A few months ago, producer David Bottrill looked back at Ænima 20 years later with First Post. He discussed strange rumors surrounding Tool, and how the band enjoy messing with their fans.
“I don’t really follow those. It’s for the fans mostly. I know they love to mess with people and put out strange rumours. They all have a great sense of humour.”
He said he enjoyed working with the band.
“They (the band members) were very professional and focused for the most part. And well-prepared. As with all my projects, I had high hopes that Ænima would be received well.”
He also discussed the drum sound, “When we did the tracking of the full band for Ænima, we set up a PA behind the drums to originally put the electronic sounds out into the same room as the kit, because Danny played all his parts live with the kit and electronics. I then put the close microphones from all the drums into the PA as well and made a balance so as to give more power to the kit,” explains David and adds with satisfaction, “It worked well and I am very happy with the drum sounds I achieved on that record.”
Ænima was the first of two Tool LPs on which David worked. So, which one was harder to make?
“Ænima,” he says, “But only because we needed to open our lines of communication. Lateralus was much easier for me as those barriers had already been opened.” David elaborates, “The band was going through some stress due to their past few years of legal troubles, but for me, it was an easier process once all those troubles were dealt with.”
