Thirteen years was a long enough wait between Tool albums, but it was almost longer thanks to a close call with a candle.
In the new Kerrang! Inside Track podcast, producer "Evil" Joe Barresi says one of drummer Danny Carey's floor toms caught fire after a candle fell over during the recording process. Barresi says he and drum tech Bruce Jacoby rushed to put the flaming tom out before the sprinklers went off, or else everything would've been ruined.
"When we were tracking, we always liked to set up the room so it's visual. Dan's got like, some geometry thing behind him and there's always a PA and candles. It's always very vibey."
"I remember the drum tech Bruce Jacoby was in front of the console and I saw this look of panic in his face, and I was like 'what– what is going on.' All of a sudden he just bolts out of the control room through this back door and he gets behind Danny's drum kit where I guess Dan was playing with such power that one of the candles fell over on his floor tom and started burning the floor tom so that the head of the floor tom went on fire. There are sprinklers in the ceiling, so we were trying to get the fire out before the sprinklers went off and the whole recording would be ruined."
"That was one of the most insane moments, actually. Dan almost burned down the studio."
