Tool: Lat's Entertainment.

Tool plays the Brisbane Entertainment Centre on Monday.

Five years may have passed between Tool's 1996 sophomore effort Aenima and last year's Lateralus but if the new album's sales are any indication, the Los Angeles-based four piece of Maynard James Keenan (vocals), Danny Carey (drums), Adam Jones (guitar) and Justin Chancellor (bass) are more popular than ever in this country. Tool visited Australia for Sydney and Melbourne gigs mid-last year, hot on the heels of Lateralus' release. After receiving a rapturous reception the group are heading down under once again, finally finding time to make it to Queensland, and playing Brisbane on Monday night.

Drummer Danny Carey took some time to answer a few questions about the band's upcoming Australian tour.

Guitarist Adam Jones has said that Lateralus possesses more of a unified sound because Tool has been together as a group for over a decade. Would you agree?

"Definitely. That's what Lateralus the strength that it has and I think it's the big reason why we can put out a record that doesn't have any three or four minute songs on it and it still goes to number one in the charts. The strength and the level of communication that we have comes from sticking at a relationship for ten years."

Do you prefer to leave your lyrics open to interpretation?

"Everyone benefits from that when you have to dig a little deeper. When you discover something for yourself, it has a lot more meaning. It's a lot more defined in your mind rather than having something handed to you on a silver platter."

Is that why your lyrics are available on your website but not printed in the CD sleeve?

"They're there if people want to go and look for them. But when the words are all there laid out before you when you're listening to the record, you tend to focus on that rather than the whole process that's going on."

Do you see your music, videos and album art as part of one complete package?

"We try to make it as cohesive as possible. We work a lot and talk a lot, all of us brainstorming, trying to come up with images that reinforce the vibe. The feeling that we get from the music ourselves. It's a lot smoother than a lot of other bands' videos because we do it all ourselves. Adam is always the director of our videos so it's not like we farm it off to some production guy and leave it up to his interpretation. We do it from our point of view and that makes it stronger."

Looking at Tool's videos, from Aenima to Lateralus, there seems to be an obsession with the human body. For example, Lateralus's CD sleeve art depicts the different layers of a person from the skin to the bones?

"And beyond! That's the point. We all transcend and go to some kind of separate world. The human body is an amazing thing. Adam definitely has his own style and the medium that he works in has a lot to do with it. When you do lots of stock frame animation, there's so much personality injected into the video. It's a hard thing to copy someone else's style. When it's your own, it's just there and when you go into that realm, it works really well. It works for us. When you're working on it, it's a tough thing to do but it's all worth it because it's sort of become our signature."

The characters in your art and videos also seem quite asexual?

"That's a good thing. Otherwise labels and connotations start getting imposed. When it gets left to the imagination, you can be a little freer."

With your interest in video and other mediums, would you be interested in recording and releasing an album simultaneously on DVD and CD?

"I can see us doing a project like that. We really don't have any plans right now but I always thought it would be great to make the next Wall or something like that. But it's a huge step and would cost millions and millions of dollars to do it the way we'd want to do it but it's not out of the question."

Do you enjoy playing live and touring?

"Very much so. Maybe touring in America can be a bit tiresome because we've done it so many times and it's no longer that exciting. But going to Australia and New Zealand, that's a great thing. Seeing new places and meeting new people is really enjoyable. I'm a person who travels a little better than some people. For some people, that can be a down side and after you've been out on the road for four months, the fondness for your own bed grows stronger."