In 1995, Paul D’Amour decided to depart Tool. With a studio album, EP and five years service under his belt, he left the prog rock institution he had helped found and launch, passing the bass guitar torch to his successor: Justin Chancellor.
Chancellor has remained a member of Tool ever since, going on to become one of prog-metal’s most celebrated and popular bassists after first making his debut on 1996’s Ænima.
Across four albums, Chancellor has developed a wholly unique sound – one characterized by a comprehensive concoction of flangers, effects, amps and, of course, his Wal bass.
It’s also, it turns out, a sound his predecessor helped him navigate, develop and get to grips with when he first began the Tool bass training camp.
Speaking to Guitar World in a new interview, D’Amour looked back on that transitional period when Tool was in between bassists, and recalled how he first coached his replacement on how to handle the potentially overwhelming effects-related responsibilities that came with the role.
When asked whether Tool would have sounded different if he’d remained a part of the band, D’Amour noted it was very likely – and revealed he gave a “nervous” Chancellor an in-depth walkthrough of the tones and tools that would define the band’s sound from those early days and beyond.
“I feel like we created a sound that was blossoming at the time of Ænima, he observed. “And to their credit – and I'm not shitting on Tool; I hope I don't come across as being Mr. Sour Grapes at all because I'm quite happy with my life, my choices, and what I do creatively.
“So, yeah, I'm sure it would have been different. Basically, when I left the band, Justin [Chancellor] was my friend; I invited him to my house, sat on my couch with him, and showed him how to play the songs.
“I showed him how I got all my sounds, my octave pedals, Whammy pedals, my phasers, and how I approached these different things. I honestly wanted him to be very successful because he seemed pretty nervous about doing it. And so, like I said, that sound already existed.”
D’Amour’s coaching of Chancellor was evidently an influential one, and, of course, Chancellor would take D’Amour’s teachings and make the role his own.
Over the ensuing albums and years, the bassist has become synonymous with a hugely unique tone and sonic DNA, which has been the muse of countless tone-chasing bassists.
Speaking to Guitar World back in 2020, Chancellor discussed the importance of his own unique approach to bass in Tool, saying it was his responsibility to “marry things together”.
“That’s the duty of bass in general, as the glue in the lower register,” he noted. “It’s something you feel that merges the kick and the guitar strings and the voice. It has melody, but it’s deep down there so it can support everything.”
