Sensory bombardment

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This article was published 28/10/2023 (735 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A cacophony of sound, spotlights and special effects will surround the members of Tool when the alt-metal band takes the stage at Canada Life Centre Sunday.

Amid the maelstrom, Justin Chancellor is able to somehow keep his cool well enough to engage with a crowd that is losing its collective mind, while still playing the bass in a unique style that has envious YouTubers trying to figure out the secret to his sound.

“You really have to keep your focus. It’s a lot of concentration,” Chancellor says over the phone from Salt Lake City, one of the stops on the Los Angeles band’s fall arena tour.

“It’s a lot of being physically prepared to do it, mentally prepared to do it. You need to be in a good state when you start.”

Chancellor’s clear head — which he needs to play complex songs such as Fear Inoculum, the title track of Tool’s latest album — comes from getting far away from the band’s songs on the day of a show, rather than cramming them for hours on end.

“Practice is what you do in the weeks leading up to it, but getting ready for the day, you want to let everything go, and then an hour before the show, ‘Here we go, what are we doing?’ more of a routine,” the 51-year-old Englishman says.

“I bring a mountain bike with me and I try to do a lot of riding and get my head out of the music. Just try to ride around whatever town I’m in and have a really nice experience of the place I’m in — and at the same time I’m working out my body physically and I’m keeping my mind occupied with stuff that I’ve never seen before.”

Chancellor’s not the only member of the Grammy-winning band — which also includes vocalist Maynard James Keenan, drummer Danny Carey and guitarist Adam Jones — who finds mindfulness on the road keeps his spirits up when creativity is called for onstage.

On social media earlier this month, Keenan posted a video showing how he makes “hotel room ramen,” using what he has: a kit bag of togarashi, sansho and other exotic herbs and spices, and an electric coffee pot to steam vegetables and cook the noodles and broth.

The results (wfp.to/toolramen) look more delicious than you’d imagine.

“Good eating habits and exercise during the day all really helps. It’s definitely something you really notice when you’re not in a good state. It can be very difficult. That’s the goal on tour, to keep you in a good condition,” says Chancellor, who’s been with Tool, which formed in 1990, since 1995.

Also kept in top shape are the special effects Tool uses for its its bank of video screens at its concerts.

The band has enlisted a group of artists — including American psychedelic painter Alex Grey, who created the album-cover artwork for Lateralus, Tool’s 2001 platinum-selling record, and 2006’s 10,000 Days — along with computer-generated imagery to create the lavish visuals to go along with the band’s deep groove-oriented music.

“It’s kind of surreal and less obvious; the idea is to complement the music and let you think what you want to think, not put too much obvious stuff into your head,” Chancellor says.

“The sensory bombardment hits you and puts you in a neutral space where you come up with your own thoughts.”

Chancellor says Tool is bringing back songs from the band’s past for the fall leg of the tour — it’s also selling a tour-only reissue of its 1993’s album, Undertow, with artwork he’s curated — but since the group’s last show in Winnipeg was in 2010 (a planned visit to the city in June 2020 was scrapped owing to the COVID-19 pandemic), expect tracks from Fear Inoculum to reverberate through Canada Life Centre along with favourites such as The Pot and Aenema.

He’s even got a new cabinet for his bass amplifier that he says adds to his sound. Like his acolytes on social media, Chancellor keeps searching for a better tone.

“I’m still on that journey. It’s not something I’m completely ever satisfied with. You get very comfortable with something, but you forget there’s little things you can change that make a whole other realm of sound,” he says.

“It’s very subtle but it makes a big difference, especially when you mix it with the band.”

alan.small@winnipegfreepress.com

X: @AlanDSmall