In a recent interview with Metal Injection, Dave Lombardo was asked whether he would ever rejoin Fantomas. Not only did he say that it will happen, but that he has also been in recent email contact with Mike:
“(5.26) I just emailed Mike Patton and we are in constant contact, that door will never close. I had so much fun working within the Fantomas music and its something I’ll never ever want to close. I’m sure in the future because he did mention hey we need to work together again. We’re both busy with Faith No More and me with slayer and it’s been like that for a while, but i see it coming.”
This is great news for us dedicated Fantomas obsessees as things were looking a little dire there for a while!
Slayer are on the brink of an Australian tour, and for one special Sydney show will be performing Reign in Blood in it’s entirety.
Lombardo: No, but that door has never completely shut. Me and Mike will work together in the future, I believe, if schedules permit. He’s great, I love his music, all of the stuff that we’ve done.
There’s always a chance.Right now, I’m focusing on trying to find a band that I could share my production experience with. Going to the studio with them and working with them in the same way producers have worked with me. I want to take my knowledge and apply it to bands that are up and coming.”
Is Fantomas officially over? My impression was that Terry Bozzio was a fill in while Dave was busy working with Slayer and that a Lombardo filled Fantomas would eventually take centre stage again. But Lombardo not ruling out working with Patton again is a good sign. So what’s your opinion on this?
“Mike’s not even really begun on that. He has ideas but it’s not even close.”
On Crudo and Peeping Tom:
“There will also be a new Peeping Tom record, not this year though… Then him and Dan the Automator started working on a band called Crudo. The thing about Mike is that he always has five or six records at various stages, all at the same time and it’s hard to tell which one’s gonna get done first. And then other things happen in his life and everything is put on hold. He just did the score for Crank: High Voltage. That took up four or five months of his life this last year, and when things like that happen everything else stops until he finishes those projects.”
On the much anticipated italian pop covers album Mondo Cane:
“We got Mike’s big project that he’s been working on for a while, a little over a year, called Mondo Cane. He sings italian pop songs with a full orchestra. He taped a couple of the shows he did over there last year and then he’s been in the studio working on the tracks and adding some strings. It’s taking longer now with the FNM stuff going on, it’s gonna delay it a little. I hope that record comes out in November of this year, but maybe not.”
Hat tip and thanks to mindbait for the heads up and transcribing the interview snippets!
As it appears in the latest Drum (10th Feb issue):
“Fantomas nearly upstaged the main act with their renditions of ’70’s and ’80’s classic and cult movie theme songs, whilst dressed in white cricket uniforms, zinc smeared on cheeks. With a tight energy that took years of touring to hone, the band were amazingly precise on every note, especially drummer Dale Crover, whilst still giving frontman Mike Patton a chance to add his falsetto flairs and convulsing body movements to songs Der Golem and Cape Fear. They continued to play through through The Director’s Cut in random order, leaving the audience satisfied to the point where the main act could have been forgotten entirely.”
The rest is about Serj Tankian and his “band”. I’m not going to bother transcribing that as their show was less than average.
“First up, as promised, Fantomas delivered the whole kit and caboodle, the full length, original version with no editing, director’s cut of their album The Director’s Cut. The boys come on stage donned in white cricketers get-up. I don’t know why. Front man, Mike Patton, complete with white glove mitts comes on stage and promptly leaps into a perfectly executed theme to The Godfather.
Patton moves with the music, acting as conductor to the band, changing the tempo, melody and even style of the song with just a twinkle of the eye or an expert swish of his arms. With drummer Dave Lombardo (of Slayer fame) missing from the band tonight, you can tell that Patton is more than ever keeping it together. And he does it well. He reveals his excitement when a pace change goes to plan, and skillfully hides a mishap by ad-libbing.
Besides this, Fantomas deliver an almost flawless set. The Serj Tankian fans are in awe, and everyone wants more. A crowd favourite is the haunting song, Rosemary’s Baby, adapted from the film’s theme song. Patton’s voice is truly amazing. In this song, he makes the simple words ‘la la la la’ sound deadly and then innocent and then creepy and then vacant. His screamo voice is also nothing to contend with. Using his whole body, he thrusts the words forward into his highly movable microphone, like he’s possessed and needs to get it out. It is a great sight to see such a musician in action.
The boys finish with the second song on the album, Der Golem, a tune from the 1920s German silent horror film. The crowd is astounded, and the die-hard fans are relieved that this song wasn’t glazed over. One guy, who obviously knows the album from back to front, says to his friend, “I was worried for a moment. I thought they’d forgotten this one, but no, they just pulled it out right at the end’. What a relief.”
“And, over on the Essential Stage as the sun goes down, there’s Fantomas leader Mike Patton, a man who follows no rules (career, musical or otherwise) but his own.
And what is Mike Patton’s rule for the Big Day Out?
Concentrate, or you might end up with a can of fly spray directed at your ear.
“It doesn’t affect anything except your attitude,” says the amiably grumpy Patton about playing Fantomas’ album of film music, The Director’s Cut, in full in a festival setting.
If it wasn’t for the deliciously evil cackle he throws in, the guy could give Neil Young a shake in the curmudgeon stakes.
“I’m in a little bit more of a bad mood when I play these things,” he says, looking around the backstage area of the first BDO of the season in Auckland.
“It’s just not my scene. I’m not saying it’s worthless, but it’s less about music than a lot of other things.
“Let’s be honest, what we’re about to go and do is not music to pick up boys or girls on, or to get drunk with. It’s music you’ve gotta f—ing pay attention to, and if you don’t, it’s like having a mosquito in your ear for 45 minutes.
“I’m sure there’ll be a lot of people going ‘Whaaat?’ and running for the exits. But that makes you wanna do it even more.”
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