Friend of the site Lusty has snagged the only US media Faith No More interview for Consequence of Sound. Her wide-ranging interview with Bill Gould was published earlier today.
Here are a few salient extracts:
On performing again:
““I personally can’t see us not doing anymore shows again, I just don’t see it. There’s no point in not to do it. Why quit now? I think it’s just this tour…we did this tour and that’s what we decided to do. And we did it. We accomplished this goal, it worked out for all of us, and then we look at each other and say, ‘hey what do you want to do now?’ And I think that’s how it’s got to be.”
On a new album:
“Everything is great for doing it and if we did it, it’s going to be great. It’s going to be because this is the best energy ever. And people have done a lot of other things since then that could bring a lot more to it than before. But that’s my take on it. I’ve got to let it go with that because if it’s meant to be, it’s meant to happen.”
The new FNM album is just matter of time.
I must admit Lusty……that was a great interview. I still hate you though. 😉
Im looking forward to his solo records! “abstract record, a more noise-ish record, that I’m going to put out in February or March. I think it’s going to be called The Talking Book…I worked on another instrumental record with a guy, an Englishman called Charles Hayward who was with a band called This Heat, a seminal post-punk band in the late 70’s, and this guy who is in Dälek [a band on Patton’s Ipecac label]”
sounds awesome to me…
iiti, I think you probably got it.
I think Roddy finally coming out also rubbed Jim the wrong way, so to speak…
On the Jim issue…
Having Angel Dust as my first and favorite album of FNM, for me the departure of Jim was kind of hard to deal with. I loved the sound he made, I loved his “solo pieces” (“Jim”, “The grade” as mentioned before), I liked his look, and also liked his humor (like “…there’s even artwork on the wall” from the Tour Bus video…).
Bill just described the relation of Jim and the band in this recent interview, probably better than ever. Jim always said in interviews, he would like to do more heavier, guitar based music (even about Angel Dust he said it’s too “light”, most of his riffs were taken out by rest of the band – remember the Q&A video? “too much guitar…”).
Jim just reached a certain point in his life, back in the early 1990’s, when he had major success with The Real Thing, he played in front of thousands of people in huge stadiums, he become part of the “big music business” that he always wanted to become, probably since he started to play guitar as a kid. He was probably waiting for a “heavy metal star” kind of lifestyle, with huge guitar solos, stadiums, groupies, MTV-interviews and so on… It must have been kind of hard for him (as a persona) to learn his dreams are the last things the rest of the band would like to do. He disagreed on the direction that Angel Dust and the band itself took, but was just on top of his FNM career so he was part of the production of the album and the tour that followed it until 1993.
Playing music what you don’t like, what you are bored of is something terrible for a musician (I play guitar, and just HATE to play some old shit that people still ask me to play and sing), for the audience, but mostly to his bandmates. Imagine, you’re concentrating to put on a 100% quality show every night, then someone in the band is just burning on 20-30% level… Jim was not part of the band’s jokes (see the Poland video, where 4 members doing some push ups in shiny robes – damn, even Puffy, imagine an injury…), it was more than obvious they’ll fire him sooner or later.
For the fans, their problems was not that visible – that’s why it was quite hard to deal with FNM without Jim. For him? It must have been hell. He worked for a career, then suddenly “everything’s ruined”. He couldn’t easily recover from it, had some plans about a new band, but he was a great cogwheel in an engine, not an engine himself (my personal opinion about his solo work, that it’s crap, even though it has great moments and ideas – again, what a “The grade-like” song at the end, “Hunter shepherd”, not enough to stand alone…)
He did a few years playing in other bands (e.g. Fang), then… he made the greatest decision of his life: quit music business. Remember guys, the others doing the reunion, they all practiced music without a break (even Chuck). For Jim, it was a complete change of lifestyle. Besides, he became a family man, having kids, believe me, changes your ideas on values of life.
Then he got a message from his old band, old lifestile, for a one-night comeback. I bet he had hard thoughts during those few days while considering this. I’m sorry for it, but I just can’t blame him for that “big NO”. For him, probably it was a very hard fight to get over the fact that FNM didn’t break up after his departure (remember his words in the FNM book “as you know, Faith No More is no more” – it seems he really thought the others can’t keep the band together). For a night, he could feel “that feeling” again, then he’d leave it forever… maybe he just didn’t want to risk that fight in him to start again.
To me, his “NO” is like the one John Deacon of Queen announced after Freddie Mercury died. And “NO” means “NO”, as straight as it is – we all must accept that…
Chris T – there’s a lot more to it than written, but basically what Bill said says it all “Jim was all business and sometimes business isn’t the point” – the band did not think that way, and therefore, it didn’t work. Still different levels of thinking, despite 16 odd years later.
