As their fanbase collectively rolls into a six-year wait for more new music from Tool, fans have been given at least some hope over the past year or two that they won’t be enduring another 13 year dry spell from the acclaimed alternative metal group.
The group’s bassist Justin Chancellor has seemingly been leading the charge when it comes to getting his bandmates back in the studio—or at least the most vocal about it to the press. In May of 2024, Chancellor spurred hopes of some forward momentum, revealing that the band had hard drives full of song ideas stockpiled, and that writing sessions for new material had already commenced.
Chancellor has also spoken out in recent years about he and his bandmates no longer having the luxury of resting on their laurels, given the advancing age of the group’s respective members. However, as 2024 rolled on, and various members of the band were seen out touring, or at least indulging in their passions outside of Tool, hopes for new material arriving anytime soon began to wane.
That dire outlook has continued into this year, with the group now set to launch their first-ever Latin American tour this spring. Shortly after that, vocalist Maynard James Keenan is headed out on the road with his two other bands, A Perfect Circle and Puscifer.
In a new interview with Summa Inferno, Chancellor has revealed that he and the majority of his bandmates intend to dedicate roughly three months to hammering out new songs shortly after returning from their trip down south this March. He commented:
“When we get back from [our] trip [to Mexico and South America in March] — I think it’s only three weeks we’re gonna be [there] — but we have already shared with each other a lot of these new ideas, but when we get back, we’re actually gonna dedicate the next three months after that in the studio to organizing our ideas.
There’s a lot of stages in the process. And much of it is just every day — we all have ideas and when they’re good, when we like them, we kind of save them or memorize them. But then the really difficult process is when you actually get together and make decisions about how it’s going to end up. And that becomes a little more mathematical, a little more like in the classroom — there’s a blackboard and there’s numbers and you have to make decisions.
So that’s the stage we haven’t completely pulled off yet, but we’re committed to do that when we get back. Before the summer, we’re gonna spend those few months really organizing our ideas. We already know what we like. We’ve all shared our individual ideas with each other, and we have a really good pile of stuff. You have to make those decisions, and you have to kind of wrestle with each other a bit to get to that next stage.
And then you have to record it, which is a whole another thing as well. You go into the studio, and you have to — it’s like a pregnancy almost. When you go to the studio, you have to make this final decision of how it’s gonna sound and how you’re gonna play it, and it’s gonna live like that forever. So it’s a real delicate thing to be able to pull off. And I don’t think it’s unreasonable that we take a long time at all. I think that’s only natural, and that’s why I’m proud of it, because it was worked on really hard.”
When asked if he felt that new music from the band would be arriving in the next two years, he responded:
“Yeah, well, the other thing is the climate of releasing music has completely changed, especially when you take a long time to make new music. It’s always a bit different when it comes out. So, we’ve talked about releasing a single, just one song— we could do that. We could also release an EP. And I think because we have such a dedicated fan base, everyone’s gonna be up for it.
They’ll all be interested, whatever the way it comes out. So we might not necessarily have to really wrestle out a whole album. We talked about the option of just maybe doing it a little differently and doing a song at a time. Or you could release a single and then another single, another single, and then after a year of releasing singles, you could put them all together on a record and make that an album.
I’m not really answering your question fully, but it doesn’t really have any rules when you’re making music. We’re just kind of making it up. But I can tell you that we absolutely have to write new music to continue doing what we’re doing. We wouldn’t be happy just to just sit on our laurels and play the same stuff over and over again. We really want to create new music to be able to continue doing what we love. So it’s coming. Trust me.”
When asked if he and his bandmates feel external pressure when coming up with new music, he replied:
“Um, not really. It’s more of a pressure on ourselves to be proud of what we allow to go out into the world. And part of that is really working hard on it and creating something that you’re proud of, not kind of being flippant about it, really taking it seriously as an art form. So the pressure really is on ourselves, I would say.
And as far as everyone else, you can’t really please everyone. So, there’s always going to be people that don’t like it, and there’s gonna be people that do like it. There’s songs that I don’t like that Adam [Jones, Tool guitarist] likes. And then sometimes that changes over time. There’ll be a song that I don’t like playing, but then, all of a sudden or over time, I start to be fond of it and see the beauty in it.
It’s art. Each to their own. And if you try to please everybody, it’s not gonna work. So you really just have to be true to yourself.”
Tool‘s aforementioned Mexican and South American touring plans will find them hitting the following cities:
03/07-08 Punta Cana, DOM – Tool Live In The Sand
03/12 Monterrey, MEX – Explanada del Estadio Azteca (feat. The Cult & Seven Hours After Violet)
03/15 Mexico City, MEX – Azteca Stadium Esplanade
03/18 Guadalajara, MEX – Calle 2 (feat. The Cult & Seven Hours After Violet)
03/22 Buenos Aires, ARG – Lollapalooza Argentina
03/23 Santiago, CHL – Lollapalooza Chile
03/28 Bogotá, COL – Festival Estereo Picnic
03/30 São Paulo, BRA – Lollapalooza Brasil
