Given the complexity and innovation of Tool's new album Fear Inoculum, one would probably be unsurprised to learn that its recording wasn't without pitfalls. Besides the well-known delays leading up to the band writing and releasing the album, there were also mishaps and misunderstandings that went down during the process of tracking the record. But few of them compare to when drummer Danny Carey went a little hard in the studio… and nearly burned it down.
In the latest episode of our new podcast Inside Track, producer Joe Barresi remembers the recording sessions for Fear Inoculum, and how during the recording of Danny Carey's drums, calamity almost struck.
"We were tracking," explains Joe. "We always like 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 very vibey. And 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's going on?'
"All of a sudden, he just bolts out of the control room through this back door," continues Joe, "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 the head went on fire. And there's 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. So that was one of the most insane moments, actually -- Dan almost burning down the studio."
Listen to the full episode here: