 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
|
 |
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
 |
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||
|
|
|
||||||||
|
|
|||||||||
 |
|
|
 merican Idol? I don't think so. Mike Patton may have a golden voice, but he's not gonna be using it to woo Simon Cowell anytime soon. Patton, the former frontman of MTV-friendly bands Faith No More and Mr. Bungle, is trying to put his pop-star status behind him, moving further into the realm of the avant garde. It seems to be working. Patton continues to get more radical and experimental with each new project — forming the groups Fantomas and Tomahawk, and collaborating with everyone from Handsome Boy Modeling School to Bjork.This constant shape-shifting has caused Patton to become increasingly ostracized from the commercial music industry. So in 1999, he started his own record company, Ipecac. The label has proved to be one of the most innovative and progressive sources of contemporary music. Its releases transcend any one genre — yet they are all singularly intricate and provocative. As for Patton himself, his postmodern compositions are at once visceral, playful, cinematic, and at times surprisingly moving. Such is the case with Patton's newest release, a collaboration with Norwegian musician Kaada, titled Romances. But despite the obvious depth of his work, he's still not getting any play — on the radio, or, apparently, with the ladies. Below, we find out why. — Nic Sheff Mike Patton, where you at? Right now? San Francisco. This is home. I'd think you'd have a spot in Manhattan. I've toyed with the idea. But I grew up here and it's really peaceful and everything. I did have a place in Italy for a while. How do you say Mr. Bungle in Italian? I don't know, man. Signore Bungle? Something like that. So, I saw you play a show at Irving Plaza with Tomahawk two years ago and I was surprised by how phallic the microphone became in relation to your mouth. You practically swallowed the thing a couple times. I didn't gag? No, it was impressive. Is that conscious? Uh, I think it just sort of happened. After the show, did girls shove their loins in your face? Well, after a display like that I think it'd be sweaty young boys, now wouldn't it? But actually, you know, it's funny, man, friends have made comments about that. They'll be like, man, there's this whole rock and roll girl thing, but all you get is sweaty young boys asking for vocal lessons. [Laughs] Is it true? Yep. Welcome to my world. I wish I was a chicken hawk, 'cause I'd have fuckin' easy pickins. And you live in San Francisco. I know. It'd be too perfect. But I can't fight nature. Sucks. I hear you're working on a video game soundtrack. It's gonna be sick. It's put out by the company that made Grand Theft Auto. You know it? Sort of. It looks offensive. Absolutely. It's a great one. Fun for the whole family, as far as I'm concerned. Did you start Ipecac to give experimental bands like The X-ecutioners a home? Well, it turned into that. At first it was just out of necessity for my own projects. I had a few records in my lap that no one understood or wanted to put out. I realized that it was gonna be a long, hard road if I was gonna have to keep pimping the projects I wanted to do to these commercial labels. Warner Bros. put out Mr. Bungle, right? Yeah, but they didn't want a piece of this other stuff. I played that first Fantomas record for them, but, I mean, are you kidding me? That was about a three second conversation. And rightfully so. That didn't belong on Warner Bros. But where did it belong? It made me think, man, this isn't the last time I'm gonna have strange record to put out. My shit's not getting any easier to listen to, or to sell. I think of the first Fantomas record as its own genre, maybe arty death metal. How would you describe it? Well, I started to realize that I had a vocal apparatus that I didn't just have to use in a song/verse/chorus sort of way. I wanted to form a group where I would use my voice as an instrument, a second guitar. And yeah, coming from my teenage years, I had a lot of background in death metal and hardcore. I guess I still had some of that in my system, which I needed to get out. So I wrote a lot of really complicated stuff — a lot of starts and stops. The result is a bunch of familiar sounds, constructed in an unfamiliar way. I'm not sure how familiar those sounds are — screaming, scatting, chucking, cackling. How'd you even figure out you could do that stuff with your voice? I was doing a lot of improvising around that time, hanging out with John Zorn, in particular. I respected him so much and he became like a teacher to me. He really pushed me in a more radical direction. He opened up this whole world of experimental music to me that I wanted to be a part of — wanted to discover for myself. That was pretty different from, say, Faith No More's Epic, which had a video on MTV. Did that piss your fans off? I've had angry fans ever since I started making music. I've given up trying to control whether they like my shit or not. I don't know what they want. They don't know what they want. It's a losing proposition. I've gotta do what I think is best. If that means offending some poor souls, that's just gonna have to happen. All you can do is stay true to your vision and hope that people are patient enough to give it a chance. So why aren't Ipecac records given any radio play? Why aren't people getting what you put out? They're lazy. They don't wanna hear new things. Most people listen to records for no other reason than just to add background music to their chaotic lives. People spend from nine to five dealing with all this shit. When they get home, the last thing they wanna do is put on a Fantomas record. They want to be pampered and catered to. We don't do that. Has the label been successful? In our terms? Yeah. In major label terms? Hell no. We consider a success selling five thousand records. Anything more than that is, like, Indie Gold, or Platinum…Indie Bling. You do seem kind of obsessed with pop music. It's certainly all over the new Patton/Kaada record. What can I say? It's inside of me. I grew up with it. A lot of times I do my best to avoid it, or hide it, but it comes out just the same. And it has its place. I like some pop music. The Beach Boys, or, you know, Bjork's stuff. You worked with Bjork on Medulla. Do you have any "Bjork's so crazy" stories? Not really, man. She was great. She was very professional — knew what she wanted. She has her own pace, but all the great ones do. That whole scattered, crazy-woman-from-a-weird-island thing didn't hit me at all. How did that collaboration come together? Well, we met and exchanged the whole, proverbial, "we should get together and do something sometime" thing. Very rarely does that pan out, or do people actually mean it. But she obviously did. It's the same way I came to work with Dan the Automator on Lovage. Ah, yes, Lovage: Music To Make Love To Your Old Lady By. That was a pretty seductive album. Still no girls throwing themselves at you after that? It's kind of a shtick. It's not meant to be taken seriously. So that's a no? I'm telling you, man, just sweaty young boys. What can I say? You could cry about it. Yeah. That seems to be my lot in life. n°
© 2005 hooksexup.com. |
|
||||||
| featured personal | |||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
| partner links | |||||||||||
|
|||||||||||
| sponsored links | |||||||||||
|
Advertisers, click here to get listed! |
|||||||||||
