TOOL Frontman Talks 'Blood Into Wine' Documentary In New Interview

ARTISTdirect.com editor Rick Florino recently conducted an interview with Maynard James Keenan (TOOL, A PERFECT CIRCLE, PUSCIFER) about "Blood Into Wine", the documentary about Maynard's Arizona vineyard business. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

ARTISTdirect.com: Does "Blood Into Wine" exemplify the creative collective idea you've had with PUSCIFER? It brings the wine, the music and the visuals altogether.

Maynard: Yeah, to be honest, I'm really thankful that they've included so much of the PUSCIFER stuff in the film. In this day and age, it's definitely a challenge for people to get their heads around what it is. PUSCIFER's not a band; it's a troupe. We don't have concerts; we have performances. For them to actually give us that much screen time, I was pretty gracious. Being completely independent, we're paying for everything. It's hard to get on the map — especially with the way that the old record industry has worked with its tail and backroom discussions amongst managers, lawyers and agents. We don't have those things.

ARTISTdirect.com: The music, the philosophy behind winemaking and the journey you embark on converge seamlessly in "Blood Into Wine".

Maynard: Not to get all Buddhist on you, but I think it's got that mentality where these things are not separate events. They're all integrated. When you see Brad Pitt or Kathy Bates doing something on screen, it's such a presented "thing" that you think it's one-dimensional and there are no others. You don't ever see them going to the bathroom [Laughs]. They're all integrated. There's more to it. Like you said, I think [the filmmakers] were accurate in connecting the whole life—everything going on around the situations — rather than just showing a slice of the story that you want to present.

ARTISTdirect.com: Do you feel like making wine and making music follow a similar creative process?

Maynard: Absolutely! There's a little outtake on the DVD where Eric [Maynard's vineyard partner Eric Glomski] talks about Sensualism. Although there have been some negative connotations attached to that Sensualist movement having to do with gluttony and over-indulgence, I think the essence of it is more about you as a conscious being and becoming more conscious as you grow by paying attention to your senses. It's an awakening to those things that you're experiencing in the world. I guess that's where "artist" comes in. As an artist, you're paying attention to patterns, noticing things, cataloging movements and recognizing them as a conscious being. Whatever it is — cuisine, painting, music, winemaking, architecture — there are all of these things that you should be paying attention to as a growing artist.

ARTISTdirect.com: It's an inspiring film because audiences very rarely have the opportunity to see how intense the winemaking process is.

Maynard: It's been removed from our culture. Prohibition pretty much interrupted the whole appreciation. It's odd. That was such a huge move. Prohibition, The Great Depression, World War I and II, there's this thing that happened on our soil that removed a lot of that appreciation from the table for us, quite literally. Now, we're catching up with it. There are all of these celebrity chefs and cooking shows. More wine is being appreciated by people and not to the point of indulgence. You don't drive down the highway and see corkscrews and bottles along the side of the road; you see Budweiser cans. It's not like it's that kind of growth. There's an appreciation for art and a consciousness that's attached to it.

ARTISTdirect.com: What does the title "Blood Into Wine" mean to you?

Maynard: I have a history in this. My great grandfather made wine in Northern Italy. Given the struggle that goes along with making this, it's definitely not something you want to get into on a whim. It's a very labor-intensive process. Your blood, sweat and tears go into this thing to make it work. You have to be paying attention.

Read the entire interview from ARTISTdirect.com.