In a new interview with Mexico’s Summa Inferno, TOOL bassist Justin Chancellor was asked about a possible follow-up to the band’s 2019 album “Fear Inoculum”. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): “ When we get back from [our] trip [to Mexico and South America in March] — I think it’s only three weeks we’re gonna be [there] — but we have already shared with each other a lot of these new ideas, but when we get back, we’re actually gonna dedicate the next three months after that in the studio to organizing our ideas.”There’s a lot of stages in the process,” Justin explained. “And much of it is just every day — we all have ideas and when they’re good, when we like them, we kind of save them or memorize them. But then the really difficult process is when you actually get together and make decisions about how it’s going to end up. And that becomes a little more mathematical, a little more like in the classroom — there’s a blackboard and there’s numbers and you have to make decisions. So that’s the stage we haven’t completely pulled off yet, but we’re committed to do that when we get back. Before the summer, we’re gonna spend those few months really organizing our ideas. We already know what we like. We’ve all shared our individual ideas with each other, and we have a really good pile of stuff. You have to make those decisions, and you have to kind of wrestle with each other a bit to get to that next stage. And then you have to record it, which is a whole another thing as well. You go into the studio, and you have to — it’s like a pregnancy almost. When you go to the studio, you have to make this final decision of how it’s gonna sound and how you’re gonna play it, and it’s gonna live like that forever. So it’s a real delicate thing to be able to pull off. And I don’t think it’s unreasonable that we take a long time at all. I think that’s only natural, and that’s why I’m proud of it, because it was worked on really hard.”Asked if it is fair to say that there will be new TOOL music in the next two years, Justin said: “Yeah, well, the other thing is the climate of releasing music has completely changed, especially when you take a long time to make new music. It’s always a bit different when it comes out. So, we’ve talked about releasing a single, just one song— we could do that. We could also release an EP. And I think because we have such a dedicated fan base, everyone’s gonna be up for it. They’ll all be interested, whatever the way it comes out. So we might not necessarily have to really wrestle out a whole album. We talked about the option of just maybe doing it a little differently and doing a song at a time. Or you could release a single and then another single, another single, and then after a year of releasing singles, you could put them all together on a record and make that an album.”I’m not really answering your question fully, but it doesn’t really have any rules when you’re making music,” he explained. “We’re just kind of making it up. But I can tell you that we absolutely have to write new music to continue doing what we’re doing. We wouldn’t be happy just to just sit on our laurels and play the same stuff over and over again. We really want to create new music to be able to continue doing what we love. So it’s coming. Trust me.”Asked if he and his TOOL bandmates feel any kind of pressure to satisfy their fans when it comes to releasing new music, Justin said: “Um, not really. It’s more of a pressure on ourselves to be proud of what we allow to go out into the world. And part of that is really working hard on it and creating something that you’re proud of, not kind of being flippant about it, really taking it seriously as an art form. So the pressure really is on ourselves, I would say. And as far as everyone else, you can’t really please everyone. So, there’s always going to be people that don’t like it, and there’s gonna be people that do like it. There’s songs that I don’t like that Adam [Jones, TOOL guitarist] likes. And then sometimes that changes over time. There’ll be a song that I don’t like playing, but then, all of a sudden or over time, I start to be fond of it and see the beauty in it.”It’s art,” Justin added. “Each to their own. And if you try to please everybody, it’s not gonna work. So you really just have to be true to yourself.”A year ago, Justin told Metal Hammer that fans won’t have to wait another 13 years to hear a new studio album from him and his TOOL bandmates, referencing the gap between 2006’s “10,000 Days” and “Fear Inoculum”.”Danny [Carey, TOOL drummer] is [63] now, so there’s no thought of taking 13 years if we’re gonna do it,” he explained. “We’re gonna have to be more efficient, and we’ve been talking of ways that we can do that. Maybe taking a leaf out of how me and Peter [Mohamed, Justin’s bandmate in side project MTVOID] work with MTVOID — instead of staring at each other going ‘Come on! Get it out of ya!’ maybe we could do a bit more at home. We’ll see!”In a separate interview with Revolver magazine, Chancellor and Carey talked about a possible follow-up to “Fear Inoculum”. Addressing the fact that “Fear Inoculum” marked the band’s first full-length effort in 13 years, due to creative, personal, and legal issues bandmembers encountered since the release of “10,000 Days”, Justin said: “It’ll be different this time. Everyone’s life is different, and everyone’s expectations are different. Time is precious now, so you try and look for ways to be more efficient with the process. We’ve had a lot of discussion about that and how we can bring a new record to fruition in a slightly different way.”Speaking about the TOOL songwriting process, Danny said: “Our filter system is pretty intense. If it gets by the four of us in the band, then we figure it’s going to work. It’s a really painstaking process that we go through to finish [an album], and get it where we are all completely convinced. It pays off in the long run because we never really get tired of performing our songs. It gives rise to a vehicle that we can all believe in.”As for a possible musical direction for TOOL’s next LP, Carey said: “Who knows? It could flip-flop and we could just go back to doing an ‘Undertow’ [type of] record” of shorter songs. “That’s kind of appealing to me. I always like change, whatever direction it goes.”Another possibility is a new EP rather a full-length release.”We’re free agents now,” Carey said. “We aren’t signed to a label anymore. We are free to do whatever we want.”Quite possibly the era’s most highly anticipated album, “Fear Inoculum” arrived in August of 2019. Debuting at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top 200, the album earned heaps of critical praise with NPR saying, “‘Fear Inoculum’ was worth the 13-year wait,” Revolver proclaiming the album “a masterpiece to be dissected for years to come” and Consequence saying the release finds “TOOL in peak performance.”In 2022, TOOL released “Opiate2”, a re-imagined and extended version of the 1992 EP’s title track and an accompanying short film, marking the band’s first new video in 15 years. The band also unveiled the first incarnation of “Fear Inoculum” vinyl, dubbed the Ultra Deluxe edition, the limited offering included five 180-gram vinyl discs emblazoned with a unique etching and accompanied by an elaborate pictorial booklet including never-before-seen artwork.TOOL formed in 1990, releasing five studio albums: “Undertow” (1993),”Ænima” (1996),”Lateralus” (2001),”10,000 Days” (2006) and “Fear Inoculum” (2019); two EPs: “72826” (1991) and “Opiate” (1992),and the limited-edition boxset “Salival” (2000). The band has won four Grammy Awards: “Best Metal Performance” (1998, “Ænima”),”Best Metal Performance” (2002, “Schism”),”Best Recording Package” (2007, “10,000 Days”) and “Best Metal Performance” (2020, “7empest”).TOOL is Danny Carey (drums),Justin Chancellor (bass),Adam Jones (guitar) and Maynard James Keenan (vocals).[embedded content]