Puscifer's Maynard James Keenan Hints at More Sessanta, But With One Condition

In 2023, Puscifer teamed up with A Perfect Circle and Primus to present the collaborative Sessanta tour in coordination with Maynard James Keenan's 60th birthday. But now three years on, it appears as though Keenan likes the idea of more so long as one condition is met.

Keenan, who sings with both Puscifer and A Perfect Circle, told Full Metal Jackie on her weekend radio show that while there was some interest to continue the elaborate stage pairing thanks to Puscifer having a new album, but ultimately it was decided that all three bands should have something new to support.

"I felt like, and Les [Claypool] agrees and Billy [Howerdel] agreed that unless we have actually new songs to do, it doesn't make any sense to take that out," shared Keenan. "So Les, I'm sure, now is working with Lar and John Hoffman to do some new Primus songs, which would then tee it up for us to go out and do another Sessanta, but that also requires me to start working with Billy to get some songs going for A Perfect Circle as well."

Speaking about A Perfect Circle, he adds that he and Howerdel continue to create, but comments, "It's just more about turning up the heat and getting it going."

Within the chat, Keenan tells Jackie that Sessanta was one of the more fully realized versions of an ideal Puscifer show that fans will get, adding, "That's what Puscifer can do with a budget."

Elsewhere within the discussion, Keenan speaks about some of the issues that spill out in the music from Puscifer's latest album, Normal Isn't. He discusses the album's more defined lyrical bite, nature's way of addressing emboldened social media behavior and offers one step to combat some of the bad behavior that has emerged from our social media interactions.

He also reveals where fans can dig into more of the Puscifer lore thanks to a new creative outlet and speaks to why Mat Mitchell and Carina Round have been the perfect partners to take this creative Puscifer journey with. Check out more of the chat below.

It's Full Metal Jackie, and I am super excited to welcome back to the show, the one and only Maynard James Keenan. The man of many bands is back with Normal Isn't, the latest album from Puscifer. And Maynard, simply put, this album pulls no punches. It's very much an album of today, inspired by the world around you. Did the decision to go more aggressive with the music allow you the space to go there with the narrative of the record or were you planning to go there and needed the music to fit what the lyrics were?

Over the years, we've kind of throttled some of the music because we were looking for more of cinematic soundscape music. There's always been some songs on each album that kind of have that bite, but like one or two.

So a song like "The Remedy" or "Arsonist" or "Money Shot," those are pretty upbeat, aggressive, songs. But then when you put them next to "Bread" and "Circus" and songs like that and "Grand Canyon," it seems in contrast, that most of those albums are pretty mellow. But actually there are little islands of intensity on them.

I think this one is just some of the sounds that Mat {Mitchell] was kind of putting forward, I don't know if it was accidentally or intentionally, but they just kind of lended themselves to a little bit more bite. And so we just kind of went with it, leaned into it.

One of the first statements to come from this album is the great take down, "Self Evident," which feels like a take down of bad behavior sadly seen all too often now. I'm talking about people running their mouths publicly with opinion over fact without checking how valid what they're saying is. The song is an observation, but one that doesn't hold back. Is there a way out of this type of behavior or do you feel we've reached a point of no return where this is way more common than it should be?

Well, I think I'm at the age now where I start hearing former older uncles and grandpas going back, "When I was a kid..." It's that feeling where there is no hope. But body function is body function, nature is nature. You'll end up having to make adjustments, like it or not, over time.

So if you get super used to running your mouth and not getting smacked for it, metaphorically or literally or whatever, eventually that comes around and that's gonna cause some pretty extreme trauma in your life because it will come around. There is a balance. You can't just go on that keyboard...Not even keyboard warrior, just keyboard dopamine addict that just wants the conflict for the sake of conflict, not for any kind of solution or resolution. Solutions and resolutions don't sell tickets. They don't, they drive traffic. They don't get follows and likes. Those are boring things, those are boring concepts, resolution and problem-solving.

Puscifer, "Self Evident"

Maynard, this record, on some songs, serves as a challenge. "ImpetuoUs," for instance, celebrates those who find their truth and aren't afraid to go against the grain to speak it. In today's society, do you feel we've become too complacent to just accept what's put in front of us on our screens?

I don't really think that was the bent. I think it's more about I've always been kind of a champion of the underdog, the marginalized, the oppressed, I guess. So I feel like that's a mantra for people who feel like they don't quite fit in in some way or something that kind of sets them aside emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually from their peers.

Sometimes you just want to feel seen. That song is just about being, somebody recognizing that you're seen.

Puscifer, "ImpetuoUs"

Maynard James Keenan with us on the show this week. And within The Algorithm, you coin the term "social midiots." Elsewhere in "The Quiet Parts," we get into how we communicate with each other and people showing you who they are. It feels like the impact of computers and social media has definitely changed our interactions and not for the better. Given some of what's expressed in your music, I was curious about your own social media and online experiences. Have you at some point taken stock of your own online activity and tried to get back to more real world experiences?

I'm literally sitting, you can't see it because it's blurred out, but my planter beds are behind me here. We're planting carrots, radishes, beets. I already have onions and garlic planted from December. Touching that soil is important. Being outside is important to just kind of reconnect with those things. These are important things.

But as far as the social media and the immediacy of information now, good and bad, that is kind of the point. You can use a hammer to build, you can use a hammer to destroy. It's all about awareness and consciousness of understanding what the potentials are in all those directions.

