The process that we go through in recording with Tool is very organic, but at the same time it is very thought out. There is a very left-brain process of dissecting what we’re doing and drawing from source material; it’s very research oriented and esoteric.
I feel like with music there’s so much ego rooted in expressing your thoughts and your experiences with it.
I always knew that I wanted to be an artist.
Because as an only child, you have your own little world.
I’m a lot easier to work with now than I have been in the past, for sure.
Reading is more of a left-brain process, and listening to music is a right-brain function.
I think everything Joni Mitchell did for music was big.
There is still a future with music, because people want music.
Liar, lawyer, mirror show me. What’s the difference?
Why did Father give these humans free will? Now they’re all confused.
It’s a purging of sorts. Like, when you’re all done doing your laundry and it’s fresh and bright, but washing the clothes, you wouldn’t want to get in while it’s spinning around.
We’re five people, five individuals who came together to create something, to make music and to complete each other musically, to form a perfect circle.
But I’m a hot-blooded Italian by nature. Whatever the situation you present, I’m going to make something out of it.
If you want to get your soul to heaven, trust in me. Don’t judge or question. You are broken now, but faith can heal you. Just do everything I tell you to do.
I can’t be a legend yet. I’m not dead.
But you know, I’m the negative-Nancy, curmudgeon, glass-half-empty-with-a-leak-in-it guy – which is basically the fuel that fires me up anyway. Without that, we wouldn’t have me.
The idea is, if I can’t heal from my art, then how can you heal?
If the education of our kids comes from radio, television, newspapers – if that’s where they get most of their knowledge from, and not from the schools, then the powers that be are definitely in charge, because they own all those outlets.
Everything we release with Tool is inspired by our music.
The army influences everything I do. Certainly it teaches you discipline, which is a necessary element of development. I think there’s more of a collaborative understanding in the band because of that.