

This is from Aquarian, a NJ music and politics magazine.



title: Tool: Things Are Going to Work Out

author: Robert Makin



AQ: What do you think of Hollywood?



MJK: It has its pros and cons.



AQ: Judging by the song, 'Anema,' and the artwork underneath where the

CD rests, which depicts the collapse of the San Andreas fault, it seems

like Tool wouldn't mind if it was washed away.



MJK: Change is coming from everywhere.



AQ: I guess there's not much we can do about seismic changes, but there

is something we can do about human behavior. If the band is a tool, what

purpose does it serve?



MJK: Provide ideas and opportunities that people in our demographic

don't usually get. It just comes down to what matters. I think people

get upset and it becomes an excuse to treat other people a certain way,

but if you really step back, you realize what you've left behind. It's a

foundation that we're talking about. The Hatfields and the McCoys shoot

each other for a reason but they don't even know why.



AQ: I think there's a lot of misconceptions about the band, that you are

angry and negative. While that may be true of the music, is it true of

the band members?



MJK: Well, whenever you try to work through the things that we're trying

to work through, that we're addressing, it ends up looking negative.

Our goal is nonjudgment, nonfiltered acceptance of everything. So much

of our background collectively, especially in the United States, is

denying and suppressing and disowning a lot of negativity and the darker

areas. You can become swallowed up in it. It's cancerous. The goal

should be to define acceptance for everything. To try and consider

every aspect. To try to look into the shadows, as well as the light.



AQ: So in order to not be apathetic, we need to be empathetic.



MJK: Right.



AQ: Does the music serve as a release that enables you to remain

peaceful and positive?



MJK: Music is definitely a higher form of language. It definitely cuts

right straight to the bone without you having to explain it a lot of

times. It moves things on a body level, an emotional level.



AQ: You sound like such a soft-spoken, peaceful person, but when you get

onstage, you're like, totally different.



MJK: There's a lot of energy up there. The sound, itself, is a

movement. If you allow it to enter your body, your body will move with

that music. If you allow it.



AQ: The other dichotomy is that Tool sound very machine-like, yet you

seem like a very spiritual person.



MJK: I don't think we sound machine-like. I think we may be like a

clock. So is the universe. The universe has patterns that pretty much

chime right in with each other.



AQ: So at this point in time, Tool sounds like you do, but at the next

point on the clock, you may sound fairly different?



MJK: Yeah. We just grow with what the four of us are doing at that

time.



AQ: You seem like four very different people that come together as a

unified whole.



MJK: We're not all coming from a spiritual standpoint. I tend to take

off on the metaphysical aspects of things. Adam tends to ground it in

his nonbelief of almost everything. It's like a bridge basically.



AQ: Kind of like yin and yang?



MJK: Yeah.



AQ: When you do get angry, what pisses you off the most?



MJK: A lack of empathy, a lack of compassion. Driving in L.A., the

decisions that people make on the highway toward each other is just so

enraging. It's such an example of people not understanding their

connection with each other.



AQ: Where do you feel that connection has its basis?



MJK: Light and Sound. Everything we see is energy, light and vibration.

The entire universe is operating on just a big frequency. Everything

you perceive, that's coming into your eye is just a combination of shape

and light. We are all of the same substance. Any religion that you can

dig up will tell you that. Every person who's had a spiritual moment

will tell you that. People who aren't into organized religions or even

cultish religions, some kid sittting on the corner taking acid at a Dead

show will tell you that. That's our connection.



AQ: It's really refreshing to see a band attempting to open young

people's minds.



MJK: Well, I think it's just where we're at at this point in time. Next

year, we may not be commenting on these things. If you think of the big

picture, it doesn't really matter, because I think that things are going

to work out anyway. It's going to be okay. It doesn't really matter

what you believe or what you're into. Everybody's having their

experiences and they have a right to those experiences. It's all just

one great big dance anyway.



AQ: The universe runs its course.



MJK: Yeah, it's going to be fine.



AQ: That's a great attitude. About the band, you're very much an

eclectic group of artists. You place a lot of importance on your entire

package: the album art and the videos. The album art for this new album

is just amazing with the moving pictures. I understand the video for

'Stinkfist' is going to be another breakthrough. Comment on the band's

artistic approach to not just the music but everything that surrounds

you.



MJK: Adam pretty much handles all the visual stuff. He's into all that

film stuff. He has his particular outlook on things, his avant garde

take on images. With Danny and my background on ritual magic, sacred

geometry, mythology and architects, we're both kind of infusing those

things into Adam's images. There's a freshness to Adam's intuitive sense

of motion and images, visuals. Then with our understanding of

transcendent and eternal archetypes, you have a very nice balance of

intuitive, intellectual imagery.



AQ: How do your different backgrounds apply to this new video?



MJK: Images just pop up, a lot like the 'Prison Sex' video. People were

terrified by that video.



AQ: The live show is really intense too. Other than the new songs, how

is that going to be different this time out?



MJK: It's a little more visual, but for the most part, it's just four

people doing this ritual dance onstage.



AQ: If I was to say you guys remind me of Pink Floyd, how would you feel

about that?



MJK: That would be a compliment I would think. They were a very

artistic band, but it's dangerous territory, because it pushes into the

prog rock territory.



AQ: I guess that's separate ground, because you have a much harder

groove. Yet on Aenima, you worked with David Botrill, who's produced

King Crimson and Peter Gabriel.



MJK: I think the most important thing is that we evolve. That's what

the album is all about. You definitely have to clear a space.



