Tool and A Perfect Circle frontman Maynard James Keenan has had a busy year, releasing a new album with APC titled Eat the Elephant, and working on a new Tool record. Billy Howerdel discussed how the recording sessions were ‘disconnected’ for Eat the Elephant in a new Kentucky.com interview, saying he would have preferred more ‘face time’ with Keenan, though he loves the record.
“We cut this record over the last couple of years. I gave Maynard ideas for the songs. He asked me to strip them down to a much more broken down place — to maybe just a piano and a click track. Then he would find his best melody and then I would start working the track back up. We would send the music back and forth online.
“It was a bit disconnected from the way we used to work with both of us in a room together. But this gave a lot of space and creative license to not be waiting on another creative type. There is something to be said about that. When you’re sitting in a room, you know the pressure is on and you’re going to do great work. But you can also say, ‘Let me go marinate in my own space, wherever that is.’ It could be sitting on top on a mountain saying words into an iPhone.
“Everybody’s got their way. I would have liked to have had a little more face time. But the results are what they are, which are great.”
