Maynard James Keenan hinted in a new Forbes interview that he hasn’t heard any new Tool music, stating that he would ‘love’ to know what’s going on with new Tool material.
Messitte: That sort of transitions into something else I wanted to ask you: It seemed like early on, your idea of marketing wasn’t favorable, but now you’ve learned to love it. For someone who loves to do creative work but can’t stand the marketing of it—how do you find the love there? The artistry? How did you bridge that gap in yourself?
Keenan: I’m a storyteller, so marketing to me is just me telling the story; if I effectively tell the story, then it’s retold. So, that’s partly—that’s the lighter side, the brighter side, of marketing. It’s just storytelling.
Messitte: Yeah, but how does it get you through the darker side? Because there is such a darker side…
Keenan: Well, when your goals for that story—when you’re marketing a thing that you don’t necessarily believe in? If you don’t believe the story, and yet you’re trying to tell the story? That’s marketing. It’s boring. It’s dark. It’s ugly.
Messitte: …So I would be remiss if I didn’t ask how the Tool stuff is going.
Keenan: I would love to know as well.
Messitte: Honestly, I’m really asking more as somebody who really liked the last three albums and wants to hear the next three, you know?
Keenan: Well, what I suggest you do is you get headphones.
Messitte: …Yeah?
Keenan: And you sit down with the entire Puscifer catalogue, and just really take a minute, and let go, and let it happen. Just listen. Take a minute, put the headphones on and listen to that music. Do me a favor. Start with V is for Vagina, move onto Conditions, then do Money Shot, and then go back and do the EPs. Trust me.
