Adam Jones of Tool

In addition to holding a cornerstone membership in one of the most enigmatic, progressive and adored bands in hard rock, Tool guitarist Adam Jones has held a passion for visual arts that's spanned his entire life.

Jones' extensive history with special effects makeup, sketching, sculpting and photography (including chief design/production work on the majority of Tool's darkly psychedelic videos) has culminated in several new projects for the artist, including writing and producing a split X-Files/30 Days of Night comic book series with renowned comic writer Steve Niles.

Additionally, Jones was tapped by Alternative Press to take part in an exclusive group art exhibit celebrating the iconic music magazine's 25th anniversary, opening Friday July 9 in Los Angeles at the Merry Karnowsky Gallery. His contribution - a bronze humanoid sculpture - will be showcased alongside original paintings, photography and drawings from an array of other visual artists/musicians including Marilyn Manson, Shepard Fairey, Pete Wentz, Gerard Way, Tim Armstrong, Travis McCoy, Matt Skiba, Shirley Manson and more. 

I caught up with Adam at the Edmonton stop of Tool's current tour to discuss the comic, the AP exhibit and, of course, find out everything there is to know about the new Tool album.

CraveOnline: I was speaking with Steve Niles, your partner on the Wildstorm project, and he told me to ask you about how difficult he was to work with on the X-Files/30 Days of Night comic series.

Adam Jones: He's being funny. I've been learning so much from that guy. He and I became friends a while back - he's the same age as me, he likes a lot of the stuff I like, like Hammer Horror movies and comics and muscle cars... that kind of stuff. He just went 'hey, would you want to do some comics with me?' - and I've always been a visual artist, but I really didn't know if I could pull off a comic like other guys. I just don't know if I have such a consistent style. And he went 'No, why don't we write comics? Why don't you produce comic books with me?' And I was like 'Yeah! That sounds thrilling.' Never in my life of collecting comics did it occur to me to do that.

So we've got about ten to twenty ideas, some more developed than others. And one of the companies, maybe Wildstorm, approached him about a possible collaboration, and it just snowballed. We got licensing from the Fox people for all the characters on X-Files, and we wrote a treatment and they loved it. So we just started coming up with outlines and writing official scripts. Steve's so good and so experienced... I just learned so much from him. 

CraveOnline: How did the experience take you out of your comfort zone?

Adam Jones: I know narratives - when we do a Tool video, I've got the story, and know how to spoon feed it to someone - but I'm not the best at dialogue. And Steve has taught me a lot about this whole genre and I'm just hoping it leads to bigger and better things within the craft. We're on the fifth issue now, and I'm really proud to be a part of that.

CraveOnline: Did you build the majority of the story yourself, or was it collaborative?

Adam Jones: No, when it came up it was a very casual thing. Steve just told me to think about it, and so I wrote up this quick bullet-point outline and he came back like 'God, this is great!' So we both started going off and doing our thing - it's a really great partnership. I'm really into it. He usually works alone for the most part, and we're such nerds and big fans of X-Files and vampires and monsters and all that stuff, so it's like putting gasoline on the fire. I'm really glad I met him - he's a real talented guy.

The funny thing is that I actually met him through Buzz from the Melvins at a comic convention. He recognized Buzz and started talking to him, and he goes 'Oh hi, you're Adam Jones from Tool - I'm Steve Niles.' And I was like... Steve Niles the comic book writer? Cause the thing is, all my heroes - 'cause I'm a fan - all my heroes are older guys, so I just assumed that Steve Niles was this older dude.

CraveOnline: What are you contributing to the Alternative Press Art exhibition on Friday?  

Adam Jones: I was at a Mark Ryden show in New York, which was really cool - my friend Merry Karnowsky was there, who I've known for a long, long time. She's got a lot of friends, and I was talking to Norman Wonderly from AP, just thanking him for supporting us through our entire career. Cause it was those guys.... one publication that got us out of so many out there. We're one of those bands like the Melvins - we fall through the cracks. We're too prog for the metal crowd. We're too metal for the rock crowd. We're too hard for the indie crowd, as far as publications go. And AP always got us.

