News : Tool’s Maynard James Keenan reveals his favourite actual tool

Tool frontman Maynard James Keenan has finally answered the very literal question fans have always wondered the answer to – what’s his favourite tool?

The question was posed on comedian Bert Kreischer’s Bertcast podcast and came from Kreischer’s daughter Ila, a big fan of Tool who texted the question to her dad to ask on her behalf.

“A battery-operated pneumatic nail gun,” said Keenan, adding a sound effect. He continued, “I remember when it was like the canister and it would clog up and get all fucked up. The newer ones, you can charge the battery, and you can get some shit done.”

“Does that answer your fuckin’ question?” he joked.

Elsewhere in the interview, Kreischer attempted to best explain the difference between Tool and Keenan’s other major project A Perfect Circle. “I feel like Tool was more heavy, more like blue, darker blue and black, whereas A Perfect Circle seemed like more purple and yellow. Does that make sense?”

“Do you smoke a lot of marijuana?,” suggested Keenan before adding, “The difference between those bands is the wig.”

NME caught up with the band’s bassist Justin Chancellor shortly before their UK and European tour this past summer. Tool had previously suggested they would go to the studio once they’d come off tour to work on the follow-up to 2019’s ‘Fear Inoculum’, eschewing the previous lengthy waits for new material. ‘Fear Inoculum’ was their first album in 13 years following 2006’s ‘10,000 Days’.

Asked why the process was speeding up this time around, Chancellor said: ““We’re just getting old, so it’s the pressure of time. Danny has just turned 63, so if we take 13 more years we’ll be touring when we’re over 70! Now there’s more of a necessity to get something cooking a little faster if we want to keep going strong.”

“We can always carry on touring, and it’s always enjoyable playing the old stuff — especially for me because I’m the new guy in the line-up… even though it’s been nearly 30 years now — but at this point we’re all eager to create something new while we’re on the planet. We want to keep producing more and really explore the creative side of ourselves. We are happy with what we’ve done so far, but we are also excited to see what else we could create that would be different from all of that.”

In other news, Tool announced a new destination festival set to take place in the Dominican Republic next year.

The festival, dubbed Tool In The Sand, will see Tool perform two different sets which will also include sets from Mastodon, Primus, Coheed And Cambria, Eagles Of Death Metal, CKY, King’s X and more.