Tool Frontman Maynard James Keenan Shares He Steal Music Ideas or Not
Maynard James Keenan talked with Rick Beato on his YouTube channel. The interview consists also pass 1-hour and mentioning about Maynard’s music bands: Puscifer, A Perfect Circle, and of course Tool.
Back in the days of Nine Inch Nails‘ 1999 double album The Fragile. Maynard reveals so many unknown things about the album. For the influence of NIN’s 1999 album, Maynard reveals on some A Perfect Circle tracks he was “stealing from the stolen merchandise”. This is a funny mention of the fact Nine Inch Nail’s music was not made in a vacuum.
However, it’s still fascinating to listen to Tools’ Maynard James Keenan talk about perhaps “borrowing” items of the band of his A Perfect Circle bandmate Billy Howerdel’s boss in the past. Considering the prestigious status. Maynard and Trent Reznor also enjoy the music scene of the ’90s.
During an interview with Rick Beato, Maynard also mentioned the creative process of his music projects like Tool, Puscifer, and A Perfect Circle (transcribed by Metalshout.com):
“Professionals steal, right? And so, really looking at the work of people like PJ Harvey, Trent Reznor on ‘The Fragile’. He is stealing shit all over that album, but I’m stealing from his stolen goods. I wanted to hear more space in some of the A Perfect Circle stuff. So going back to my original influences of The Swans’ early ‘Holy Money’ and ‘Greed’ albums, just the huge cavern of space that are in those albums. Simple rhythms, just primal in their approach.
Mentioning of the connection between Swans and A Perfect Circle:
“I mean when you think of A Perfect Circle and Swans, they’re not the same thing. But logistically if you look at the waveforms on a screen of those songs, you see the space in ‘The Noose’ that might match the space on the screen of a Swans song. And that was the point of like leaving space, to let your brain keep going in the middle of the spaces.
And Josh is a great drummer, but I remember on The Noose going ‘Stop playing right there. Don’t play through, stop.’ And he was like ‘Ohhh.’ ‘Cause, he’s already done that in other things, but you have to remind him, you’ve already done something like this. Do that again, leave space. And it really sells the atmosphere of the track. As contrasting to ‘Weak And Powerless’ which is like a metronome just right through your head. Again, stolen from Trent. Don’t tell him. Don’t watch this Trent.”
Maynard also went deep:
“I accidentally only work with very strong personalities – stubborn people. I almost have to let them take the first step… and then react and allow them to see the reaction so that they can built on that. And that’s the same across all those projects.”
Yes now also you could check the upcoming Puscifer 2022 tour dates below:
- 10/13 San Francisco, CA The Warfield
- 10/15 Reno, NV Grand Theatre at the Grand Sierra Resort
- 10/16 Paso Robles, CA Vina Robles Amphitheatre
- 10/18 Escondido, CA California Center for Arts Escondido – Concert Hall
- 10/20 Tucson, AZ The Linda Ronstadt Music Hall (formerly Tucson Music Hall)
- 10/21 El Paso, TX Abraham Chavez Theatre
- 10/22 San Antonio, TX Tech Port Center & Arena
- 10/25 Houston, TX 713 Music Hall
- 10/26 Ft. Worth, TX Will Rogers Memorial Auditorium
- 10/28 New Orleans, LA Mahalia Jackson Theater
- 10/29 Baton Rouge, LA River Center Theatre
- 10/31 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium
- 11/1 Charlotte, NC Ovens Auditorium
- 11/3 Norfolk, VA Chrysler Hall
- 11/4 Washington, DC Warner Theatre
- 11/5 Atlantic City, NJ Sound Waves at Hard Rock Hotel & Casino
- 11/7 Montreal, QC MTelus
- 11/8 Toronto, ON Queen Elizabeth Theatre
- 11/10 Cincinnati, OH The Andrew J. Brady Music Center
- 11/11 Louisville, KY Louisville Palace
- 11/12 Indianapolis, IN Murat Theatre at Old National Centre
- 11/13 Madison, WI The Orpheum Theater
- 11/15 Grand Rapids, MI DeVos Performance Hall
- 11/17 St. Louis, MO The Factory
- 11/18 Kansas City, MO The Midland Theatre
- 11/19 Tulsa, OK Tulsa Theater
- 11/22 Prescott, AZ Yavapai College Performing Arts Center
Watch the Maynard James Keenan interview below!
