Seeing as it’s a Faith No More-fest in Australia at the moment, it seems like a good time to take a trip down memory lane and check out a Recovery interview with Mike Patton and Roddy Bottum when they were last in town, in 1997.
Thanks to mikepatton.cl
Bonus vid. Bungle Recovery interview in ‘96
Recently Isis frontman Aaron Turner was interviewed on the Governors Ball.
The interview is downloadable. Check it out: Part 1 & Part 2.
photo credit: toolfan.hess
I know this is a bit late, but now Puffy is jumping on the South American interview bandwagon!
Check out the original here and a fan’s english translation here
Excerpt:
“What drummers influenced your style of playing?
Musically, i haven’t been influenced by just one drummer, but i should mention some. Would be Bill Ward, because i listened a lot to Black Sabbath; the grandfather of rock drummers was John Bonham(Led Zeppelin): his shadow is so immense that you can’t escape him. I like also Matt Cameron(Pearl Jam) and Danny Carey(Tool), he’s a genius.
Aaron Turner from Isis recently conducted a very nice little interview with the Soundwave guys where Aaron opens up about everything from touring to his first concert experience (Slayer). Check it out………..
Also finally the Isis side show details have been announced! They will have a brief run down the east coast of Australia during the soundwave festival tour, visiting Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne:
Tix on sale tomorrow (20th November) at 9am. More info.
Thanks to fourth eye for the sidewave info
Those lucky South Americans. This one’s an interview with Roddy at elcomerco.com.pe:
Faith No More: “Concerts in South America have been milestones in our history”
“I think none of the members of the band ever thought that a reunion of Faith No More would be possible,” explains Roddy Bottum, founder and keyboardist of Faith No More, by phone from his home in San Francisco, California.
“We spent too much time together, more than 15 years. It is very difficult for a group of people to maintain harmony spending so much time together. It was also a very intense moment in the lives of all of us in the band. I think none of us should be closed as this episode of our lives. After we parted, I stopped talking for a long time with Billy (Gould), who was my childhood best friend, someone I grew up since age 9. We needed to set a distance from each other. But what no one imagined was that one day would reunite to play together. But when we did, when we returned to see the faces, the magnetism of the old days was maintained, and we think that the idea of gathering FNM was not so ludicrous. We’ve all matured a lot.”
The videos on Internet of the latest performances of the band show that you are sounding better than ever, how did you feel when you returned to play FNM songs on stage after so long?
It was terrifying. I do not know if it ever happened to you: to have the nightmare of going to college and discover that you have not studied it for a test. Something similar happened to me before the first concert of the tour: I dreamed that i was up on stage and did not remember how to play the songs by Faith No More. The truth is that we rehearsed a lot for these concerts. We were very prepared. I think Mike is singing even better than before. We have not played together for 11 years but have been involved in music, looking to improve on what we do.
How is that you quote in concerts hits as the pop of Lily Allen or Lady Gaga? In “Live at Brixton Academy, almost two decades ago, you did it with New Kids on the Block and Technotronic Is it improvised?
Yes, absolutely. When we started this new tour, again in Brixton, we played many songs, over two hours. Since then we try to better select the repertoire for each concert, for contrasts between the ages, but the references to popular themes emerge almost instantaneously on the phone from Mike (Patton). It’s not something that we plan in advance.
You have played in very specific places in your previous tours of South America, from Rock in Rio in Brazil until the Festival of Viña del Mar, Chile …
Many of our previous concerts in South America have been landmarks in the history of FNM. The first time we played Brazil we were all surprised at the magnitude of the Rock in Rio festival. We had no idea how many people would go to see us, the importance of this show was great, because we had a great time and it opened many doors, especially in Brazil. The people there are very friendly, always treated us very well. You are very crazy Latinos: until we visited South America for the second time, never before had we needed a bodyguard. And that concert in Vina del Mar was delusional: he knew nothing about anything until we left to play, we saw this very strange man dressed in suit and wonder “what the hell are we doing here?”. We felt trapped in a program like “Bailando por un sueño”
Let’s talk about Imperial Teen. The last album by the band ( “The Hair the TV the Baby and the Band”) came out in 2007 …
Well, Imperial Teen has maintained the same lineup of 90. Recently we got a disc for Merge Records, a major label They recently made their anniversary party for their 20 years, where we played, and told us it was time to work on a new album of the band. I’ve been working with Imperial Teen during breaks in the FNM tour.
