#1553 - Maynard James Keenan

Joe Rogan (0:16)

Is this how you're wearing your mask now, on the wrist?

Maynard James Keenan (0:18)

That's cool. I just forget to bring it with me, so if I just hang it on my nose, I just bring it.

Joe Rogan (0:23)

That's a new move. People will do that now. They will see you, and they'll say, one side of the watch, other side of the watch.

Maynard James Keenan (0:28)

Put your miniature schnauzer right here.

Joe Rogan (0:29)

Aw, you have a cute little dog, dude. That picture of your dog is adorable.

Maynard James Keenan (0:33)

Yeah, she's awesome, she's out.

Joe Rogan (0:35)

What's her name?

Maynard James Keenan (0:35)

Taking a walk. Miho.

Joe Rogan (0:37)

Miho?

Maynard James Keenan (0:38)

Yeah, she's 15

Joe Rogan (0:39)

What does Miho stand for?

Maynard James Keenan (0:41)

Beauty, crest of a wave, it's Japanese.

Joe Rogan (0:44)

Oh, okay.

Maynard James Keenan (0:44)

Deadly little Miho from Sin City.

Joe Rogan (0:48)

Which one was that?

Maynard James Keenan (0:49)

She had the swords in the corner.

Joe Rogan (0:51)

Oh, right. From the movie?

Maynard James Keenan (0:54)

Yeah, Sin City.

Joe Rogan (0:54)

Sin City was a movie, but it was also a comic book, right?

Maynard James Keenan (0:58)

Comic book, yeah.

Joe Rogan (0:58)

Was she in the comic book as well?

Maynard James Keenan (1:00)

I don't know.

Joe Rogan (1:00)

That movie was fucking good, man.

Maynard James Keenan (1:02)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (1:02)

I forgot all about that movie until just now.

Maynard James Keenan (1:04)

Yeah, she's named after a deadly little Miho.

Joe Rogan (1:07)

So we were talking about how, well, we didn't talk about how the new Puscifer album comes out on the 30th.

I listened to what is available and it sounds awesome. There's a lot of layers to that shit, man. There's all kinds of sounds coming at you from all over the place.

Maynard James Keenan (1:20)

Yeah, Matt, normally what happens with our recording process is that I'll have an idea or Matt will have an idea and we'll just kind of set down a direction. For example, like I'll go mandolin, drum machine, banjo. Let's just start there and start to see what we can build on this thing. And then you have an album like Conditions of My Parole. On this, he picked up an old Fairlight and making a Fairlight actually work nowadays. I don't know what a Fairlight is. It's a synthesizer and you've heard it on, Peter Gabriel used it, Art of Noise. I think Yes might have used versions like a Synclavi or a Fairlight. I'm gonna get that wrong and Matt's gonna just, he's got his face in his palm right now.

So there's very specific sounds that come out of these and there's a learning curve to go with it.

But the cool thing is that it kinda paints you into a sonic corner and then you start layering on that. And then of course, unconsciously or consciously, you start thinking of all the stuff you heard in the 80s, you know, that was used on. So you start reacting in that way for those sounds and then, you know, Corina coming in on top of me, adding her piece, and then just that kind of, you know, that kind of three-way chess that we have going on.

Joe Rogan (2:41)

As a non-musician, it's always interesting to see, like, the way people react to synthesizers. Synthesizers gotta be one of the most polarizing sounds and all, but obviously it's responsible for some amazing songs.

Maynard James Keenan (2:55)

Absolutely.

Joe Rogan (2:55)

Undeniably.

Maynard James Keenan (2:56)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (2:57)

But for whatever reason, people are either a love or a hate that kind of sound.

Maynard James Keenan (3:02)

Well, yeah, whenever, you know, when you have people that are like, I don't know, man, I like live music, you know, totally live music. So you're big, you know, and then you kind of wait, come back around and go, what do you think of Kraftwerk? Oh, I love Kraftwerk.

They put robots on station, push a button, and you pay money to watch, like, four mannequins play the songs.

Joe Rogan (3:25)

It's basically like Chuck E. Cheese.

Maynard James Keenan (3:26)

Yeah, yeah. But I love craft work, and, you know, but it's funny when people don't quite make the connection of they don't know what it is they're saying.

Joe Rogan (3:35)

Well, it becomes almost an ideological thing. It's like you're opposed to it because it's a non-cool thing or something. Yeah, yeah. Do you remember when Jump came out, and everybody was like, what the fuck has happened to Van Halen?