Tool on fan pressure to release new music: “They’ve got to understand that it’s not the easiest thing to do”

nme.com:

Tool bassist Justin Chancellor has spoken to NME about the pressure from fans to release new music, admitting that “it’s not the easiest thing to do”.The LA band’s fifth and most recent album, ‘Fear Inoculum’, came out in 2019 – marking their first full-length project since 2006’s ‘10,000 Days’.However, Chancellor said earlier this year that there was “no thought of taking 13 years” to drop Tool’s sixth LP, and that they’d be heading back to the studio after their current UK and European tour.He also explained that the group had already reunited for some writing sessions before they embarked on their North American tour in late 2023. “We gave it a stab for a couple of months,” the musician said in February.During a recent interview with NME, Chancellor was asked about the current status of Tool’s new music, and whether he felt any pressure to deliver another album sooner rather than later.“It definitely comes on our own terms,” he responded. “The only pressure comes when we announce that we’re working on something new, because then we have to make our own predictions for when it’ll come out, and obviously you feel like you let people down if you don’t release it in a certain amount of time.“It’s a nice feeling that people still want new stuff, but also they’ve got to understand that it’s not the easiest thing to do.