Chuck Mosley, the former lead singer of FNM. Do you know what he thinks of this reunion tour?
I think he would have liked to be part of the reunion in some way. When we started, he was always a very important part of FNM. At one point we thought it would have been great for him to accompany us along with Jim Martin (another former member of FNM) in our first show in England. But neither of them could. Chuck, for example, had lost his passport and was unable to get a new one soon. But from the beginning we wanted to include everyone in this tour, but it did not work.
Mike Patton was recently interviewed in a Brazilian newspaper and spoke about the recent Faith No More tours. Thanks to Buga_Lady at MOTO we have a translation:
Rio de Janeiro, RJ – Tuesday, 13th October 2009
Segundo Caderno
Bernard Aerugo
On the 5th of November, 21h30m, at Citibank Hall, Rio de Janeiro rockers will be back together with an old love affair, which started on the 20th January 1991. Back in that time, there was a band fronted by a jumpy brat, and being pushed by two video clips of heavy rotation on a newly born MTV Brasil, which showed the crowd that they were a serious band with their mixture of rock and funk, and got a rare connection with the people who crowded Maracas stadium.
- I don’t know how many times I’ve been to Brazil, but it was less than ten – says the brat, singer Mike Patton from Faith no More, with 41 years old today. – And that’s too few.
After 11 years apart, FNM is back since February 2009, and their return to Brazil will be in November, in Porto Alegre, Sao Paulo and Belo Horizonte, besides Rio.
- I’m having a lot of fun with the shows – says Patton, through the phone, from his home in San Francisco, in the USA. – But South America is the part of the tour what I was waiting for since the beginning.
- Since the first time, in Rock in Rio, I had a lot of fun in your country. And Rio is more special then everything else, of course.
After so many years apart, the band, that achieved great success all over the world in the beginning of the 1990’s, did not maintain the same popularity in the following years with their CDs “King for a day, fool for a lifetime” (1995) and “Album of the year” (1997), in which they didn’t balance so well their experimental side with a pop flavor, and ended up extinct – not many people still thought there would be a Faith no More reunion.
- I was certain that would never happen – admits Patton. – I don’t know how many times, through the years, I said I would never be part of something like that, that it would be a step back. I always liked to give and end to things for good, in my personal life and professional, and go ahead. The idea of paying homage to our own music sounded selfish and horrible. Many times my manager came talking about an offer, and I wouldn’t let him finish the sentence.
He doesn’t know if the reunion never happened before only because of him.
- I would simply say “no”, I didn’t want to know, I had no idea if any of the others had ever said “yes”.
Until one day…
- There was an offer for some shows in Europe – recalls the singer.
- I thought it was a good moment and ended up agreeing. In the first rehearsal, I was late and I didn’t manage to enter the studio. I sat outside on the floor and listened to the band playing. The sound was very good, I felt I would be comfortable singing those songs again. And now we are here. We already played about 40 shows, and we are all happy.
The formation that brought FNM back is not the same from when they were at the top of their career, with successes like “Epic” and “Falling to pieces” (the two bizarre videoclips that MTV Brazil would play non-stop in 1990): the big-bearded guitarist Jim Martin, that was in the group until 1993, was not invited.
- We thought about inviting him, but we did two records without him, and that would be too many songs he would have to learn – tells Patton. – and there were also personal risks. For these reasons we have Jon Hudson, who is a good player and is great to deal with.
