If we’re lucky, our lives will be studded by encounters with those folk somewhat left of centre. The strange people, the useless heroes and Raoul Duke aspirants who churn through your days like a dervish and leave madness in their wake. Sometimes, these people form bands.
It’s not much of a stretch to assume you’re already familiar with Faith No More. Responsible for one of the biggest sounds of the ’90s, when they disbanded 11 years ago – retreating into a dormant volcano in Missouri to practise the Dark Arts, or so it is said – their global fan base was devastated. Individually, the band members began following their own beguiling pursuits: Mike Patton continued Mr. Bungle and myriad other ventures, Mike Bordin joined Ozzy Osbourne, Roddy Bottum toured Imperial Teen and so on. When the reformation began back in 2009, Faith No More had tentacles everywhere. Yet upon stepping back into the studio, it was a return to basics that shaped the core of upcoming album Sol Invictus.
“We had to,” Bottum explains. “We made the record alone in a room, behind closed doors, so to speak. Our inspiration was really just ourselves and what we are as a band, what our roots are. What we’ve all been doing the past ten years, that comes into what we’re doing now as individuals, sure. But mostly we addressed us as a band, our core sound. That was the place of our inspiration. But in that there are these crazy personalities, these very distinct people. We all have some pretty crazy ways. Mike Patton’s solo stuff over the last ten years or so is wack-a-doodle crazy, this over-the-top, boundary-pushing, weird collage stuff. Billy [Gould] makes a lot of records that are mostly for people who don’t speak English, these worldly kind of records. All of us keep trying to push things in different areas. I live in New York and I’m writing an opera about Sasquatch. What I like most about here is that people take culture, specifically really strange culture, very seriously. And that’s super inspirational for me – I love being in a place where people applaud avant-garde, and I would like to think I bring a little bit of that to what we’re doing. It doesn’t hurt that it also sounds really good on the record, too,” he laughs.
Bottum was once in a group called Faith No Man, which will only sound unfamiliar to those reading this article with no eyes. When the band members finally settled on a lasting name, they cobbled together enough money to cut an EP without any label influence, striking out on their own with limited technologies and resources. The music industry has changed dramatically since then, but for Sol Invictus, reclaiming that youthful core was vital.
“The way we used to make records was necessarily and unequivocally in a room together making music. Those times have changed for sure,” says Bottum, and it would be a lie to say he doesn’t sound a little wistful. “It’s super convenient to make a record these days, but at the same time we chose to go the analogue route. All of the pianos you hear on the record are real pianos done from our studio. So it did take all of us being there in the same room, but not always at the same time. It’s a convenient age in which we live; it’s easy to get certain stuff done. More in terms of different electronic sounds, or finding different realms of music. But for a band like Faith No More, I feel like we’ve pretty much stuck to the roots. Making music in the band, well, we’re all really good friends and we respect each other, and we’re all going for a common goal. Stuck there in a room in Oakland.”
The response to the band returning after such a hiatus has been, in polite terms, batshit crazy. Those fans who grew up craving each new album release are now mostly saddled with Real World Responsibilities. But Faith No More bring them back in droves, and what is most satisfying for Bottum is witnessing the influx of new fans; people for whom the band is nothing but a YouTube memory.
“Part of the success now is that a lot of younger people are only now seeing this band that they’ve only ever heard about. The expectation from those people who hadn’t seen us before is really exciting. I think we have a reputation for some element of surprise. Doing things that are unexpected. It’s a neat place to be, and feels very comfortable for us as artists. One thing I really oppose is seeing all these camera phones in the air. That is really sad and cheap to me. But I’m actually seeing less and less of it now. I think it’s waning a little bit – people are starting to realise that that experience of music, the YouTube video or camera-held footage, just isn’t all that great.
“You know, we ask people in the audience have they seen us before. Not that many have, and that’s really, really cool. We have this kind of legacy that people respect and want to explore. Whether it was because they’d heard bootlegs or seen videos, whatever the reason, it’s all good. To be a thing that people want to take time out to see is an amazing feeling.”
Faith No More are appearing at Soundwave XV,Saturday February 28 and Sunday March 1at Olympic Park.Sol Invictus out Friday May 15 through Reclamation/Ipecac/[PIAS].
