Maynard James Keenan Talks Puscifer, Stage Fright and More

Maynard James Keenan and his band Puscifer are on tour, and they play the historic Fox Theater in Detroit, Michigan, on April 18, one day after the rock legend celebrates his 61st birthday.

What's he doing for the big 6-1? "I'm going to try to hook up with some people I haven't seen in almost 50 years in the Ravenna, Akron area," Keenan told Meltdown of WRIF in Detroit. He went on, "I haven't really been back to the place I went to elementary and junior high in decades. So, it's going to be an interesting little stop."

Here's Meltdown's talk with him, described right from the perspective of Meltdown.

The new Puscifer album is called Normal Isn't, and it's an interesting, diverse listen. I asked Maynard how he'd describe it to someone. "Well, you don't, really. You have to just listen. There's a lot of stuff out there nowadays.
We just did an interview with Rick Beato, and one of the things we were talking about off-camera was just how,
the last couple decades, everything's just kind of been homogenized, and the way people are writing, they're like using algorithms to appeal to, I don't know, shoppers, I guess."

It's an album that touches on many different sounds and flavors. "But it's rare that you have people that are still trying to reinvent and push the boundaries at the risk of not bringing fans with you. But you can't really think about that. You have to push the boundaries. And Mat Mitchell is all about that. Whatever he's laying down for pieces, he's honoring the song, he's honoring the instrument, the synth. And we're just, you know, trying to break rules."

As I was talking to Maynard, the line from Metallica's Some Kind Of Monster popped into my head. The line where Lars complained of some of the music being "too stock." I asked if he ever thinks that way about approaching his own music. "If that's how you think, and that's how you write, then it's not stock for you. It's just, it's just kind of how you, it's, that's what you do. I get it. It's just not what we do. None of my projects are that. That's, it's just the kind of people that we, we gravitate towards that just don't think rhythmically in the box. We always think outside the box. So, I think if you're going to listen to this record, that's what you're signing up for: a whole piece. You're not just signing up for a commercial. You're signing up for an entire film."

I heard that he has self-doubt, so I thought I'd ask him if that translates to stage fright. He said, "It's really, every night, every night is terrifying. You don't know how it's going to go. Um, yeah, it's a, it's a challenge, but that's what live music is, right? That's why you're going to see it. We're literally alive right now. We might not be alive tomorrow. So that's why I would encourage you to come to the show, because you don't know what you're getting tomorrow. Live music. We're alive today. Come see us today while we're alive."

Is it a form of adrenaline rush for him? "I guess. Yeah. Um, equal parts fear and excitement. Uh, and you know, it's, you're literally having to pay attention. To every second so that you don't fuck it up."

After all these years, I thought he'd get over it, but he hasn't. "I didn't really think about it. I just kind of just, I don't want to call it my job because that sounds cold. Um, like I don't want to be here, but I do want to be here. Um, job is not the word responsibility. If I'm going to take on this task and I'm going to, I'm going to write these things, then it's kind of part of the package that you're going to, in some way, share them with someone. And I would, I would think that the goal is to, to, to do them accurately."

Maynard is no stranger to Michigan, having grown up on the west side of the state. "So even though we kind of considered, uh, Detroit, Northern Ohio, no offense," he joked. "Uh, we kind of, we kind of talk a lot of smack about Detroit, but, um, no, I, I spent more time going to shows in, uh, like in college, uh, in Grand Rapids. I would go to more things like, uh, the punk rock clubs and, and Muskegon and down to Chicago. Um, and then, you know, St. Andrews Hall and Detroit, like all the, the older punk rock days."

Maynard and Puscifer come through Detroit at The Fox Theater on April 18.