Mike Patton interview
Words: David McNamee
He's been known to shit in hotel hair dryers, munch on the used tampons of female rock stars, and on one memorable onstage occasion, he removed his shoe, urinated into it, raised it to his lips and happily drank away. All from a man who claims never to have consumed alcohol or done drugs, one who, despite a high profile in Sassy magazine, widely extolled the virtues of pornography as an alternative to sleeping with a woman he didn't love. Mike Patton, former frontman of genre bending alt rock icons Faith No More, current frontman of the malevolent and erratic rock extremists Tomahawk, even once stated he had more in common with a bum, or homeless person, then he did a rock singer. Mentalist.
Despite an initial yearning to become a weatherman - he made tapes of his own weather reports and give them to friends and family - Patton formed his first group, Mr Bungle, while still at school in the Californian nowhere-town of Eureeka. Taking their name from a Pee Wee Herman children's educational film regarding bad toilet habits, Mr Bungle were the sound of America's late 80s suburban youth: bored, hyperactive and listening to far too much death metal. After an early demo tape, "The Raging Wrath Of The Easter Bunny", mistakenly fell into the hands of Faith No More's infamous metalhead guitarist Big Jim Martin, Patton was called in to audition as a replacement for the San Francisco band's recently departed maverick frontman Chuck Mosley. Despite never having "sung" before, other than imitating the shrieks and growls of adolescent heroes like Turd and GG Allin, the band were sufficiently impressed with Patton's ability to flit unthinkingly from pop melodies to cheesy rap breaks to heavy metal slaughterhouse, and the teen was quickly drafted in to work on Faith No More's third album.
Despite an uncomfortable start - Patton claimed to have joined the struggling group only to secure major label backing for Mr Bungle, and the rest of the band initially seemed to despise him - their 1989 album, "The Real Thing", went multi-platinum on the back of rap-metal crossover hit Epic. An eponymous Mr Bungle LP followed in 1991. Produced by John Zorn it featured a bizarre, almost random, mash of styles from jazz funk ska to lounge death metal operetta. Keeping the two groups functioning side by side, Patton, despite a hazardous and long running feud with Jim Martin, went on to record a further three albums with Faith No More before dissolving the group in 1997.
Since then, he has worked with everyone from crooners like Burt Bacharach and Serge Gainsbourg to Japanese noise artists Merzbow and Melt Banana. His first solo album "Adult Themes For Voice" was recorded in hotel rooms while touring the world with FNM. A "spoken word" project, the album was notably Patton-esque in that it contained no actual words to speak of. An FT Marinetti-inspired sequel, "Prazo Oltranzista", supposedly was to be a "classical" concept album, although any actual "musical" content seemed purely accidental.
After founding the Ipecac record label to "… Put out music that we like and to treat artists fairly. We don't have much of agenda. We just put out stuff that we think is unique" (current signings include the laptop-melting Kid 606 and off-the-wall Japanese trio Ex-Girl), Fantômas, Patton's most high-profile project since Faith No More, issued their debut in 1999. An avant-garde supergroup featuring former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo, The Melvins' Buzz Osbourne and Mr Bungle's Trevor Dunn, "Fantômas" was initially conceived as a sort of soundtrack to a fictional comic book. Last year's "The Director's Cut" album meanwhile took established movie themes, from "Twin Peaks" to "Rosemary's Baby", and reinterpreted the works in a deconstructed rock format. Their theme from "The Godfather", for example, featured manic drumming and speed-freak guitar with Patton screaming 'The Godfather!! The Godfather!! Woo-ha!!", over the top of the whole bloody mess. Mentalist.
Aided by The Jesus Lizard's Duane Denison, Patton was assumed to be making a return to a more conventional rock sound. However, just around the corner was "Nathaniel Merriweather Presents Lovage: Songs To Make Love To Your Old Lady By", a bizarre and damn dirty piece of love-shacked-up ribald hip-hop helmed by Dan The Automator and featuring an exotic range of musicians from US twee-lovers Elysium Fields to ubiquitous mockney Gorilla Damon Albarn.
Another eight or so side-projects are already in the pipeline, including acting roles, new band Peeping Tom and another supergroup featuring members of Massive Attack and The Young Gods. Another Mr Bungle album will "probably" occur at some stage, although he tells me that, despite the renewed interest in Faith No More, there is no chance of reunion: "We have been offered that and no I would NEVER do it."
God only knows what Mike Patton will do next, although considering an Internet search on his name revealed the adjectives: irreverent, raucous, rambunctious, outrageous, complex, freewheeling, boisterous, nihilistic, malevolent, rowdy, reckless, aggressive, quirky and volatile, be certain that it is sure to mess with your head.
After so many obscure, avant garde albums, do you
miss anything about the teen idol status you had in your early days with
Faith No More, and were albums like "Adult Themes For Voice" and Maldoror's
"She" (recorded with Merzbow) an attempt to sabotage your image as alternative
rock icon?
Teen idol status? I missed that. I don't consider the music I do as obscure.
It might not be what is considered mainstream. Things are going great!!!
I make the music that I enjoy and feel like making. If people like it,
great, but I am not trying to prove anything or attain any status. I really
don't think I have ever been considered an alternative rock icon.
It is rumoured that some of your new projects are
of a more mainstream, accessible nature. A Peeping Tom demo, currently
doing the rounds on Napster, is reminiscent of prime FNM or Bungle. Are
you ready to compete again?
hrist! What is it with this competition thing? IT'S MUSIC!!!! ART!!!!
It ain't sports. I don't do market research. Also, there is no such thing
as a Peeping Tom demo. Dan and I have not recorded a note. What you heard
is a bunch of songs that were put together for various projects I was
working on a couple years ago by a producer I decided not to use. They
are not real lyrics or songs. I enjoy many types of music and I enjoy
being in different bands. It keeps it interesting for me. I always have
ideas in my head, all types of music. When you are on the road a lot you
have a lot of time to form ideas. Everything inspires me.
Do you ever worry that some of your more leftfield
and unexpected albums may be interpreted as ironic rock gestures, or being
willfully obtuse? Or was this your intention all along?
You are really stuck on this, huh? I don't care how you interpret my music.
That is the beauty of art. Ironic rock? Is that the new genre? I don't
have a role. I make music to feed my family. Look, whenever I record,
I hope millions of people buy it and enjoy it, but that does not always
happen. Oh well. I make music, because that is what I do for a living.
I ain't a millionaire. In case you still don't get it, it is not about
stardom for me. I'm always up for a challenge if it interests me.
How comfortable are you with your past?
I'm very comfortable and proud of my past.
If you had to erase one song, album or moment from
your career, what would it be and why?
I wouldn't do it.
What are your thoughts on the forthcoming FNM tribute
album and how do you feel about the bands status as progenitors to the
nu-metal scene?
et sleeping dogs lie. Don't blame us for nu-metal.
A lot of your recent music, Fantômas especially,
seems like a unique attempt at articulating non-musical pop culture forms
in a musical way, and it would seem that things like comic books, films
and porn are as much influences on your work as music. Discuss.
Porn? Like I said, everything inspires me. Food is a huge inspiration!
Finally: a major label exec puts a gun to your head and forces you to
make a record with either Jim Martin or Fred Durst. What happens?
Stay tuned. There was no gun involved but Fred and I have something cooking
for you.