Despite remaining out of the spotlight and largely keeping the curtains drawn beyond his work in a highly private and heavily regarded band, we’ve learned a lot about Justin Chancellor through his 29 years of playing in Tool. His constant stream of riffs and barrages of technical fretboard acrobatics are extraordinary. His propulsive picking speed is as tireless and dexterous as it is precise. And his tone merges a deep, low growl with metallic electricity, conveyed through delays, distortions, wahs, and overdrives. While Tool’s music always keeps their listeners guessing, we’ve come to expect certain things from Chancellor that he’s sure to deliver.

But his recent release from his side project, MTvoid, caught us off guard by showing his imaginative writing outside of Tool. Never did we expect to hear him play an upright bass on a record, nor his stream-of-consciousness dabbling over atmospheric synths and layers of plug-ins. He and vocalist/producer Peter Mohamed (Sweet Noise, Serce) exchanged sound files via email during the pandemic lockdown, which gave Chancellor the space to let the sounds truly dictate what the song would be. The result is a seven-song LP that oscillates between dissonant movement and droning intensity. As the follow-up to MTvoid’s 2013 album, Nothing’s Matter, this music shows the duo in a focused space with an evolved sound that they’ve materialized through modern technology — largely home studios and file sharing, given Mohamed’s residence in Poland. 

And while Tool is still touring, with talks of the first all-new music since 2019’s Fear Inoculum on the horizon, MTvoid has been at work on their next installment, with most of the songs already worked out. Soon it will be time again for Justin to put down his iconic Wal basses in lieu of his vintage Fenders, Music Man StingRays, and a new Status bass to finish the third chapter of his second musical home. While we’ve come to expect a lot from Chancellor, we won’t even begin to speculate what it will sound like.   

How is the current Tool tour going for you? 

It’s been amazing. It’s always a bit like this — you write an album then you record an album, and obviously we spend a long time doing this. In those stages you’re trying to get those songs nailed down to where they should be forever. Once you record them, that’s that. We want to develop them as far as they want to go, [but] it’s never the case that that’s the end of its life. We’re playing a lot of songs off the new album and every night it’s a thrill getting better at them and developing them through those little moments where you realize, Oh, that’s how I should have played it. Also, you’re playing them next to songs from the old record, so it gives them a whole different perspective. You have to develop those old songs a little to fit them together with the new stuff. It’s thrilling. Perhaps some songs that weren’t necessarily my favorites on the album are starting to be my favorites now. We play “Culling Voices” where all of us sit on a couch and play guitar, which is quite challenging with these heavy hands. That’s really fun and I’m getting better at that. I’ve really enjoyed playing “Descending,” as well, which I actually play on my Music Man. It has a whole different vibe; it’s a very delicate song, so developing it live makes it a very powerful thing. 

The new MTvoid album is your first in a decade. What ignited this? 

We made that album ages ago, and we’ve been dealing with it for quite a while. It’s really well sat in now. Peter and I had done a couple of tracks in recent years where he’d ask for a bass track and I’d send one over. That was when we realized we could make it work long-distance. Then that became the norm during the pandemic, as it was the only way anybody could do it, so the output increased between the two of us and we got to work. As musicians we had nothing else going on, so we just went for it and put loads and loads of stuff together until we had more than enough for an album. 

How do you navigate the writing process with you being in L.A. and Peter being in Poland?

Working with Peter is really fun for me because we just follow the idea to where it goes — let [each song] naturally go where it wants to. He would send me very atmospheric files or a beat or a soundscape, and then I’d sit down with it on my own without someone breathing over my shoulder, and have my complete natural reaction to it. Most songs started with me reacting to whatever he sent me, and then I’d take a couple of nights to lay down the bass and just blister it with all types of ideas. When I’d decide what I wanted to keep, I’d send him seven or eight bass ideas, and then I’d pause there for several days eagerly waiting to see how he responded to it. We had a pretty quick turnaround between the two of us. We were both really excited, so we had good momentum. We never had to wait weeks and weeks; it was always a few days, and then there it was in my mail. It’s a great way to create, because you never quite know what’s going to come back. 

How do you approach MTvoid differently than Tool? 

This is a little more experimental. With it being my side project, I’m able to do that without necessarily trying to achieve anything else apart from being creative. [We have] license to be completely liberated. There’s no pressure to sound a certain way, which is definitely different from being in a rock band. When you’re in a band with four of you, with a bunch of music you’ve already done, it starts to get its own kind of character. The fans love the character of the music and want more of it, so it’s more challenging to think outside of that box, because you’re good at a certain way of doing things. Now, I don’t think we do that in Tool at all; we’re very experimental for the genre we’re in. But with Peter it’s complete freedom, with no rules whatsoever. We never know what it’s going to end up like once we start. 

