PRIMUS frontman Les Claypool told Consequence about the genesis for the single and its accompanying B-sides: “With our new studio in the works and some impending touring, we decided the world needed to be subjected to some new PRIMUS material. Not wanting, or even having the time for recording an entire album, the notion of a ‘single’ was tossed around. I’d been itching to record an opus — basically a long, winding, bastard of a song, reminiscent of some of the compositions I cut my teeth (or ears) on, in my music-hungry adolescence. I said to the fellas, ‘Let’s record a 20-minute song.’ The end result was an 11-and-a-half minute, progressive hunk of sound called ‘Conspiranoia’.

“‘Conspiranoia’ was sprouted from a seed I had planted in my notebook a year or so ago — a few lines commenting on the mental state of the contemporary world,” he explained. “I watched the distrust and divide grow between friends, colleagues, relatives, and the general population because of the consumption and digesting of disinformation, misinformation, warped information, and flat-out fairy tales being perpetuated by anyone with a slight hint of web design aptitude. I was compelled to shed light on the ridiculousness of many of these perspectives and the lack of rational thought that was being applied in the interpretation of many such entities and theories.

“Because the single ‘Conspiranoia’ is of such length, I realized that for a B-side of the vinyl, we would need at least two tunes to fill out the real estate of the actual 12-inch disc,” Les added. “I had the song ‘Follow The Fool’ in the chamber and we fleshed it out. [Guitarist] Larry Lalonde had the riff for the song that became ‘Erin On The Side Of Caution’, which I supplied the lyrics for by again pulling from my notebook of notions. Because all three songs were bred in an odd time of divide, confusion, angst, frustration, and social senility, the title ‘Conspiranoid’ seemed like an appropriate moniker for the EP.”

“Conspiranoid” EP track listing:

01. Conspiranoia
02. Follow The Fool
03. Erin On The Side Of Caution

Later this month, PRIMUS will embark on an extensive coast-to-coast extension of its wildly popular “A Tribute To Kings” tour, paying homage to prog-rock legends RUSH. “A Tribute To Kings” will find the Bay area trio performing RUSH‘s 1977 album “A Farewell To Kings” in its entirety, following a set of their own music.

As Claypool told Rolling Stone, the tour is about paying tribute to a band that has given him so much inspiration over the years.