I'm gonna lean into some of the issues that we have are what I've seen as an active undermining of education. So, if we can get back to a more educated populous, then when weird stuff comes down the pipe, it's so much easier to call bull or to support an idea, because you have a frame of reference and a foundation and an education to be able to tell the difference.

I think that's probably really important to witness debate classes and then competitions in high school. 'Cause the judges that were moderating the debate, if you tried to pull something out of your ass, you lose points. It has to be based literally just two different opinions about factual things. Not just truth, your truth, but actual factual things. You're disagreeing about how to go about a solution based on two counterpoint views of how to arrive at the same solution. We don't have that. It's now just like made up and those skills will tell the difference.

Maynard James Keenan with us talking about Puscifer's latest album, Normal Isn't, and for those who want to dig a little further into the story, we've got the "Tales From the Pusciverse" comic book series, which further explores the character of Bellindia Black, who was introduced in your "Pendulum" video. Were you a comics kid growing up? And how does it feel to go through the process of developing this character and now seeing Bellendia realized in full comics form?

There's a lot of characters that have come up with Puscifer over the years, and if you weren't at a particular tour or saw a particular show, you're missing out on some of that character development because those were only present on the screens at the shows.

So I think doing a little time machine here, we're going back in time and reintroducing all of our old characters through a graphic novel form so you can kinda get caught up with their backstory, who they are, what their glitches are, and also it's also helping me clean up the timeline a little bit because some of them didn't really ... they were just kind of floating characters with no connection to the other characters, so this is the opportunity to kind of connect those dots and tell more of that story.

So, with the new characters, Bellendia, Fanny and The Synth Whisperer, we're gonna try to start that now rather than play catch-up. So, the first one is out. We're following up with one that's gonna give you a little bit of the history of the briefcase, not really, and then, there's already two more in the can coming that will develop more of the current characters' stories.

Puscifer's very much been built from the ground up with both Mat and Carina [Round] with you through most of this run. While you've had a wide variety of guests and collaborators help you realize the Puscifer vision over the years, what has it meant to have Mat and Carina to take this journey with you? What have they brought to Puscifer that makes this a relationship that keeps you wanting to come back for more?

There's an element of trust with our creative process. It's hard to find that. Usually there's so much ego attached to bands. You've seen it over the years where just add success and money and it just all falls apart. it doesn't work. So, if you're in it for the right reasons, it's hard it's hard to decide how if you're agreeing on what those right reasons are, and if your needs, first and foremost as an artist are being aligned properly with the people you're gonna invite into that process. That's a that's a hard thing to come by.

I've had a lot of friends who started bands when they were 22 and they're pretty sure they knew what they wanted, and it's like, you don't even know who you are. At that age, you don't. So that's hard to navigate at that age.

I feel like Mat and Carina have already been through the wringer. They've already met people, they've already worked with people, they've just figured it out.

Maynard, you've seen Puscifer grow into something that is selling out the same venues as your other bands A Perfect Circle and Tool. Are there places you haven't taken the band yet that you would like to explore in terms of presentation? How close to your ideal Puscifer performance are you at this point in the band's career?

I took out A Perfect Circle, Puscifer and Primus on my 60th birthday. Basically it's called Sessanta and it was a rotation of those three bands. We all are on the stage at the same time. Three drummers, all the back line was under their drum risers, and then a couple set of stairs up on either side of the drummers for a little lounge, so when you weren't actually singing a song or playing a song, you can hang out up there and we rotated about three songs each.

A Perfect Circle played three songs, Primus plays three songs, Puscifer plays three songs, back to Primus, back to A Perfect Circle, back and forth like that, three songs each. And I think just the presentation of that show that was put on by Puscifer, that was a Puscifer Entertainment production with Matt Mitchell as the music director and coordinator of the whole thing, putting it all together. That's what Puscifer can do with a budget.

I think that brought in a few people that kind of made the connection to go, "A Perfect Circle shows are pretty great and so are Primus shows on their own, but this is something completely different and equally if not more impressive in some ways." Just from the logistics alone, never mind anything else, but that was all Puscifer putting that together.

So if Puscifer has a budget, then it comes down to people coming. If there's people coming to the show, then we can add onto the show. But as an obscure independent band living in the shadows...It took a while to get here.

You've got plenty on your plate. Puscifer is front and center for you right now. Before we go, is there anything in terms of an update on where things are at with A Perfect Circle and Tool?

A bunch of people involved in Sessanta wanted to go right back out and do another one with Primus and Perfect Circle and Puscifer, but I felt like, and Les [Claypool] agrees and Billy [Howerdel] agreed that unless we have actually new songs to do, it doesn't make any sense to take that out.

So Les, I'm sure, now is working with Blair and John Hoffman to do some new Primus songs, which would then tee it up for us to go out and do another Sessanta, but that also requires me to start working with Billy to get some songs going for A Perfect Circle as well.

We have always been doing that, but it's just more about turning up the heat and getting it going.

Thanks to Puscifer's Maynard James Keenan for the interview. Normal Isn't is available now. You can stay up to date with Puscifer through their website, Facebook, X and Instagram accounts. You can also pick up the new Tales From the Pusciverse Episode 1 available now. Find out where you can hear Full Metal Jackie's weekend radio show here.

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