Tool’s Adam Jones Discusses ‘Opiate’ EP Reissue + State of Band’s Next Album
As of March 10, 2013, Tool‘s debut EP, ‘Opiate,’ is now old enough to legally drink in the United States. To commemorate the 21st anniversary of ‘Opiate,’ Tool are set to re-release the EP on March 26 with a limited-edition string of CDs along with new artwork from guitarist Adam Jones. In a new interview with Jones, the guitarist talks about writing and recording ‘Opiate,’ how the album holds up after all these years and, of course, when Tool will put out a new record.
“It got very strange because at that point we were doing this as a hobby,” Jones comments on the original nature of Tool during an interview with Revolver. “We all had day jobs. I was doing makeup effects and art. Maynard was doing set design. Dan [Carey, drums] and Paul [D’Amour, former bassist] both had day jobs, as well. We still had this hunger to write songs that we liked, but it wasn’t really about putting them out … Someone at the label was like, ‘You guys gotta put out your heaviest stuff! That’s how you’re gonna get noticed!’ It took us a long time to figure out how politics work at a record company. [Laughs] That’s the money side of the fence, so there’s a different perspective. But obviously one helps the other. So we said OK. We picked the heaviest songs and did this, like, teaser record. We thought it was a record, but the record company counted it as an EP. But that’s a different story. [Laughs]”
About how Jones sees ‘Opiate’ 21 years after its release,” It’s kinda like a time machine,” begins the guitarist. “It takes you back to that time and what you were thinking. Creatively speaking, there’s always room for improvement. Playing some of those songs live 21 years later, you’ve obviously evolved … As far as my guitar playing? Yeah, maybe I’d redo a lead or use a different effect here and there, but overall I like it. It’s something I’m very proud of.”
Jones concludes by addressing the state of Tool’s upcoming album. “We live kind of cushy lives now, so we get together when we want. It makes everything go slow, which is unfortunate—we all would have liked to have been done with a new record a long time ago—but when it’s done, it’s gonna be good. And that’s the point. We’re not gonna put out something that sucks just to put it out. We also had two really bad things happen, things that I’m not gonna get into, that set us back emotionally and mentally. But we’re past them now, everybody’s recovered, and that process has kind of actually added to us focusing on being creative. So maybe sometimes bad things happen for a reason.”
For the entire interview with Adam Jones, head over to RevolverMag.com.
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