“There’s a bigger picture”: The album that completely transformed Maynard James Keenan
If there’s one thing that Tool asks of their fans, it’s patience. Whether that’s through their music, which can often present itself as highly complex and requires your full attention to be understood, or because they tend to take a long time between releases, patience, as a Tool fan, is paramount.
When you’re given a song that weaves its way through multiple parts, switches time signatures constantly and also tackles heavy subject matters, the instant reaction of a less-patient listener would be to dismiss it immediately, and to give up on ever trying to comprehend it as a complete piece of work. When listening to Tool, it’s imperative that you don’t do this, and actually dig deeper into the intricacies of their work in order to understand this, and long-term fans of the band know that.
But where did this desire to test the patience of their listeners come from? Frontman Maynard James Keenan has always been a connoisseur of music from beyond the realms of the progressive rock and metal that his band are known for making, and some of his external influences have taught him valuable lessons over the years in how to build tension in a song before allowing the big payoff to hit.
Keenan’s love of slowcore pioneers Low and their 2001 album, Things We Lost in the Fire, is something that showed him exactly how to build songs around subtle increases of emotion, raising the stakes gradually rather than instantly charging in at full tilt, and in a conversation with Daniel P Carter on BBC Radio 1’s Rock Show, he explained his reasons for falling head over heels with the Minnesota act.
“The restraint and the patience,” he began, outlining the two major strengths of this body of work. “I’ve had a lot of friends over the years—all my projects—I’m always the guy going ‘If we slow this down, it could be such an intense thing.’” While he would go on to explain how Pink Floyd often use similar approaches in building anticipation even before they’ve played the note you’re expecting, he states that it’s difficult for musicians to see the point of doing this when they could cut to the chase.
“Just the patience between notes and hits,” he continued. “It’s such a gorgeous display of ‘No, there’s a bigger picture here. We’re creating a mood.’ Every project I’ve been in, whenever I suggested we get that slow it’s almost like panic. It’s hard for them to really dig in. Everybody wants to speed it up. This last album [it was] like ‘turn the tempo up, turn the tempo up.’ It’s like ‘I think you are missing something here. I think you are missing an opportunity to really draw someone in, almost like hypnotism.”
The work that Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker created as a band was always spellbinding, and knew exactly how to create atmosphere with only the slightest little adjustments, but what can be said about it is just how much it has taught other artists to not rush their way into making grandiose statements with their work. Restraint and patience, as Keenan notes, is key to their work, and as a result, it became part of Tool’s approach too.