Oops, didn’t mean to post that twice. I realized I had spelled Jon’s name wrong in the first post and tried to fix it before the original one posted.
“I know a lot of people on this board don’t care about Jim, dismissing him as overrated and only popular because of his glasses. I think he was very talented. Hearing that Jim was invited to play that show makes me crazy.”
I totally agree JDub. I think a lot of the time Jim gets dismissed as being the “metal guy” by a lot of Faith No More fans, but he always did some out of the box stuff, whether it was instrumentals like “Jim” and “The Grade” or interesting riffs like he did on “Jizzlobber.” He’ll always be my favorite Faith No More guitarist and he just had a sound that was very recognizable.
So with that said, it makes it really frustrating to find out he had the offer to play with Faith No More in San Francisco and didn’t. I honestly don’t know why he would pass up on such an opportunity unless he just has a bunch of ill will towards them or something. The only thing that could have made the “Introduce Yourself” moment with Mike and Chuck even better is if Jon and Jim were playing together.
“I know a lot of people on this board don’t care about Jim, dismissing him as overrated and only popular because of his glasses. I think he was very talented. Hearing that Jim was invited to play that show makes me crazy.”
I totally agree JDub. I think a lot of the time Jim gets dismissed as being the “metal guy” by a lot of Faith No More fans, but he always did some out of the box stuff, whether it was instrumentals like “Jim” and “The Grade” or interesting riffs like he did on “Jizzlobber.” He’ll always be my favorite Faith No More guitarist and he just had a sound that was very recognizable.
So with that said, it makes it really frustrating to find out he had the offer to play with Faith No More in San Francisco and didn’t. I honestly don’t know why he would pass up on such an opportunity unless he just has a bunch of ill will towards them or something. The only thing that could have made the “Introduce Yourself” moment with Mike and Chuck even better is if John and Jim were playing together.
Billy usually gets eclipsed by people talking about how big of a genius mike patton is, but true fans know who is who. Billy deserves lot of credit for having fnm being what it is. To me, clearly the biggest mind in the band.
@Mike, when you said “considering how much bitching Jim was doing when the reunion was first announced”, were you talking about that @BigJimMartin Twitter account?
It’s fake, for sure.
Interesting that they reached out to Jim just like they did Chuck and that Jim shot them down, especially considering how much bitching Jim was doing when the reunion was first announced.
Jim also looks drastically different these days, that big hair guy from the early 90s is gone, baby, gone.
@Lusty great interview, thanks for posting. I just love Billy 🙂
I didn’t manage to go because I was already up in Castle Donnington ready for Download last year and missed the Brixton comeback concert on June 10th 2009 and unto this day I wish I had been there, because EVERYONEI know who was there has said that it was the best they’d seen on this reunion as it was the first show they had performed together since they split in 1998.
I was at the Download festival and I have to say that was pretty damn emmotional and amazing. I almost cried as soon as Mike walked onstage. It was something we never thought we’d see ever again and the last time I’d seen Faith No More before then was at Brixton Academy in November 1997.
The Santiago show will be the 15th time I’ve seen Faith No More since 1995, 15 shows in 15 years sounds good, but this time I will be convinced that it may not be the very last… I HOPE.
@ti mort: This one =)))… i was half joking, because of course it is great and revealing and cheering))) i just meant it’s a pity to quit when the energies and the potential are so high. and again lots of contradictions
@ JoJo I agree 100%….Forestglade in Austria was amazing… best of the 7 festivals I got to go to in Europe this year.. wish I did Finland but you can’t have everything.. LA will be awesome and I am with Lusty on this one.. Santiago will be emotional but no doubt fricken amazing! Can’t wait 🙂
Firsa – yeah, it was pretty cool. Well, at least we’ll know the LA shows + Chile will be pretty charged. I can only imagine how emotional Santiago will be!
Hey Firsa, were you there in Austria? I was. It was mental.
True, but there’s also that emotional charge of thinking it would be their last show that might bolster one’s opinion… Although I gotta say “The Real Thing” at that show was some pretty heavy stuff. Wish I was there to see that 🙁
Firsa – I disagree. I wasn’t there for the performances beforehand but I thought the “finale” in Finland was amazing, emotional and something special.
@David ~ I’m saying that their Brooklyn shows and the Optimus Alive Festival show were soooooo *amazingly* good as far as singing and playing goes, they seemed to have hit a peak there and then started a very gradual downhill slide with their subsequent performances.
It’s a perfectly natural thing ~ it’s not like I’m saying they should hang it up, not at all… it just seemed like they were starting to get a little too used to things after those shows, even with the crazy stage antics they were throwing in. Just my opinion, please be gentle 🙂
In retrospect, though, I realize I have to weigh in other factors like coverage; and the film footage of Optimus was excellent, which really made it shine to me.
Personally, having met him several times, I think Bill is the most honest member of Faith No More and I agree with what he’s said. What he’s said in the interview is straight to the point.
Okay, people were hoping for a new album, but the greatest hits package in any performance is quite enough to enjoy. I don’t care about another Faith No More album, I just love to hear and see the old hits being performed.
This reunion has been an even bigger success than the band had ever expected. Give it a year or two after Mike Patton has brought out new Tomahawk and Fantomas records and toured with them and he’ll make time for FNM to be back for The Third Coming…
Making the odd festival appearances and a headline shows now and then with plenty of breaks in between for the members to get on with their other projects has worked very well.
Never say never again…
so, how did they “jump the shark” at optimus and brooklyn?
Very nice review. It gives me a little hope for the future. Great work Lusty.
Thanks guys! Your support means a lot – I’m glad you guys liked it 🙂
Ti Mort – yeah, I honestly don’t know anymore than what I put in the interview. Wish I did!
Great article Lusty…Thanks!
Great Interview!
Totally made my day 🙂 I love all of the recent FNM updates we’ve been getting. This is such a great site. After the Chile show I feel like we wont hear much for a very long time so to see an interview with Bill like this is great, it gives us hope!
Thanks Lusty!
Awesome job Lusty!! Really great interview.
Great interview.
I love Bill’s optimism and outlook.
Great Interview! Surprised to hear that Bill was one of the ones dragging his feet about the reunion thing. I always felt like he was the main guy pushing FNM. In regards to the giant elephant in the room seems Bill is on board YES!
I was one of the lucky fans to be at the SF show with Chuck… I heard a lot of “Best Faith no more show ever” and while I had a great time, i thought to myself the best faith no more show had to be from the angel dust era with jim martin. I know a lot of people on this board don’t care about Jim, dismissing him as overrated and only popular because of his glasses. I think he was very talented. Hearing that Jim was invited to play that show makes me crazy. Jim shit on his band mates for years, now he has shit on something that would have been really cool for his fans. I wonder one thing, Jim, during the Bill and Ted shoot when you say your famous line “What a shit head” Were you looking in a mirror?
First – YULIA – what article did you read…that was the most uplifting FNM news I’ve heard in a while
LUSTY – Dazzling interview…thank you so much…I still think you know more than you let on…but that’s o.k. – I am done trying to prophesize what will happen next with the fab 5 from S.F. – they lie..simple as that…it isn’t over new album in 2012 or sooner.
This interview made me think of two things I’ve changed my mind about over the past few months of following this band:
I thought maybe I wouldn’t want to hear a new album from them, even if they had the songs written and were all gung-ho about it. They need to be careful. But I think most of it has to do with motivation… And these guys are freaks; they are operating on a different plane than most other musicians. They are certainly not doing this for just the money, or a midlife crisis, or some other lame reason. And Bill seems to have both feet on the ground. If it feels right to him, they should go for it!
… However. It pains me greatly to say this; but as far as their live tour goes, I think it really gained momentum during the Oz tour, and then coasted along in epic awesomeness… until it inevitably jumped the shark at around the Brooklyn or Optimus shows.
But these breaks in between can really be regenerative and I can see the spark coming back again. Maybe if they mixed things up a bit: setlist, suits, whatever works and keep these couple month breaks every once in a while, they could go on forever 🙂 Long live FNM!
awesome interview!!! great info there!!!
much love and respect to Bill Gould. I play bass because of him and I if i didnt play bass i’d probably be somewhere else not doing so good.
also see how just a little but contradicting they can be??? in the fan video interview its asks about the set list and Angel Dust songs, this interview he says they will do some more Angel Dust songs on the set list…
Contradiction plays a part FNM’s music I believe. just as it is in the bands whole psychology and personality. think about it. they can say one thing then another the next.
Crack Hitler! Would love to hear that sometime.
those two quotes only can tear fan’s heart) they could do it but they quit… could they just think twice?)))
Great interview! I think I got more out of that than the recent one that was posted here a few days ago.
And as a big Jim Martin fan, it really disappoints me to hear that they tried to get him for the San Francisco show but he wouldn’t do it. To see him onstage with Chuck and the rest of the guys, even for one night, would have been really memorable.
Hmmmmm……