How Tool Used Math to Create "Lateralus"

At a Tool concert in NH about 15 years ago Maynard started chanting, "Think for yourself, question authority" repeatedly. He kept going until the whole crowd (myself included) was saying it with him. He'd say it, then the crowd would repeat it. This went on for what felt like forever, and kind of seemed ridiculous after a while. Finally he finished with these words: "Think for yourself....." "Question authority....." "And don't ever repeat something just because someone else said it." I laughed as hard as I ever had in my life as they closed with Opiate. Message received. Tool is the greatest band in the universe.

how math used lateralus to create tool

Tool: "Overthinking, overanalyzing, separate the body from the mind." Tool fans have entered the chat

and here I am playing power chords in 4/4

Tool was like, "don't overthink or over-analyze", and Tool fans were like "hold my beer".

Maynard pooped 5 times during the recording of Lateralus, 5 in itself is a Fibonacci number. When he flushed, the poops spiraled down in a perfect Fibonacci spiral. And it was awesome.

When you zoom out on the lyrics, it's actually a commentary on this very thing: to not overanalyze, to embrace random, to embrace that not everything has to be perfectly placed.

Funny how the lyrics warn against overthinking and overanalysing

When the song is longer than the video explaining it 😂

I was 21 and in college when Lateralus came out. I remember my friends saying TOOL had mellowed out and one guy said they "forgot how to rock." I on the other hand, loved this album and is arguably my favorite of theirs. TOOL is a creative force and are so intelligent as well, as evidenced by this song.

No matter how many times I hear it, the final verse and chorus of this song makes the blood in my veins chill.

Maynard: accidentally drops acid once. Maynard after the fact: lateralus

I feel like we’re doing exactly what Maynard told us not to do. Overthinking and over analyzing. 😂

But 1:37 minutes is 1.616666667, which is 1.617, not 1.618. Overthinking, overanalyzing separates the body from the mind.

Thank you for including Danny Carey footage with the fake mustache

The brilliance of Tool is beyond genius.

whats interesting to me is the way this song came together due to the bands unconventional writing methods. Basically Justin came up with a short riff and Danny noticed it was the beginning of the fibonacci sequence. The band has always used sacred geometry in their music and it is one of the common threads in their style.... So they basically wrote the instrumentals with this sacred geometry in mind and then handed the music off to maynard to write lyrics afterwards. Adam Jones told maynard how the song was based on this sacred geometry, which inspired maynard to write the lyrics with the same theme. This song is a prime example of tools unconventional writing style which is one of the key factors giving them one of the most unique sounds in all of rock. No band sounds even close to tool. We are so fortunate that some strange luck brought together four dudes that are totally different from eachother in every way yet are able to cobble together contrasting sounds, rhythms, and musical tastes to create such special and influential music.

People see this and grasp the complexity of just 1 song and wonder why new albums take so long lol

The irony of creating such a complex, layered arrangement and write a chorus about overthinking. #maynardsatroll

For what it's worth I feel that, when it comes to Tool in general and this song in particular, it both is and isn't "that deep" simultaneously. They clearly put things together with some precision, with the syllable count, the length of the intro, and the 9-8-7 chorus, but there's still plenty of room within the rest of the song that is just a great song alongside the meaning, and those don't have to contradict each other. The chorus lyrics about overthinking, to me, don't necessarily repesent a specific amount of thought and analysis as a problem, but rather the mindset. If your analysis takes away from your ability to feel the song, both the carefully constructed aspects weaving together and the more fluid, spontaneous ones, you're missing the point. The Fibbonacci elements are cool theming, but the point of the song is still to listen and enjoy it. There's a lot of dialogue with prog,, and especially with Tool, that falls into the "technician vs. performer" debate. Specifically, both fans and critics of the band often consider their music to be meticulously crafted, each tiny detail imbued with specific intent. The line typically falls with fans calling the result deep and meaningful, and critics saying it's overcomplicated to the point of taking away from the experience, or that the attempt to create meaning falls flat. And... I find both sides to be at least somewhat wrong, because the very terms of the argument feel hollow. Yes, there are elements that are intentionally crafted a certain way to give a certain meaning... but there's still plenty of performer too, things that flow naturally and imbue meaning in more vague or emotional ways. The idea that any musician is pure technical skill with no feeling, that even something as made-to-be-subtly-complicated as Lateralus is therefore emotionally void, is incomprehensible to me. It doesn't matter whether it's as deep as the rabid fans say or not - it's only meaningless if you refuse to find any, and boiling the song down to the Fibbonacci sequence strips away a lot of the things that can provide it. It can add to it in context, but the song as a whole is more than just what was put in as the skeleton of the piece. It isn't worthless to look at the rest with an analytical lens too, so long as at the end of it all you don't lose sight of the feelings it gives you, regardless of artist intent.