They wanted a couple things. I've been getting into oil painting, and I studied with Phil Hale for three months over the holidays. During the winter I lived in England, and Phil invited me - he's a really good friend of mine - and was like 'I can teach you. You could sit right next to me.' And I was like, 'You're on.' So one month turned into three months that I sat right there next to him and just painted all day. It was amazing. He's a master. He's exactly how I'd want to paint someday. I just don't think I'm there yet, where I can put something in a show I'd be happy with.

But I'd done this sculpture for Justin, our bass player - he was in a band called Peach. That's actually how we met him - we really liked the band and all the guys in the band, and we rally got along with Justin really well. And when he joined Tool they released their album in the States, and Justin offered for me to do the artwork. So I did this sculpture that I was really happy with, and I had it bronzed. So that's how it came to be - that's the piece that's going in the show.

CraveOnline: I remember a full spread AP did for your Aenima record - it was a beautiful piece, full of artwork and deep examination of the music itself.

Adam Jones: Yeah it was great - before shooting the cover they were like 'Do you have any ideas? I know you guys are a really artistic band,' and so on. It was just so cool, because you never hear that from people. Anyway so I went up and shook his hand to thank him, and he asked if I'd be interested in being a part of this art show that's coming up with musicians and such, and I was like 'I'm in.'

CraveOnline: The poster for the Edmonton show looks incredible and disturbing. The eyes seem full of terror. What did you use for that piece?

Adam Jones: Oh that's acrylic. Acrylic and gouache. Acrylic dries well so you can paint over it really easily, and I've been experimenting with gouache. It's like watercolor but it goes opaque, and you can go back into it and reactivate it with water. Those are two different approaches I've been messing with. 

I do those (paintings) so quickly. I base them out in white, never really knowing how they're going to look. I color it and take a sharpie and ink marker and just do a hard drawing on top of it and sell it to the fans. They love it, we all sign it, and it's great. It's something I feel really passionate about. I've been in individual arts my whole life - I was working on makeup effects and motion pictures before the band took off. It's been really great. 

CraveOnline: I know you're on tour now, but can you tell us anything about the new Tool record? 

Adam Jones: We're writing, we're writing. It's going a little slow. We're trying to get our feet wet, just basically the three of us. Maynard's been busy with his wine and his other band. That's usually how it is - we'll write and write, and then he comes in last and starts putting stuff in. It works, it is what it is and it works. It's good. I love it.

I can't really tell you any direction we're taking or anything like that at this point. It just feels like the same as every time we get into it. We just write for ourselves, and when we're happy with it we say alright, let's go into the studio. I really like the process with those guys because we don't worry about what worked on the last record or what's selling or the single. You just write. You rip your guts out and... yeah. I'm so happy where I'm at and what I do with those guys. It just feels so good right now to be out on tour.

CraveOnline: How do you keep it fresh on tour? How do you build on these songs you've been playing for so many years at this point? 

Adam Jones: This tour has been great because we're actually doing a different setlist than we've been doing in the past. We're getting older, and Maynard has trouble sometimes singing the older songs, from back when he was young and screaming his fucking head off all the time. His vocal chords are getting older and he can't really do what he used to do all in a row in a string of back to back shows. So we've changed up the set a little bit, which feels really good. Once we actually get together and start playing, it's so great. It's so great hanging out with the guys and playing the songs. It comes back to keeping it fresh.

Sometimes in the middle of a song we'll start jamming, or go off on some tangent of a song and come back. That's a great way to keep it fresh too. Also we keep adding to our show, we put a lot of money back into the show because we want it to be stimulating. We want all the senses to be on overdrive. More lights, more visuals, more lasers, more soundscapes. That's what I would want in a show. 

CraveOnline: Sounds like we shouldn't hold our breath for a Tool acoustic tour anytime soon.

Adam Jones: Um.... I don't think so. (laughs)