Tool

The moon tells me a secret, my confidant...

TOOL

How does a band become one of the biggest heaviest acts on earth when they rarely do interviews, have only ever appeared in one of their videos and don't get played on the radio? How does a band take a 5 year break from recording and return with a world-wide number 1 album and sell millions of records in the process? The answer lies with Los Angeles band, Tool. Who have always played by their own rules and have been massively successful as a result. Of course, Tool don't reveal too much prefering their music to do the talking, and talk it does.

MAYNARD
Birth Name : James Herbert Keenan
Birthday : April 17, 1964

Maynard was born to a Baptist family and grew up with an older sister in Ravenna, Ohio. Maynard attended Brown Jr High and then Ravenna High school through the 10th grade until he moved to Michigan. There he attended Mason County Central High School in Scottville, MI. By the time he entered the army, in 1982, he had lived in Ohio, Michigan, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, Kansas and Texas.

Maynard was a member of the United States Military Academy ("West Point") prep school class of 1984. He was member of the cross country and wrestling teams, the glee club, and the "Knight Crier." References to the Honor Code "I will not lie, cheat, or steal, or tolerate those who do"; and to the term 'tool' probably came from this experience.

Maynard quit the military to study art, which eventually led to a job in LA applying spatial design concepts (called "Feng Shui") to remodeling pet stores. While Maynard was in Michigan, he attened the Kendall College of Art & Design, which is one of the best in that area. His artwork is rumored to be very abstract. Maynard was friends with Gillian Anderson while he was at Kendall.

Before Tool, in the 80's, Maynard was in Children of the Anachronistic Dynasty (C.A.D.) that released an independent cassette called 'Fingernails'. He was also in another band called TexAns.

Maynard met Danny Carey in LA when they were neighbors. Danny let Maynard and Adam use his practice space, and ended up playing with them a few times.

Maynard's father is a retired high school teacher from Mason County Central Highschool in Scottville, Michigan. They get along fine and Maynard visits home every year. Maynard is rumored to reside near Sedona, Arizona.

Maynard is currently involved in a second project called 'A Perfect Circle,' though he is still very much a part of Tool. He has also become engaged to his girlfriend.

Birth Name : Adam Thomas Jones
Birthday : January 15, 1965

Adam Jones is the creative mind behind the amazing guitar riffs and the intense videos of Tool. Ironically, he seems more comfortable as an artist than as a musician. Adam is originally from Illinois, and played violin in elementary school. He was accepted into the Suzuki program, and continued to play violin through his freshman year in high school. He then played a stand up bass for three years in an orchestra.

In addition to playing in an orchestra, Adam played bass in a band called Electric Sheep with Tom Morello of Rage Against the Machine in high school (Libertyville), and while he never received traditional guitar lessons, they learned from each other. Adam also studied film. Adam recieved a music scholarship to go to college, but chose to go to art school instead.

Adam went to school at the Hollywood Makeup Academy. He began by learning "straight make-up," because he thought it would help him out. He then began work as a sculptor and special effects designer where he learned the stop-motion camera techniques he would later apply in Tool's videos Sober, Prison Sex, Stinkfist, and Aenema.

After he graduated, he went to work at Rick Lazzarini's "The Character Shop." He was there for quite a while, 1-2 years, and worked on a TV show called "Monsters." He designed and fabricated a Grim Reaper makeup and a Zombie head on a spike (later used in Ghostbusters 2.) he worked on several commercials, and was one of the designers. He worked on a salad dressing commercial (it was never aired), Olympic stain (Albert Einstein makeups), Duracell (Boxers and Taxi cabs), Nightmare on Elm Street Part 5 (He did the Fredy Kreuger in the womb makeup), and Ghostbusters 2. At that time, Adam had a pet chameleon and a Great Dane. After that, he went to Stan Winston's. There he worked on Predator 2, where he sculpted a unique looking skull for the Predator's space ship interior.

Adam worked on several other big films in Hollywood doing makeup and set design, including Jurassic Park and Terminator 2. He also helped Green Jello with their costumes.

Adam is a great drawer, and is brilliant at charicatures. He is a big Devo fan. He used to skateboard and had an empty pool in front of the house he rented.

Birth Name : Daniel Edwin Carey
Birthday : May 10, 1961

Danny Carey grew up in a very typical, middle-class American house in Paola, Kansas. His father was a manager for a large insurance company and his mother was a school teacher. Danny has one older brother and one younger brother. Danny's earliest musical memory was when his father took him into the music library at the University of Kansas and played The Planets by Gustov Holst. Danny started taking lessons when he was ten or eleven, just on the snare drum in school band, and then again when he got his first kit at thirteen. Danny received a scholarship in High School to go to the Conservatory of Music in Kansas City.

Danny studied music for over three years at the University of Missouri. He had a couple of offers to play basketball at small colleges, but knew he wasn't good enough to play major college basketball or to go pro. Danny spent years working on his rudiments and doing drum corps. He always loved Billy Cobham and Buddy Rich because no matter how fast they played, you could hear every note. When he was in college he got a lot of classical training, doing recitals for three and a half years. He could have earned a degree if he stuck it out a while longer, but just wanted to play the drum set a little more, so he bailed on school when an opportunity came to go on the road with a band.