There are no news songs in the shows.
The show will certainly include successes like “From out of nowhere”, covers like the delicious “Easy”, from the Commodores, and B-sides like “Malpractice”. But do not expect new songs.
- We don’t have any new songs – says the singer. – The reason for this reunion is to remember our old songs, which we like so much, and try to entertain people with them. We have been lucky and there have been lots of people interested.
The tour, according to him, is more fun then hard work.
- We usually stay three weeks traveling and then go home to rest – he tells. – We are, in a way, getting to know each other again, learning how to deal with each other. Of course I have always been in touch with them, we are friends, but that sort of friend that you don’t talk to every day. So far, it has been great.
He says the reunion may not last forever.
- We are not Starbuck’s, that are in every corner – he jokes.
- If you want to see us, it is better go this time, because we don’t know if there will be another one, certainly not in another 10 years. So far we have shows booked until February, and maybe that will be it. The curious fact is that we didn’t have many offers to play in the USA.
So far, there are no plans for a new record.
- We haven’t discarded that completely, but we are not thinking about composing – says the singer.
- We don’t want to be like those bands that stay years apart, then return and release a horrible record.
That way, is it possible that Patton, in 2010, go back to projects like Fantômas, an experimental rock full of noise that played in Brazil in 2005 at a festival.
- It is always fun to go there, but that time it was weird – he remembers. – I remember we went to a van to go sound check and I joked with the promoter saying I wanted to go to a barbecue place. When we passed near one, I think in Barra, she told the driver to stop.
We left the van, ordered caipirinhas and had a great meal. When, hours later, I asked if we weren’t too late for the sound check , she said that we weren’t because the festival was running even later.
Besides playing in Fantômas, he owns a Record label, Ipecac Records, and has various other projects, like Mr. Bungle (another bizarre band, in which he sings since before FNM) and Peeping Tom.
- I’m finishing recording for a project called Mondo Cane – he says. – They are covers from classic-rock Italian tunes, a gender that I got to know when I lived in Italy.
Mike, who listens from Marcos Valle and João Gilberto to Sepultura and Ratos de Porão, intends to see some old friends in Brazil.
- I don’t see João Gordo (“gordo” means “fat” in Portuguese) in many years, how is he? I heard he became some kind of star, he is on MTV, is that true? Did he operate his stomach? Then, he turned into João “Flaco” (“flaco” means “thin” in Spanish)…
The latest issue of Rock-a-rolla magazine has a new interview with Trevor Dunn talking to him about his latest band Madlove. They posted a snippet of the article on their home page which paints a rather dire picture regarding any hopes of a Bungle reunion ever happening:
“Faith No More have done it, but those expecting a Mr. Bungle reunion shouldn’t hold their breath – unless, of course, they can hold it for a really, really long time. “I don’t think it’s gonna happen unfortunately” bassist Trevor Dunn told Rock-A-Rolla. “I mean, I say unfortunately on behalf of people who want it to happen – I actually don’t want it to happen.” Dunn, who recently released the debut album with his brand new band MadLove, talked to us about his current projects and the joys of playing “traditional rock music”. Check out the full interview in the latest issue of Rock-A-Rolla Magazine, out now.”
Although Trevor does not seem interested in a Bungle reunion, Bar and Danny have both expressed interest in working with the bungle guys again one day, so anything is possible.
Check out the latest issue of rock-a-rolla for the whole article plus interviews with Jello Biafra and Chuck Mosley.
Nice new interview/article with Chuck Mosley over at metalinsider where he discusses things like his collaboration with Roddy Bottum, how he hooked up with Jonathon Davies and how he was invited to play with Faith No More prior to the breakup.
http://www.metalinsider.net/interviews/chuck-mosley-still-cares-a-lot
Just came across a new Duane Denison interview where he talks about The Jesus Lizard reforming. Check it out:
Nashville Scene Duane Denison Interview
