The Tool frontman talks about his Canadian connection and his new biography ahead of his Toronto appearance with Alan Cross.
Alternative rock icon Maynard James Keenan (vocalist for Tool, A Perfect Circle, and Puscifer) has just kicked off the book tour for his new authorized biography A Perfect Union of Contrary Things. This includes a stop at Toronto’s Convocation Hall for a sit down with Alan Cross on November 14th. In anticipation of his return to Canada, I thought it would be appropriate to speak to Keenan about his past experiences north of the border. I also wanted to know how he felt about confronting his audience up close on the book tour after cultivating a such a mysterious image through his music.
“I get the mystery part a little bit in terms of me never explaining what the songs were about” he says.
“But as far as being out there and talking, I’ve been talking pretty much the whole time, storytelling. That’s kind of your job, as the entertainer, as the lyricist, as a winemaker, as a chef, you’re the storyteller. You’re out there. I think making people have to decide things for themselves I guess would be perceived as a mystery, so we’re not really giving anything away with a story like this. This is just a story and it’s not the whole story. Those stories are in the songs, those stories are in the wine, they’re out there.”
To Keenan, it seems that the story is out there regardless of whether its meaning is perceived by one person or millions. I point out that this book may now be the most direct way for people to begin to understand where his art comes from. “Some of this is a map and it has to do with intuition, and listening to it” he says with a calm and sincere tone.
“I think the purpose of it from the beginning has been kind of a life journey. If you were forced to read The Iliad and The Odyssey in school then you get the heroes’ journey. You understand that there’s different phases and there’s an arc. So these stories will probably resonate with people who want to hear it at this particular moment. If you wanna focus on the older things, that’s fine. Those things are there for you. But other people are on a journey, and there’s things that resonate with them at different parts of their lives that they can build on. There are conscious people and there are unconscious people I think. You do your best to lift people up, but at some point you just have to... you know, there are people from your childhood (that) I’m sure you don’t speak to anymore. You couldn’t quite get on the same page as them. You can show them things and you can do the whole ‘lead a horse to water,’ but until they’re ready to drink on their own... just make sure that the water’s available, basically.”
In terms of conscious people, Keenan counts many Canadians amongst their number. “There’s a definite connection between physical activity and oxygen to the brain, and then your ability to kind of solve puzzles and do things, and be aware, and conscious, and present” he says when asked about his travels across the country.
“Having grown up in Michigan I’m basically Canada’s little snot-nosed brother. We’re snow-shovelers. You can’t get where you’re going without getting the snow out of the way, or cutting the wood to heat the cabin. I think in general the people that I’ve met in Canada, just because they’re snow-shovelers they’re breeding more and they have more oxygen in their brain. So I found that travelling through Canada, there’s a nice resonance. People get what you’re saying.”
One stop on Keenan’s journey that stood out to me was Tool’s appearance in Toronto a week after the events of 9/11. That night he encouraged the crowd to take their hate and anger and focus them into positive action. It sounds like a simple idea until you hear how Keenan vigorously approaches it. “You’ve heard the cliché, ‘if life gives you lemons, make lemonade?’” he asks.
“I’m the kind of guy that goes, ‘well if life gives you lemons, take some of that and make some limoncello, take a couple of lemons and plant more lemon trees, open up a farm, create an entire industry out of your lemon tree. Don’t kill your chicken and eat it, have the chicken lay eggs because then you have something to eat tomorrow.’”
I was also curious about the differences he’s observed between his Canadian and American audiences, but Keenan sees a different kind of divide. “There are definitely differences of course, but I see the bigger difference in being population centers vs. non-population centers” he says.
“There is that perception that when you’re in an isolated area where you don’t see a lot of culture coming through, of course your opinions, and your attitude, and the way that you go about your day-to-day business is gonna be different than a person living in a larger city who sees lots of culture coming through. In ways you become tuned to that other culture, it opens up your mind to other ideas. You tend to compromise a little bit more, but in a good way, you just coexist with different ideas. The dark side of living in the middle of nowhere is that you can be close-minded because you haven’t been exposed to anything. The bright side of that is that you get to focus on a particular activity without anybody corrupting your process. So there’s some ups and downs. Those differences between the big city and rural I think are more glaring than Canada vs. U.S. Today’s modernization, there’s mini-malls and there’s malls, there’s fast food joints and there’s fine dining, you know they’re everywhere.”
