tool

Rip It Up, Issue 192, 1 July 1993, Page 10

tool

existence after the fashion had changed. In the early 70s, in the sea of instrumental wankery and mock classical pretentiousness that epitomised the likes of Yes and Emerson Lake and Palmer, a band like King Crimson stood out. Alright they occasionally scaled awful heights of pretentiousness (eg: 'Epitaph', off The Court Of The Crimson King), and had almost universally terrible songs to work with. But in terms of sheer sound and noise, King Crimson created some of the most viscerally exciting loud music ever to be played by people who knew how. The sole reason for Crimson's existence was Robert Fripp, one of the best applied guitarists in rock or elsewhere, and also notorious for being worse than Martin Phillipps in holding a band together. If King Crimson had their period piece pretentiousness, Japan had their peroxide, make-up, cheekbones, and frantic glam poses. Like Crimson, they also had some of the only music of the period that stands up today, shorn of its period trappings. Both bands ceased to exist long before they ceased to be bankable. Robert Fripp and Japan's leader/composer/singer David Sylvian both went on to solo careers in the avant-garde ambient area, working beyond fashion with obvious satisfaction. Now they're both well established and very highly regarded in that field, so for two refugees from fashion it makes sense that they should work together. Their album The First Day is the first fruits of what looks like being a lasting partnership. Talking to Sylvian one gets the impression that he found working with Fripp a positive revelation. Despite his studied, measured tone, there's a definite tinge of something approaching reverence to his voice, clearly audible even across a bad line to Paris. "There's an intensity to this relationship that I like, there's a shared goal that underlies the work, that all too often I've failed to share with my other collaborators. "Robert's discipline in live performance impressed me enormously, in that he's very present on stage, he brings an intensity to the performance which I haven't experienced on stage before with other musicians I've worked with. "I felt that Robert's concentration was that much more focused, and he was a very powerful presence on stage." Sylvian has always seen himself as a recording artist primarily, whereas he felt Fripp was "more geared towards live performance". This meant that both had to defer to each other at times, something neither of them were used to. "We've both had problems in that area, we're both uncompromising in our ways", he admits."We were both forced to compromise in areas where we felt able to. "A generalisation would be that Robert took the lead in live performance and I took the lead in the studio." Of course in New Zealand we're pretty unlikely to see the pair ("Unfortunately Robert's and my schedule doesn't coincide frequently, so our tour is going to be brief"). The new album is all we're likely to see of this new partnership. Sylvian sees The First Day as being something of a change in direction for him personally. "In relation to other work I've done in the past it's far more aggressive, confrontational, more up front. "There were certain themes I wanted to touch on, dealing with the difficulty of being, struggling against the odds, a survivalist mentality which is slowly developing into a more conscious awareness, where somebody's struggling againsttheoddstodeal with situations, blindly pushing through them and slowly coming to the realisation that a different kind of awareness is needed to fully appreciate life, to survive, to enjoy, to participate." "These are themes that I wanted to deal with, and I wanted to work within a structure that was more confrontational, more dynamic, so when the call came from Robert, I realised that it afforded me that opportunity. "It's something that's very close to my heart that I needed to work out for myself and things just clicked at the right time." "I think the album as a whole has a continuity and a dynamic which, urn ... works." David Sylvian looks a lot different from his pop star days. Instead of being all cheekbones and blonde hair, he's now a long haired, unshaven type who looks like he'd be more at home playing bass in the Screaming Trees. But he doesn't seem to miss the sex symbol pop star life. "I'm very happy in the area that I find myself in the industry... the idea of 'Pop Star' indicates that you're very much playing with the media, you're a darling of the media, and you have to take responsibility for that and play the game — I don't want that." Success for Sylvian is found in satisfying his artistic muse, more than in how much the record sells. "If the only way you can judge work is by sales alone then you're going to change what you're doing to try and anticipate what an audience will desire, which is a terrible mistake to make, you compromise the work from day one. "Instead you just go in and do the best you can. "The idea is to communicate, so you're not trying to be inaccessible, you want to be as accessible as possible, as far as the work will allow, but you have to be true to the work." CAMPBELL WALKER

must say ' that the thought of inter- $... . viewing one of the members of this band was a bit of a pant filling one (and not the sexy kind) and when I found out that it wa< going to be the scary singer duck, Maynard James Keenan, I was even alii' bit more pensive, and quite rightly so as it turned out. I mean I didn't expect him to be some happy joe-lifer, no one that makes the kind of music that Tool do would be, but interviewing Maynard turned out to be as much fun as licking icecream off a rhinocerous's back, not very pleasant. - I suppose if we all lived in a neighbourhood in LA where you can get your head blown off whilst buying a slushy down at the 7-11 we might also be a bit like ol' Maynard. Tool all currently reside in LA and the goings on there are, says Maynard, "pretty typical of the whole of America, racism, sexism, gay-bashing, people hating each other". Typical everywhere I would say. The Tool press release that is floating about at the moment does tend to go on a lot about the Tools being into a thing called "Lachryomology" and a book they apparently base their lives around by a man called Ronald P. Vincent called " A Joyful Guide to Lachrymology", the step by step guide to pain, but all us peoples in New Zealand that interviewed them did not get a smidgen of information about this subject, they were not willing to talk about it at all, and seemed to think we were silly or pig ignorant for asking about it, and dismissed it as "just stuff people were writing forthe bio". Well EVERY article I've read about them goes on about it and they (Tool) absolutely rave about it. Well goes to show you musn't believe everything you read. . \ So I wondered what Maynard would be doing if he wasn't exorcising himself in Tool. "I'd be working on videos, building sets [yawns] working in a pet store, or getting a degree, so I could teach sculpture at University" So did you plan to be a singer? "No it just kinda happened, got together with a bunch of guys and made some songs". ' ' . ; . ' You didn't sing before Tool? "There was a couple of garage bands, way back when, but before that I was making videos, music videos, commercials, movie sets." What do you hate most about being in Tool, do you find the music industry fickle? ? S."l think most industries are kinda fucked, but because I'm involved in the music industry I get to see it first hand." ' ‘ / Is there any particular singer or artist that has inspired you then? ? ' S' "A lot of stuff has, heavy metal, industrial, hardcore, jazz... [sighs boredly] we're not young people, we're all over 27, into a lot of music." '. ' . , ' ’ • \ ,- t Yeah, I get it. . '. S ■. - "Oh well", I say, quite bored and still a little petrified after having a long one sided interview, "that oughta de it." ' ’ ; v \ ? ’ - ' ' . < Pause ... (he turns nice).. . "O.K, have you gol enough?" • ' : S ' , Yeah I think so, but if there's anything you'd like tc tell me (I smile down the phone hopefully in my smal comfortable world)... \ (Sulks: has sunken again) "No."

SHIRLEY CHARLES