Duane Denison Discusses History of Tomahawk, The Jesus Lizard

On Thursday (July 16), guitarist Duane Denison joined Loudwire Nights as he preps for Tomahawk's first tour in 13 years. Listen to the full conversation in the player near the end of this article.

"I've been doing this a long time, but it's been awhile since we've done Tomahawk," Denison shared with Loudwire Nights' Chuck Armstrong.

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"About a year ago, I was still doing Jesus Lizard stuff and I've been playing locally with a local group I have, but no, this is a thing. And just to be back with everybody all in one place, working together on something, is exciting."

Denison is also excited that Tomahawk will be touring alongside the Melvins — the first time they've toured together since 2003.

"It's like a full-on rock show. We're all really psyched."

In addition to it being 13 years since Tomahawk have toured, Denison also recognized that this marks the band's first live shows since they released their most recent studio album, 2021's Tonic Immobility.

"It's almost like having a new album," he admitted.

"We've never played any of those songs live. We'll be doing a lot of that and that's all always challenging and adds excitement from a musician's standpoint. Getting up there and playing fresh material, man, that's what you live for. That's the best thing in the world."

Along with that, the tour also coincides with the 25th anniversary of Tomahawk's self-titled debut.

"That was just like another lifetime ago, that was a complete generation ago," Denison expressed.

"That album came out on the heels of 9/11, so everything was kind of up in the air. Everything was very uncertain ... We had to push it back because 9/11 delayed, made things problematic in New York City. That was weighing heavily on people's minds."

But when Denison reflected on 25 years of Tomahawk, he said it's something that he actually thinks about often.

"The rehearsal space that I share now, that I've had for the past few years, is the same one that we first rehearsed in 25 years ago," he said.

"Every time I'm there, I think about that...John Stanier, the drummer, came through town a couple months ago and him and I worked on this. And then [Mike] Patton had a couple days off after the AVTT/PTTN tour. During that, he stayed and we went to that practice space to kind of do some preliminary work."

That studio was the room that Tomahawk had their first rehearsals in and where they made their debut album.

"All of those things are always on my mind. It never leaves."

What Else Did Tomahawk's Duane Denison Discuss on Loudwire Nights?

The punk rock bands that helped Denison realize, early on, what it meant to write meaningful, original music: "Personally, it was more the second wave of bands because they were more interesting and a little more sophisticated. Of course, what kicked it off, I grew up in the Detroit area, so I mean, Iggy Pop, the Stooges. Those first two albums he did with Bowie, The Idiot and Lust For Life, had a huge impact. I saw him play when I was fairly young. My sister saw the Stooges play one of their last shows. So Iggy started it."
Why he isn't thinking about new music for Tomahawk or the Jesus Lizard: "I think we're all kind of, we feel like we've got our hands full. Everybody has to practice on their own and then we get together and rehears as a group. There's a lot to be sort of gotten up to speed and coordinated to make all this happen. We're just going to leave it at that ... Tomahawk is a hard focus, because we've got so much material to cover. There's a lot of different stuff. Just playing wise, there's a lot of different things I have to do."
Meeting Mike Patton for the first time in 1999: "I met him at a Mr. Bungle show here in Nashville. A couple guys took me. I probably would have met him eventually anyway, my wife already knew him, but [we weren't] married yet. We would have met up eventually, but he was aware of me and he was aware of things I'd done and I was very much aware of him and things he had done. So we talked that very day, he told me he was starting a label and stay in touch ... I started making very basic demos, like acoustic guitar and a metronome with a cassette, that's it, and just sending the most stripped-down ideas we could and he responded well to that. And Mike and I, there's always a little bit of creative friction there. I tend to be more minimalist. He tends to be more maximalist. So I feel like I have to pull him in from time to time and I think he feels like he needs to push me up from time to time. We do butt heads about things, but any working relationship, I think you take turns getting your way. So, there you go."