Although songwriting had been an ongoing process since Maynard and Adam’s first meeting in 1987, those early demo recordings hadn’t been able to match their intricate ambitions. Paired to the sounds they were generating, it felt like a natural fit.Īp– Undertow’s release – would see matters begin to come into focus. Still, Tool insisted the music do the talking. In truth, they were something else entirely.įor emergent outfits, that sort of obstinate mystery can be something of a gamble. Were they metal? Industrial? Grunge? As trends rose and fell, they were labelled as each and all of the above. It was all, of course, a hoax.Įven when music had started to emerge on 1991 demo tape 72826 (which featured early incarnations of Sober and Crawl Away) and 1992’s Opiate EP, record execs struggled to label these strange, unruly sounds. Vincent’s 1949 volume The Joyful Guide To Lachrymology. Rejecting initial band-name Tool Shed, the band toyed with a narrative where they had been brought together by the pseudophilosophy ‘lachrymology’ – the science of crying as therapy – even citing Ronald P. They initially refused to acknowledge even these simple truths. The line-up was completed by converted six-stringer Paul D’Amour on bass.
Legend has it he only agreed to jam with the band out of pity – other potential collaborators having simply failed to show up. Drummer Danny Carey lived above Maynard and was apparently introduced to Adam – as chance would have it – by Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello, with whom the guitarist had attended Libertyville High School and performed in formative project Electric Sheep. Guitarist Adam Jones had fared more successfully, with VFX credits on all-time great blockbusters like Terminator 2: Judgement Day and Jurassic Park.
Having studied visual arts in Michigan, Maynard found work remodelling pet stores – and infamously lived with a menagerie of animals – before becoming a movie set-designer. None, it seemed, were interested in the skin-deep sheen on which the city had built its reputation.
It helped that no-one knew what to make of this quartet of misfits coming out of La-La Land. As it took hold, it would change everything – not as some revolutionary riptide, but the subliminal Undertow after which the band’s debut LP was titled. Maynard wanted this music to have that feel of standing in the surf being pulled under and out. ' You’re wading knee deep and going in, and you may never come back again…' To catch listeners off-guard and utterly consume them was the aim. ' You’re dancing in quicksand,' sang frontman Maynard James Keenan on the aptly-titled Swamp Song.
Some would argue, in 1993 we weren’t even worthy.