Maynard James Keenan explains how Radiohead changed music forever: “Long introspective pieces”
Bands spend a great deal of time planning their albums, live performances, and marketing techniques in a bid to be perceived in a certain way. Tool do something different, though, as they embrace chaos and present themselves as a mystery.
When you see the band perform, they don’t come across like a regular musical outfit. Lead singer Maynard James Keenan doesn’t stand towards the front of the band but instead lingers towards the back, covered in darkness. The majority of the stage is in darkness, with strange videos playing in the background providing the only light.
The band also enjoy creating elements of fiction and gossip within their music. The lyrics they write are completely shrouded in smoke and mirrors. It’s impossible to tell what the band take seriously and what is told as a joke, leaving fans debating the meaning of songs and what message the band are trying to convey.
When you have a look and lyrics that leave fans confused, it’s only right that you create music that is equally confusing. Tool manage to do this by leaning heavily into their prog roots and embracing the boundarylessness of prog rock wholeheartedly. This means using strange layering techniques, writing in off-kilter time signatures and allowing songs to overlap in order to create different songs. It’s truly innovative and has inspired a number of bands around the world.
Some people want to make conventional music that straddles the much-loved 4/4 time signature and that listeners can quickly get on board with. However, there are of course plenty other musicians who are inspired by the sound of bands such as Tool, those who are happy to embrace the strange side of music and create music that initially might be somewhat inaccessible.
Justin Chancellor, the band’s bassist, once spoke about some of the groups who are inspired by Tool and said that while he likes some of them, they don’t make him as excited as his own outfit does. “I don’t hear that,” he said. “All the time I’m told that this band or that band are inspired by Tool but as one of the biggest fans of this band, I have to say that I don’t get any of the emotional feel from them that I get from Tool.”
Maynard James Keenan agrees, but he also doesn’t think that Tool can take all of the credit for the existence of these bands. When discussing them and Tool’s influence, he said the bands would probably still be doing what they’re doing even if his band weren’t around. He used Radiohead as a reference, adding that they changed music in a similar way Tool did, so people would have just found their inspiration from other places.
“I think that they would still be doing what they are doing without us […] You listen to At The Drive In [the original band that featured Mars Volta members Cedric Bixler and Omar Rodriguez] and they were setting themselves up for the next thing, that whole Santana jam thing,” he explained. “I think that when Radiohead in the ’90s started doing these long introspective pieces, that also set the stage for The Mars Volta and for a lot of bands like them.”
Modest, but Keenan has a point. Music will likely always find a way; however, in this instance, it was Tool who acted as the inspiration for a range of prog rock bands.
