Mike Patton and Bill Gould have opened up on the making of Faith No More comeback record Sol Invictus in another excellent interview in an Australian magazine. This time, the duo were interviewed by Heavy magazine – and again laid bare their perfectionism in the recording process.
The band once more appeared on the cover; Faith No More and their kittens have now been on more magazine covers in 2015 than Kim Kardashian and her puppies.
Back to Bill and the Bay. The article states:
“At some point, one has to wonder what would have happened if the band never reached that point of satisfaction? Maybe they would have scrapped Sol Invictus for good.
“I’ve thought about it; I could get the hard-drive, just go into my computer and throw it off the bridge into the bay,” Gould says with a certain boldness. “I could probably do it and be happy with that choice, actually.””
Mike also makes an interesting observation on reconnecting with the band:
“I didn’t even really think about it like that. To me, it was just a new set of music. I thought about it not as going back to my old band but as a new thing, a new project, a new adventure.”
And Bill also revealed how working on the new album started:
“It was more like “Let’s just starting f**king around and, if it’s good, maybe we’ll record it later.””
One final tit-bit from Mike P:
“I didn’t think [there would be new music] then I heard this stuff,” Patton says, adding. “I’ll be honest, man. When I heard what he had written, I thought maybe it’s not Faith No More at all. Maybe it’s something else.”
Ahhhh… my apologies, then! Hard to gauge the tone of text sometimes, as we all well know. I’ve not been reading every interview/article, actually, so I should get up to speed with that. Cheers.
(crawls back into cave)
absolutely no need to clarify yourself, man. didn’t mean to come off overly defensive. just like to work out my ideas/perception with other FNM fans. these recent interviews have been eyeopening. we’re all in this together, for sure.
Not quite sure why you’ve jumped on the defensive a bit there, mate. I wasn’t criticizing what you said at all – or actually making any comment about the band’s subsequent involvement – I was merely reiterating that Patton has said he initially heard the music without explicitly knowing what Gould wanted to do with it. “Maybe it’s something else,” meaning Bill could have intended it for another personal project, for all Patton knew.
I just found that point interesting. Let’s all be friends, eh?
Carlton,
As I mentioned- this isn’t the first time we’re reading/hearing that Billy wrote a bunch of songs for the rest of FNM to hear. I can’t dig all those interviews up, but here’s an excerpt from a more recent interview with Patton (found on this site):
“Q: You did not participate in composing the tracks, you were content to sing and write some lyrics?
MP: When Billy made me listen to the tracks, they were already well advanced, well structured, but all the same we all worked together on them later. I did not say that I was less involved in the creative process this time but that I approached it from a different angle as I wasn’t present from the start. Suddenly I arrived with a fresh ear. I remember that when we had mixed the album I heard things that the others could not hear as they had been working on it for a longer time. I brought an other perspective.”
So, at least for MP, the songs “were already well advanced, well structured.” He goes on to say ” I did not say that I was less involved in the creative process this time but that I approached it from a different angle as I wasn’t present from the start.”
We know that Roddy wrote Motherfucker. That said, we also learned from a recent interview with Puffy that Billy brought material to him in order to lay the foundation down:
Puffy: “the process a lot of the time starts with bass and drums, because you’re building the cake and after that a lot of things happen to the cake but you’ve got to build the damn thing first.”
“He (Bill) knew what we were talking about, he knew not only as the engineer – he had that hat on – but also as the guy in the band writing songs..”
He specifically points to Billy as “the guy” in the band writing the songs.
Again, I was pointing out that he spearheaded the album. I’m not stating that the rest of FNM wasn’t involved in equally contributing to the songs/creative process.
““When I heard what he (Billy) had written, I thought maybe it’s not Faith No More at all. Maybe it’s something else.””
stumplespill, Gould apparently did play Patton some new stuff without at first specifying it was (possibly) going to be FNM music. I think that’s all Mike means here; he didn’t know who it was intended for or what Gould’s plans were, but he definitely liked what he was hearing.
Wow. Very insightful. We’ve always sensed hat Billy is the backbone, & now we’re again hearing that ” he (Billy) had written” music for the other band mates to hear.
Patton goes on to say, “When I heard what he (Billy) had written, I thought maybe it’s not Faith No More at all. Maybe it’s something else.” That statement in itself may seem ominous, but keeping in mind the overall context of recent interviews- it’s most likely extreme praise. Probably why the band was excited with what Billy brought to them. Thank sweet baby spaghetti he didn’t dump it in the bay!