AQ: What inspired 'Stinkfist?'



MJK: A guy named Stinkfist. He's a very good friend of Danny's. It's a

tribute to him, because he very much embraced life whole-heartedly, a

go-getter. That's how he got the name Stinkfist, because he was the kind

of guy who got his hands dirty. He wasn't afraid. He just kind of

grabbed life by the throat. The imagery of the song is kind of like

stepping through a portal like in the movie Stargate, where James Spader

is standing in front of the portal, a little afraid of what was going to

happen. He's excited as he puts his hand through the portal, he steps

through and it's a whole differrent reality. It's a whole different

perspective or way of seeing things. Every sense just lit up and he was

completely overwhelmed by feeling this way.



AQ: People have a very graphic interpretation of 'Stinkfist.' I don't

know what your intention was, but it's ovbbiously stirred up a lot of

controversy. Is the general interpretation what you had in mind or are

people off base?



MJK: I think that there's many meanings that we really strive for within

the music. There's layers of interpretation. If people want to think

it's about fist-fucking, that's fine. That's where they're at. But if

they really look at it and really look at us and who we are, they'll

understand that we go a little deeper than some write-off song about

fist-fucking. Now they'll dig a little deeper, trying to find out what's

really going.



AQ: Like you mentioned, it's a portal to a variety of experiences.

You're riddled with controversy on this album as in 'Hooker with a

Penis.' What inspired that one?



MJK: That song is again taken literally for what is, which is the fear

that some kid thinks that we sold out. You and I both know that that's

such a silly term, so it goes a lot deeper than that. The album is about

evolution and change and that's one of the songs where that really came

together.



AQ: The Third Eye is a visual theme that runs throughout your albums.

On Aenima, it also takes the form of a song.



MJK: The Third Eye goes back a long way. It's what a comedian friend of

ours Bill Hicks talked about.



AQ: He often talked abbout how drugs open the Third Eye, but is it a

subject that goes beyond the use of drugs?



MJK: In his comedy, that's what he's talking about, but his underlying

context has more to do with unity and our inner connection collectively.

You literally have a third eye in your head. It's your pineal gland and

it is an eye. It focuses light.

People talk about dolphins and whales being more evolved, because they

have a better breathing element. If you do meditation, you understand

the idea of the Prana, breathing in light through the pineal gland. In

mythology, there's talk about how people used to breathe that way, but

over time, they began to breathe more through the mouth. That's the

connection that we've forgotten.



AQ: Is the use of drugs a way to enhance the Third Eye?



MJK: Drugs definitely give you an alternate perspective. Your

consciousness is like a radio frequency. If you turn the dial, all those

radio stations are there simultaneously. You can dial in to hear what

station you want to hear. Consciousness is the same way. Through

meditation, you can alter that, you can come upon an alternate reality.

Drugs is a shortcut to that. The trick is to really understand the

medium you used to get there.

Don Quixote was like that. He was a slave to peyote. He could really

get into this alternate consciousness. His guide was peyote, but he was

a slave. He couldn't get there except through that medium. There's a

lot of people on heroin writing amazing music, but it's a hard way to go,

because you sacrifice your life.



AQ: Do you condone the use of drugs?



MJK: Everyone has the right to their own experience, but it's a hard way

to go. It's a hard decision to make without fear of repercussions. I

don't do them. I used to do mushrooms.



AQ: Comment on how the song 'Sober' isn't about saying no to drugs.



MJK: It's saying why can't we get along? It's about unity.



AQ: This is a tough question, because it's based on rumor, based on the

images in your songs. The rumor is that you're gay. Whether you are or

not, how do you feel about people discussing that when they don't even

know you?



MJK: It doesn't bother me. I don't even think about it. If that's how

people are content, fine. I'm more interested in the big picture.



AQ: You mentioned that you feel that things will work out, but do you

feel that humankind are in those plans? Will we evolve?



MJK: Absolutely. I'm absolutely certain. We're already okay. Right

now, if you look in the inner cities, it seems like a lot of people

running around and it looks negative. But that's a big pocket of people

with an emotional release. People are definitely working out some major

shit right in front of you. It's a movement.



AQ: But on what side? It seems like there is a lot of bullshit going

on from a political standpoint.



MJK: Yeah, those people are out of control, but globally, there are a

lot of people who have their hearts in the right place. Deep down

inside, they feel compassion. Right now, it's going back to what

matters. I have no solution, so I don't know what would happen, but if,

for example, a comet crushed L.A., within 48 hours, the world

economically and politically would start collapsing, because all those

major cities are so dependent on each other. There's so much stuff going

on through the Internet, electronic banking systems, all that kind of

stuff that it would really have a huge, huge impact on the world. You

could almost say it would throw us back into the dark ages if it happened

on a big enough scale.

Then there are people who have power. Usually they have power, because

they have wealth. It's connected. If you take that away, if it's

crushed, you can go back to what really matters. That's what we have to

do, find out what really matters and go back to it and understand it.

I have faith in the end, especially in the kids that are coming up now.

There's so many changes taking place among the children of today. Kids

15 and under think about things so much differently. There's so many

earth responsible children being raised these days that by the time any

major cataclysmic event like that occurs, those are the people who will

have taken over the reins at that point and they'll have a much better

idea how to deal with it.



AQ: but they don't get credit for it.



MJK: Because they don't have any of that Associated Press shit or

whatever.



--------------------

{ { { ṧ◎ηḯ¢ αʟ¢ℌ℮мƴ } } }



Post Extras: