Faith No More
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Faith No More

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It’s not much of a stretch to assume you’re already familiar with Faith No More. One of the biggest sounds of the ‘90s, when they disbanded 11 years ago – retreating into a dormant volcano in Missouri to practice the Dark Arts, or so it is said – their global fanbase was devastated. Individually, the band 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, the band had tentacles everywhere. Yet stepping back into the studio, it was a return to basics that shaped the core of new 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 makes a lot of records that are mostly for people who don’t speak English, these worldly kinds 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. When the band finally settled on a lasting name by replacing ‘Man’ with ‘More’, 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,” Bottum says wistfully. “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, 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 reception to the band returning after such a hiatus has been batshit crazy. Those who grew up craving each new album release are now mostly saddled with real world responsibilities. But Faith No More brings them back in droves, and what’s most satisfying for Bottum is witnessing the influx of new fans; people for who the band are nothing but a YouTube memory.

“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… It’s a neat place to be, and feels very comfortable for us as artists.” But, he adds, one thing he really hates is people with their 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.

“We ask people in the audience [if they have] 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.”

BY ADAM NORRIS