his maniacal stage persona--on behalf of his bandmates: Justin Chancellor, bass; Danny Carey, drums; and Adam Jones, guitar.

Q: What do you think of Hollywood?
MJK: It has its pros and cons.
Q: Judging by the song, 'Aemema,' and the artwork underneath wherre the CD rests, which depicts the collapse of the San Andreas fault, it seems like Tool wouldn't mind if it was washed away.
MJK: Change is coming from everywhere.
Q: I guess there's not much we can do about seismic changes, but there is something we can do about human behavior. If the band is a tool, what purpose does it serve?
MJK: Provide ideas and opportunities that people in our demographic don't usually get. It just comes down to what matters. I think people get upset and it becomes an excuse to treat other people a certain way, but if you really step back, you realize what you've left behind. It's a foundation that we're talking about. The Hatfields and the McCoys shoot each other for a reason but they don't even know why.
Q: I think there's a lot of misconceptions about the band, that you are angry and negative. Shile that may be true of the music, is t true of the band members?
MJK: Well, whenever you try to work through the things that we're trying top work through, that we're addressing, it ends up looking negative. Our goal is nonjudgment, nonfiltered acceptance of everything. So much of our background collectively, especially in the United States, is denying and suppressing and disowning a lot of negativity and the darker areas. You can become swallowed up in it. It's cancerous. The goal should be tto define acceptance for everything. to try and consider every aspect. To try to look into the shadows, as well as the light.
Q: So in order to not be apathetic, we need to be empathetic.
MJK: Right.
Q: Does the music serve as a release that enables you to remain peaceful and positive?
MJK: Music is definitely a higher form of language. It definitely cuts right straight to the bone without you having to explain it a lot of times. It moves things on a body level, an emotional level.
Q: You sound like such a soft-spoken, peaceful person, but when you get onstage, you're like, totally different.
MJK: There's a lot of energy up there. The sound, itself, is a movement. If you allow it to enter your body, your body will move with that music. If you allow it.
Q: The other dichotomy is that Tool sound very machine-like, yet you seem like a very spiritual person.
MJK: I don't think we sound machine-like. I think we may be like a clock. So is the universe. The universe has patterns that pretty much chime right in with each other.
Q: So at this point in time, Tool sound like you do, but at the next point on the clock, you may sound fairly different?
MJK: Yeah. We jsut grow with hwat the four of us are doing at that time.
Q: You seem like four very different people that come together as a unified whole.
MJK: We're not all coming from a spiritual standpoint. I tend to take off on the metaphysical aspects of things. Adam tends to ground it in his nonbelief of almost everything. It's like a bridge basically.
Q: Kind of like yin and yang?
MJK: Yeah.
Q: When you do get angry, what pisses you off the most?
MJK: A lack of empathy, a lack of compassion. Driving in L.A., the decisions that people make on the highway toward each other is just so enraging. It's such an example of people not understanding their connection with each other.
Q: Where do you feel that connection has its basis?
MJK: Light and Sound. Everything we see is energy, light and vibration. The entire universe is operating on just a big frequency. Everything you perceive, that's coming into your eye is just a combination of shape and light. We are all of the same substance. Any religion that you can dig up will tell you that. Every person who's had a spiritual moment will tell you that. People who aren't into organized religions or even cultish religions, some kid sittting on the corner taking acid at a Dead show will tell you that. That's our connection.
Q: It's really refreshing to see a band attempting to open young people's minds.
MJK: Well, I think it's just where we're at at this point in time. Next year, we may not be commenting on these things. If you think of the big picture, it doesn't really matter, because I think that things are goint to work out anyway. It's going to be okay. It doesn't really matter what you believe or what you're into. Everybody's having their experiences and they have a right to those experiences. It's all just one great big dance anyway.
Q: The universe runs its course.
MJK: Yeah, it's going to be fine.
Q: That's a great attitude. About the band, you're very much an eclectic group of artists. You place a lot of importance on your entire package: the album art and the videos. The album art for this new album is just amazing with the moving pictures. I understand the video for 'Stinkfist' is going to be another breakthrough. Comment on the band's artistic approach to not just the music but everything that surrounds you.
MJK: Adam pretty much handles all the visual stuff. He's into all that film stuff. He has his particular outollk on things, his avant garde take on images. With Danny and my background on ritual magic, sacred geometry, mythology and architects, we're both kind of infusing those things into Adam's images. There's a freshness to Adam's intuitive sense of motion and images, visuals. Then with our understanding of transcendent and eternal archetypes, you have a very nice balance of intuitive, intellectual imagery.
Q: How do your different backgrounds apply to this new video?
MJK: Images just pop up, a lot like the 'Prison Sex' video. People were terrified by that video.
Q: The live show is really intense too. OOther than the new songs, how is that going to be different this time out?
MJK: It's a little more visual, but for the most part, it's just four people doing this ritual dance onstage.
Q: I love the segues on the album, like 'Cesaro Summability' and 'Useful Idiot.' Will you use them live?
MJK: No.
Q: If I was to say you guys remind me of Pink Floyd, how would you feel about that?
MJK: That would be a compliment I would think. They were a very artistic band, but it's dangerous territory, because it pushes into the prog rock territory.
Q: I guess that's separate ground, because you have a much harder groove. Yet on Aenima, you worked with David Botrill, who's produced King Crimson and Peter Gabriel.
