TOOL’s JUSTIN CHANCELLOR: ‘We’ve Been Working On’ New Music, ‘On And Off, For A Couple Of Years’

In a new interview with The Australian‘s national music writer Andrew McMillen, TOOL bassist Justin Chancellor was asked if he has come to dread that point in every interview when he gets asked about new music from him and his bandmates. He responded (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “A little bit. A little bit. But it’s fine. It’s fine. I mean, the fact is I’ll tell you we’re working on new music. I don’t know when we’re gonna finish it. We’ve been working on stuff, on and off, for a couple of years. We’re always working on new music. I was in the studio with Danny [Carey, TOOL drummer] last week, banging out some ideas. But I always say this: art doesn’t really have a schedule. You can’t force it. And if you do, it tends not to work out so great. So I think, especially in our band, somehow it’s just the way it works with our band. It’s a different kind of alchemy. And I think we’ve all learned — Maynard‘s [James Keenan, TOOL singer] got his side projects. Danny does a bunch of different stuff, Adam [Jones, TOOL guitarist] does different shit, and I’ve got my stuff. And we’ve learned to sort of [set aside] a time when people need that space with busying ourselves with other things, which, actually, influence what we do when we come back together as well. So it kind of gives us a little headroom that speaks to the new stuff that we do when we come back together.

“So, yeah, it is a bit of a weird question, because everyone’s always taking the piss, like, it takes so long for us to make music,” he continued. “But I’m proud of everything we’ve done. 13 years — they always talk about [how it took] 13 years [to release a follow-up to 2006’s ‘10,000 Days’] — it seems like a week to me. When we were working on that stuff every day, we were grinding away at it. And it doesn’t really matter in the end. If you do anything that’s decent, even if it’s one thing, it’s worth it.”

When McMillen noted that those kinds of questions could potentially be taken as a compliment since TOOL fans seem to always want to hear new music from the band, which isn’t always the case with veteran artists, Justin concurred. “Yeah, I agree with that,” he said. “I think it’s more interesting to take a long time to find something unique than just to keep repeating yourself. And no offense to anyone that — I guess let’s just call it pop music; they just keep churning out the hits. I mean, people love that stuff. So there’s a place for it and there’s people that are good at that, but that’s not us. We’re into just trying to create something unique that hasn’t been heard before, as musicians, as a band. And sometimes it gets harder and harder. Sometimes it just comes to you — some days you’re, like, ‘Whoa, what’s this?’ And you play it to your friends, and they’re, like, ‘Whoa, it’s amazing.’ It just comes out of the blue. But it’s not a formula. There is no formula. And if anything, the formula is just to carry on living life and exploring and letting it come in from your life experiences. I think with us, that’s the way it works a lot more.

“So, yeah, but I get what you’re saying,” he added. “It is a compliment that people are excited for new music. But we just don’t want it to be on a schedule. We want it just to be good. We wanna be proud of it, and we wanna all agree that this is what we wanna share. So, like I was saying, the side projects are a really good way of us alleviating that time, and kind of keeping the fitness up, but not pushing the whole issue.”

TOOL is currently preparing to tour Australia for the first time since 2020. The band is headlining the Good Things festival on the east coast, as well as playing sideshows in Perth and Adelaide.

TOOL‘s appearance at Good Things will be their first Australian festival headlining show since their Big Day Out performance in 2011.

Good Things will take place at Flemington Racecourse, Melbourne on December 5, Sydney Showground, Sydney on December 6 and Brisbane Showgrounds, Brisbane on December 7.

Quite possibly the era’s most highly anticipated album, TOOL‘s latest LP, “Fear Inoculum”, arrived in August of 2019. Debuting at No. 1 on Billboard‘s Top 200, the album earned heaps of critical praise with NPR saying, “‘Fear Inoculum’ was worth the 13-year wait,” Revolver proclaiming the album “a masterpiece to be dissected for years to come” and Consequence saying the release finds “TOOL in peak performance.”

In 2022, TOOL released “Opiate2”, a re-imagined and extended version of the 1992 EP’s title track and an accompanying short film, marking the band’s first new video in 15 years. The band also unveiled the first incarnation of “Fear Inoculum” vinyl, dubbed the Ultra Deluxe edition, the limited offering included five 180-gram vinyl discs emblazoned with a unique etching and accompanied by an elaborate pictorial booklet including never-before-seen artwork.

TOOL formed in 1990, releasing five studio albums: “Undertow” (1993),“Ænima” (1996),“Lateralus” (2001),“10,000 Days” (2006) and “Fear Inoculum” (2019); two EPs: “72826” (1991) and “Opiate” (1992),and the limited-edition boxset “Salival” (2000). The band has won four Grammy Awards: “Best Metal Performance” (1998, “Ænima”),”Best Metal Performance” (2002, “Schism”),”Best Recording Package” (2007, “10,000 Days”) and “Best Metal Performance” (2020, “7empest”).