So I have always been fascinated by psychedelics. No, don’t get me wrong, I’m not a junkie, or addict of any sort. I have just been extremely psyched by different kinds of music. Way back when I was in eighth grade, which was 2008, I stumbled upon a song, very unlike anything that I had ever heard before. I listened to the classics – Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, ran into some metal with Metallica, A bullet for my Valentine (yes). But this one was very very different. The music sounded rather Indian, and my underdeveloped brain could not make too much sense out of it. It always stuck though, as a very different track. I always wanted to go back to it, and probably rediscover this lost track. I was admittedly one of those who sat down with LimeWire, back in the early 2000s, when I wasn’t even aware of the internet completely, and thought of it as a very easy way to get free music, much like everyone else at that period. While I am extremely guilty that I ended up doing something of this sort, I am also extremely glad that I sat down and spent hours just innocently looking for music.

Many of my friends at the time were beginning to use social media, which meant spending hours on Facebook reading and writing comments about each other, after spending a lot of time with the same people in class. I was not allowed on social media back then, and found it extremely irritating that I couldn’t. I always wanted to go online, and be like the rest. However, I was also a really good kid. I had a wild mind, but I was an obedient, quiet kid. I would sit down on my desktop, and download music, listen to everything I found, and slowly build my inner personality. From Pink Floyd to Nirvana, and all the way to some pop songs of the time. I would segregate my music genres, based on what people liked, what were on the billboards and what I seemed to like the most. I had a few friends in school who were metalheads, liked Metallica and Linkin Park. Of course, I dug them too. I decided that hard rock and metal is something I really liked. I found rock pretty good too, blues maybe. I found Pink Floyd, and began obsessing over brain damage, and comfortably numb. It introduced me to the guitar, and as most people, I joined a guitar class. My guitar teacher, Ahmed, was a role model almost. He introduced me to Iron Maiden, CCR, Dire Straits, Porcupine Tree and so on. This got me into classic rock, and I started reading up, practiced While my guitar gently weeps until my fingers bled. I began obsessing over Joe Bonamassa, and listened to all of his Bloodline albums, while I walked around my apartment, the iPod being my most prized possession. All this, while that one track remained hidden beneath so many songs I was listening to at the time.

College brought me some new music too. I began listening to Dream Theater, Alterbridge, Creed and the sorts. One of my friends from school introduced me to Tame Impala, and I thought to myself, that this was one of the greatest bands ever. I always heard these, and always remember that one track that nobody ever suggested to me. Neither have I heard it before, nor did I hear of it after. It always haunted me, but I was determined. I could always hear the way the song went – unforgettable.

During my days in college, I met a lot of wonderful people, as obsessed as I was with music. I met my best friend because of James Hetfield. It’s almost magical, but yet no source of this song that I heard that day. I had it on my iPod, and as I was always one for local copies/ downloaded music, I never really thought of looking it up on YouTube. I did google it once, but I did not think that it was the right band. I did look up LimeWire later on, and found one more song by them, and that was it. I had two songs by this weird band, and played it to people, who ended up hating it. I cannot believe these people. I was prepping to move to the US, and had a few friends from different parts of the country, who introduced me to Ghost and Puscifer. I am eternally grateful to these people, and will believe them, undoubtedly.

I was in the third or fourth year of college, when my closest friend sent me a message – “Listen to 10000 days”, and I obediently did. I further went on to watch the video, and thought it was extremely intense, and told him that it was too intense, but that I was amazed. Then I noticed, it was by Tool. I told him immediately about these two songs – Forty six and two, and Ticks and Leeches. Back when I downloaded it , it was by Tool ft. Passenger. And the Ticks and Leeches was by Tool ft. Deftones. This really confused me, but it was because these were named by random people when they were using the whole file distribution technique. Brilliance. I loved the whole suspense behind it. Thus began my Tool escapade.

I moved to the States for grad school, when I had heard a few more Tool songs, but again, due to my need for offline music, I stuck to the two songs that I had and settled. This was literally over 9 years, 2008 to 2017. While staying in the US, I was extremely happy to find free internet almost everywhere I went, and super fast data rates. YouTube is now my friend. I listened to Tool, day in and day out. 10000 days made me go crazy every time I heard it. I was always ready to share this with anyone who came to me for music. One such time, I spoke to a friend who sent me Tremonti and a song called the Doomed. The video to this song was extremely intriguing. It was the summer of 2018, and I was free of studies, did not have a job, but had earned just enough to have a good time. I found this album called Eat the Elephant.

Eat the Elephant was a brand new album, by a group called a perfect circle, who I had never heard of. I heard every song in this album nearly a thousand times that summer. Disillusioned, I would go back around a few artists over and over again. I heard more songs by a perfect circle, thanks to Spotify and Apple Music. They opened me up to a whole new world. I have to say though, that I never forget the music that I grew up with. I still heard a lot of Metallica, Maiden and of the more recent times, that of Puscifer and Ghost. I would keep shuffling between these artists, and grew richer and experienced in the music that I heard.

After all this time though, it still never occurred to me to google these guys. I was always happy just listening to them, and never really went on to read anything about them. One of my roommates was a fan of Tool (surprise surprise). She was also as obsessed as I was with Tool and 10000 days. While talking to her, I heard her talking about Maynard. I made a mental note, to go look him up.

This is where my life changed. It all made sense. Everything.

As I had it, Maynard was the lead singer of the three bands that I was always obsessed with. Tool, Puscifer and A Perfect Circle. It was the biggest shocker I ever had. Having heard these three bands, I was almost hypnotized every time I heard them. Maynard James Keenan, is the one thing common between all of these three bands that were changing my life over the last ten years, and I didn’t even know about it.

Of course, after getting to know this, I became an instant fan. I read about him, meanings behind his songs, the different personas that he took. I have always looked at an artist’s face when I get a chance to see them performing. I would try to mimic the shape that their mouths would take while singing, and try it out (in secret). But this was not the case with Maynard. I could never find that one thing that defined his voice. There were no music videos, no weird synth over his voice, nor were there any live videos, except for that of Sober. And I always thought that it was impossible that he would sing the same way every time. I also found that everytime I found this feature in an artist, I never really was as fascinated by the band anymore. But this never happened to these three bands. Each one had a new experience, and a new feel to it.

The beginning of 2018, I embarked on journey to try and find this out. I watched his videos, tried to mimic, tried singing, shouting when I was alone. But nothing ever seemed to match this voice. Everytime I heard Maynard, I was struck. When I heard Rev 22:20, I was almost orgasmic. I recall coming home that day and asking my housemates if this was normal, and had to sit down and drink a lot of water before getting back to normal. That night I bought Maynard’s book, A perfect Union of contrary things. I still haven’t finished reading this book, I don’t want to let go of his secrets too early.

And yes, people keep talking about how Tool has not released a new album in years, but it’s been a bountiful ten years for me. I have always warmed up to anything he puts out, as it has always hit me randomly. I only recently listened to his covers of Rocket Man and Bring me the disco king. I’ve got it good. This Maynard dude is a shaman man, and I like it better that way.