MJK: I think the most important thing is that we evolve. That's what the album is all about. You definitely have to clear a space. Q: What inspired 'Stinkfist?'
MJK: A guy named Stinkfist. He's a very good friend of Danny's. It's a tribute to him, because he very much embraced life whole-heartedly, a go-getter. that's how he got the name Stinkfist, because hewas the kind of guy who got his hands dirty. he wasn't afraid. He just kind of grabbed life by the throat. The imagery of the song is kind of like stepping through a portal like in the movie Stargate, where James Spader is standing in front of the portal, a little afraid of what was going to happen. He's excited as he puts his hand through the portal, he steps through and it's a whole differrent reality. It's a whole different perspective or way of seeing things. Every sense just lit up and he was completely overwhelmed by feeling this way.
Q: People have a very graphic interpretation of 'Stinkfist.' I don't know what your intention was, but it's ovbbiously stirred up a lot of controversy. Is the general interpretation what you had in mind or are people off base?
MJK: I think that there's many meanings that we really strive for within the music. There's layers of interpretation. If people want to think it's about fist-fucking, that's fine. That's where they're at. But if they really look at it and really look at us and who we are, they'll understand that we go a little deeper than some write-off song about fist-fucking. Now they'll dig a little deeper, trying to find out what's really going.
Q: Like you mentioned, it's a portal to a variety of experiences. You're riddled with controversy on this album as in 'Hooker with a Penis.' What inspired that one?
MJK: That song is again taken literally for what is, which is the fear that some kid thinks that we sold out. You and I both know that that's such a silly term, so it goes a lot deeper than that. The album is about evolution and change and that's one of the songs where that really came together.
Q: The Third Eye is a visual theme that runs throughout your albums. On Aenima, it also takes the form of a song.
MJK: The Third Eye goes back a long way. It's what a comedian friend of ours Bill Hicks talked about.
Q: He often talked abbout how drugs open the Third Eye, but is it a subject that goes beyond the usee of drugs?
MJK: In his comedy, that's what he's talking about, but his underlying context has more to do with unity and our inner connection collectively. You literally have a third eye in your head. It's your pineal gland and it is an eye. It focuses light. People talk about dolphins and whales being more evolved, because they have a better breathing element. If you do meditation, you understand the idea of the Prana, breathing in light through the pineal gland. In mythology, there's talk about how people used to breathe that way, but over time, they began to breathe more through the mouth. That's the connection that we've forgotten.
Q: Is the use of drugs a way to enhance the Third Eye?
MJK: Drugs definitely give you an alternate perspective. Your consciousness is like a radio frequency. If you turn the dial, all those radio stations are there simultaneously. You can dial in to hear what station you want to hear. Consciousness is the same way. Through meditation, you can alter that, you can come upon an alternate reality. Drugs is a shortcut to that. The trick is to really understand the medium you used to get there. Don Quixote was like that. He was a slave to peyote. He could really get into this alternate consciousness. His guide was peyote, but he was a slave. He couldn't get there except through that medium. There's a lot of people on heroin writing amazing music, but it's a hard way to go, because you sacrifice your life.
Q: Do you condone the use of drugs?
MJK: Everyone has the right to their own experience, but it's a hard way to go. It's a hard decision to make without fear of repercussions. I don't do them. I used to do mushrooms.
Q: Comment on how the song 'Sober' isn't about saying no to drugs.
MJK: It's saying why can't we get along? It's about unity.
Q: This is a tough question, because it's based on rumor, based on the images in your songs. The rumor is that you're gay. Whether you are or not, how do you feel about people discussing that when they don't even know you?
MJK: It doesn't bother me. I don't even think about it. If that's how people are content, fine. I'm more interested in the big picture.
Q: You mentioned that you feel that things will work out, but do you feel that humankind are in those plans? Will we evolve?
MJK: Absolutely. I'm absolutely certain. We're already okay. Right now, if you look in the inner cities, it seems like a lot of people running around and it looks negative. But thatt's a big pocket of people with an emotional release. People are definitely working out some major shit right in front of you. It's a movement.
Q: But on whatt side? It seems like there is a lot of bullshit ggoing on from a political standpoint.
MJK: Yeah, those people are out of control, but globally, there are a lot of people who have their hearts in the right place. Deep down inside, they feel compassion. Right now, it's going back to what matters. I have no solution, so I don't know what would happen, but if, for example, a comet crushed L.A., within 48 hours, the world economically and politically would start collapsing, because all those major cities are so dependent on each other. There's so much stuff going on through the Internet, electronic banking systems, all that kind of stuff that it would really have a huge, huge impact on the world. You could almost say it would throw us back into the dark ages if it happened on a big enouge scale. Then there are people who have power. Usually they ahve power, because they have wealth. It's connected. If you take that away, if it's crushed, you can go back to what really matters. That's what we have to do, find out what really matters and go back to it and understand it. I have faith in the end, especially in the kids that are coming up now. There's so many changes taking place among the children of ttoday. Kids 15 and underr think about things so much differently. There's so many earth responsible children being raised these days that by the time any major cataclysmic event like that occurs, those are the people who will have taken over the reins at that point and they'll have a much better idea how to deal with it.
Q: but they don't get credit for it.
MJK: Because they don't have any of that Associated Press shit or whatever.


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