In 1986, Danny moved to Los Angeles, and spent four years there before anything really happened. However, at that time he was heavily into electronic drums. He was playing an electronic kit with real cymbals, and played the clubs. Then he got more into real drums, and attributes that to finally finding a quality set that sounded good. Danny also worked as a session player for Green Jello, Pygmy Love Circus, and Carole King. Danny's day job in LA was working in a tape duplication house. Then he met Adam Jones through Tom Morello of Rage (Against The Machine). Danny was also living beside Maynard. He never auditioned for them (Keenan and Jones). He felt sorry for them, because they would invite people over to play, and they wouldn't show up, so he would fill in.

Danny still loves playing jazz when he gets the chance. He is also working on a side project called ZAUM, which works in an electronic medium. Danny has also been involved in other side projects, including a TV sitcom called "Sibs."

Birth Name : Justin Gunnar Walte Chancellor
Birthday : November 19, 1971

Justin first met Tool in New York, and kept in touch with band members for a couple of years until Justin's band in England "Peach", did a tour with Tool in Europe in 1994. When original bassist Paul D'Amour left, Tool gave Justin a call. At first Justin turned them down. Peach had broken up about six months before, and he was forming a new band with the guitarist. Justin felt very loyal to his friend who he'd played with since he was 14. But then decided he couldn't deny himself the opportunity. Justin flew to the US, auditioned, and got the job. He beat out some stiff competition, which included Filter's Frank Cavanagh, KYUSS's Scott Reeder, Zaum's Marko Fox (who did the voice on Die Eier von Satan), and Pigmy Love Circus's E. Shepherd Stevenson.

After settling in the US, Justin married Ariadne Chancellor, on top of Mingus Mountain in Arizona on January 12, 1997.

Tool quotes

Maynard explaining his view upon their music

"We set the precident right away. Our music isn't nessecarily something you just put on and tap your foot to; It's definitely more of an interactive process so right away the entire fan base that we've developed from the last ten years, it's been those kind of people and sort of spread out from there. We set the precident initially. It wasn't about jumping up and down to some catchy phrase, it was about connecting with the music, listening, and respecting these people as artists, and listening with an artists' ears. So ya know, I'd say the majority of our crowd are artists in their own way. So they have respect for what we do, they're very forgiving, they listen with their hearts rather than just show up like cattle cause you get a free toy.. with this 'happy meal'."

Maynard informing the incentive behind his bizarre outfits while performing on stage live

"This is my relationship with myself, with my family ya know.. I mean, they're people who all they've done their whole career is sell their face and personalities, and they have good music but then all of the sudden they put out a bad record--nobody buys their record.. but they still can't go outside. They can't walk out into public without someone glamming onto the head that they've sold ya know? 'I know that face' and they come up and want an autograph and whatnot. I just keep changing so it's never about that. When I'm back out my house ya know, baking cookies; it has nothing to do with what's going on with this band. That's a whole seperate event and you shouldn't have to sell your head to get people to listen to music; It's music, it's far more important than somebody's face or how tight their ass is."

*Heavy music has changed considerably in the 10 years of Tool's exsistance. What did Tool think of the new breed of sport's metal acts with their big shorts and accompaning DJs such as Linkin Park?*

"It's kind of hard to really put those things in a category of 'band'. It's more like, you almost have to, if there was like another-- 'are they a boy band?'(DC) No they're like s-slimp, slip biscuit whatever the (shh) that stuff is. 'Laughter, gosh'(DC). There should be like, a seperate billboard chart that has to do with clever marketing plans ya know, so like McDonalds bein' up there with Mcnuggets then like, those bands you mentioned would be up there. That's how they should be rated, that's that kind of a chart, they shouldn't really be on a music chart.

19 May 03
DROPPED THE BALL
I should have known not to mention The Mass of St. Secaire until after the playoffs were over. Where did you find the renegade priest, though? Hell, even Boars Head dogs and Baghdad by the Bays didnt make us feel any better after that one. Robert Horry... The glass vase of yellow and purple flowers was a nice touch, though. And the guacamole dip was pretty good. (Next year, purple and yellow chips please). "Think of all the parties were going to miss" Danny lamented while pouring an excessive amount of Gates barbecue sauce on some sizzling Gelsons burgers. With smoke from the silver Viking drifting towards the ragged lunar eclipse I was checking out from the "Egyptian" deck, I knew exactly what he was thinking. If Horry had drained the shot in game five, wed have been doing this for a few more weeks. Only with yellow and purple chips.
BMB

16 May 03

HAPPY BIRTHDAY SCOTT REEDER!
Best wishes to the biggest, hardest-rocking teddy-bear with a farm that we all know... And we don't take this lightly... This is a serious wish.
...from the whole TOOL family.
kat

April something
AENIMA TRIPLE PLATINUM
The results are in and we are certified: Aenima has hit triple platinum in the US! Congratulations to the band and a special thanks to all the fans for your support over the years.

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