Billy Gould Says Mike Patton and Roddy Bottum Were Resistant to Making a New Faith No More Album
I’m now convinced that reunion albums are a great idea, the possibility of a band ruining their legacy be damned — but, as is so often the case, not everyone agrees with me. Like Faith No More’s Mike Patton (vocals) and Roddy Bottum (keyboards).
In a new interview with Revolver, FNM bassist Billy Gould — who is also producing the band’s first album in nearly twenty years — reveals that Patton and Bottum were hesitant to make a new record. While he, drummer Mike Bordin, and guitarist Jon Hudson began working on the album in early 2012, Patton and Bottum didn’t get involved until much later. Says Gould:
“There was a weird caginess they had where they didn’t want to just jump in the ring. I started to think we were just doing this for ourselves. Then little by little, they warmed up to it and decided to contribute more.”
The bassist/producer continued:
“He would never let the conversation go there. It was very frustrating. I’d play him a song and say, ‘We’re working on this,’ and he’d say, ‘That sounds fantastic,’ and leave it at that. It was very hard to understand what was going on and if he was going to do it with us.”
Apparently, it was the new song “Matador” — Gould’s self-professed favorite cut on the new album — that eventually brought Patton around.
And thank Christ that it did! It’s hard to imagine anyone caring about a FNM reunion album without Bottum and, especially, Patton. I mean, all due respect, but having Jon Hudson onboard barely even counts, given that he wasn’t a part of the line-up most fans consider to be the definitive one. And I guess they could have recruited Chuck Mosley, but… it would have been disappointing, to put it mildly.
So now that it’s happening for really real, what will the new Faith No More album be like? Gould cites The Cramps, Siouxsie and the Banshees, Link Wray, and “a little black metal” (!) as influences, adding:
“It’ll be much different than everything else out there—but that’s sort of the point. It’s a combination of what we don’t hear in the outside world and what we feel is lacking from other bands. And in the end, it will sound like Faith No More.”
Sounds great to me!
Faith No More’s new single, “Motherfucker,” will be released on vinyl as part of Record Store Day’s Black Friday event on November 28. A digital single will follow on December 9. The band’s new album should be out sometime in 2015! While we wait patiently, here’s “Matador”:
[via The PRP]