When you’re in a band with four of you, with a bunch of music you’ve already done, it starts to get its own kind of character. The fans love the character of the music and want more of it, so it’s more challenging to think outside of that box

How did you track your bass at home?

I’d occasionally use an amp, but most of the bass is direct into a Great River DI, which was my go-to. I did a few things with [Tool producer] Joe Barresi’s new JT Amps Alpha Direct Box, which is awesome and has tubes in it. I also played guitar on a bunch of different songs on this album, and for that I’d go through the miking-up process. But DI boxes were the way to go for this music because Peter’s sound is quite dense with a lot going on. When he gets my bass, he does a lot of processing to it, trying to squash it and stretch it and make it sit in with the noise he’s created. It wasn’t necessary to have a really clean miked sound, so we went with that technique. 

Your sound is very different compared to what we hear on Tool albums. Which basses did you use? 

I actually didn’t use my Wal basses at all. I used a lot of vintage basses including my favorite bass, which is a 1963 Fender Precision in Lake Placid Blue. It’s good looking and beautiful sounding. I also used my Music Man StingRay on the first track, and I used a 1960 P-Bass, which sounds great, too. I have a couple of old basses that I bought from my friend at Norman’s Rare Guitars. I buy basses that sound good that aren’t necessarily in mint condition — that way, I don’t feel bad about playing them. We’re already working on more material for a new album, and Vman [Slipknot bassist Alessandro Venturella] gave me a Status bass that I’m using on one of the new songs. It’s really different-sounding and very precise. It’s made of carbon fiber and literally doesn’t go out of tune. I used it on a track where my bass sounds almost synthesized and really heavy, and that bass sounds quite great on it. 

MTvoid has a lot of sonic layers and low synths. What is it like placing your bass within everything? 

It would always start with a beat or even just abstract noises with no rhythm, and I would just play to the noise. The first song [“Death Survives”] is all one take of me noodling around to what I was listening to. We ended up keeping it like that, because somehow it worked, even though it was nonsensical. Peter processing my bass really helped give it a place within the music with so much going on. We mixed it back and forth a lot, which was the most challenging part of us not being together, because we’d be on FaceTime working on everything. But until you get it back you don’t know if it is right or not. That took a while and got a little frustrating. 

What excites you about collaborating with Peter? 

We really enjoy what the other one does, so I’m always excited to see what he’s going to do next. He always sees something he loves that wasn’t necessarily the thing that I would pick myself. That’s the great thing about collaborating with anyone: they can look beyond your own ego and what you think is good that you’re doing. I find it exciting working with him, because it’s constantly moving and always inspiring. There’s never a time when we get stuck in a rut; we’re very fluid. 

“Lilt” has some wild bass tone. How did you generate that?

That’s actually an upright bass. I bought an old rockabilly upright, which was the cheapest one I found at Stine On Vine in L.A. It’s a beauty and I love it, but I don’t play it very often. I recorded it straight miked up, and then Peter had his way with it and made bit-crunching noises around it. 

“Drop-Out” has a cool, winding groove. Did that song start with the bass line? 

That started with a beat, and then the bass came second. That bass line is really circular and propels it along. 

“Scanner Void” has such a great lurking bass line.

On that one, Peter pieced together multiple parts of my ideas and then looped them. That song took so many different forms as it evolved, so it’s hard for me to even remember what I was doing there. 

How did you get the bass sound for “MaBeLu”?

For that one, we cut two songs together almost, but it has a really strong bass line. The beat is super low, like an 808 [Roland TR-808 drum machine], which I worked around.

What can we expect from the next MTvoid album? 

We have many ideas that we didn’t use for part one, and we have a lot of new ones, so we need to get back in the studio. Well, Peter is in the studio now, and I’m out on the road. Once I get back, we’re going to do a lot of sculpting to what we have down, but we already have six or seven songs on the table. Peter is sending me stuff all the time, even while I’m out on the road. –BM

Gear

Bass Wal 4-string basses, 1963 Fender Precision Bass, 1960 Fender Precision Bass, Music Man StingRay Special, upright bass (unidentified) 

Rig Two Gallien-Krueger 2001RB heads, Demeter VTBP-201S preamp, Mesa Boogie 4×12 and 8×10

Pedals Dunlop JCT95 Signature Wah, Boss GEB-7 EQ, Boss DD-3 Digital Delay, Boss BF-2 Flanger, Boss LS-2 Line Selector, Boss CE-5 Chorus, TC Electronic Tonebender, DigiTech Bass Whammy, Tech 21 SansAmp GT2 Distortion, Guyatone BR2 Wah, Prescription Electronics RX Overdriver, Pro Co Turbo Rat distortion, Guyatone Vintage Tremolo, Foxx Fuzz Wah, MXR Bass Octave Deluxe

Strings Ernie Ball Super Slinky .045–.110

Picks Dunlop Tortex 1.0

Hear Him On

MTvoid, Matter’s Knot, Pt. 1 [2023]

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