It’s keeping people on the bright side that Keenan seems concerned with. The new book brings him closer to his audience than ever before. Perhaps for those who need a push, Keenan wants his story to be a motivational one. “I’m hoping that this book will just basically be a chronicle of decisions, and those repercussions, and then the choices that follow. The gist and thrust is that you’ll land on your feet at some point. If you fall, get up, keep going. No decision is a bad decision.”
You can grab tickets for Maynard James Keenan’s conversation with Alan Cross in Toronto here.
Photo by Andrew Epstein
The first time I interviewed The Trews it was by candlelight during the great blackout of 2003. The band was getting ready to play the record release show for their debut album The House of Ill Fame. At the time I found a band from Antigonish, Nova Scotia that played melancholic yet upbeat-sounding bluesy rock, and who were eager to start earning a faithful fan base.
Now just over thirteen years later The Trews have proven their longevity, having developed a trademark sound and consistently maintaining a solid group of fans. Their songs are also far more diverse than it seems on the first listen. This is perhaps the most evident on their new best-of release Time Capsule, which features four new songs, as well as sixteen hits and fan favourites.
I went record shopping with guitarist John-Angus MacDonald ahead of the band’s in-store performance at the HMV Superstore on Yonge Street in Toronto, and while geeking out on some of our favourite albums we managed to talk about how the band has managed to retain their sound and their fans since I first met them that afternoon in the darkened front room of The Horseshoe Tavern.
For the record I did end up grabbing that copy of Björk’s Vulnicura Live, as well as a vinyl copy of Royal Thunder’s Crooked Doors.
The Trews have four tour dates lined up in the North-Eastern U.S. in early October, followed by a coast-to-coast Canadian tour starting later in the month. Time Capsule is available in stores and online now. You can have a listen to the new track “Beautiful & Tragic” here.
Photo by Ole Luk
Before debuting her one-woman metal project Myrkur in 2014, Danish musician Amalie Bruun was primarily known as one half of the indie pop act Ex Cops. Myrkur’s dreamy blend of Nordic folk music and vintage nineties black metal riffs seem completely at odds with Ex Cops’ catchy electro ditties. So when Bruun and her live band passed through Toronto on their recent support tour with Polish metal superstars Behemoth, I was eager to speak with her about this transition and her progression as a musician.
I also wanted to talk about a recent incident where Bruun stopped accepting private messages through the Myrkur Facebook page, as she was fed up with receiving death threats and misogynistic hate mail from men. Bruun revealed that she takes it in stride, and even uses it as artistic motivation. The conversation then took a surprising turn, as Bruun would go on to say that she’s far more concerned with the proliferation of Islam in Europe. I suggested that like other cultures, Islam has a secular side, and although she acknowledged that this is probably true, she said it’s a side that she’s never seen.
To analyze it as impartially as I can, I would guess that Bruun and I have had different experiences. In Toronto, Muslims mix with everyone else at concerts, clubs, sporting events, and other supposedly decadent secular activities that extremists generally frown upon. That has led to me to the personal belief that all religions have bred extremists of some sort, but generally speaking the majority of people, regardless of their background, pretty much just want to have a good time in those brief moments when life doesn’t give you any particular responsibilities. That’s my experience. Listen to the interview and let me know your thoughts on Facebook and Twitter.
Myrkur’s debut full-length album M is available now on Relapse Records, and you can watch the video for “Onde Børn” below.
Photo Courtesy of Strut Entertainment
Recently I sat down with Roger Costa from the estate of Canadian rock icon Jeff Healey to talk about Heal My Soul, a newly-released album featuring a set of lost Healey tracks from the late nineties. We spoke about why these songs remained buried for so long, the challenges involved in the album’s production, and the legacy of Jeff Healey in what would have been his 50th year.
The Jeff Healey 50th Celebration will take place on May 27th at Massey Hall, and you can check out an extended trailer for Heal My Soul here.