Maynard James Keenan has fronted three very different projects and kept a career going across all of them. The lesson for working players isn't "be Maynard." It's that time spent outside your main band makes you better inside it, and spreads your risk.

Three projects, three jobs

Tool formed in 1990 and built its name on odd meters, long-form songs and patience. A Perfect Circle, started with Billy Howerdel (formerly Tool's guitar tech) and performing from 1999, is tighter and more melodic. Puscifer, which first surfaced in 2003, is the loose, strange one, where the jokes and the experiments live. Outside music he runs wineries in Arizona.

Each project gives him a different job to do. The voice is recognizable in all three, which is the point: range didn't dilute the identity, it made it clearer.

Why it works for the rest of us

Studying another style forces you to solve different problems. A few hours with blues phrasing changes how you bend a note over a slow doom riff. Learning how a jazz drummer moves around the kit changes where you put fills in a blast section. Writing a song with no distortion at all shows you whether the song was ever there, or whether the gain was doing the work.

It also helps the business side. A player who can cover a session, fill in on a tour, or write for a different kind of artist has more ways to get paid when the main band is off cycle, and doesn't go broke if that band stalls.

How to start without wrecking your main band

  • Schedule listening like practice. One hour a week on a genre you don't play. Take notes on what the rhythm section does, not just the lead parts.
  • Borrow one idea at a time. A classical intro, a clean vocal bridge, a groove from a funk record. Fold it in where it serves the song, not to prove you can.
  • Try one side project with an end date. An EP, a one-off show, a covers set. A finish line keeps it from eating the main band's calendar.
  • Take session work. Recording or filling in for other artists builds reading, speed and contacts.
  • Learn to record yourself. Basic home production lets you sketch ideas for any project without booking a studio.
  • Try your voice somewhere new. Clean singing, harsh vocals, lower or higher registers. Get a vocal coach before you hurt yourself.

Keep the main band first

Side projects go wrong when they start competing for the same weekends and the same fans without anyone saying so. Tell your bandmates what you're doing and when. Block the main band's tour and release windows first, then fit everything else around them. Tell fans plainly when a new project is separate, so nobody thinks the main band is breaking up.

Watch your energy too. Three projects at half effort is worse than one at full. If something keeps slipping, drop it or pause it.

Pick one genre you don't play, spend an hour with it this week, and write down one idea you could use in your own band.