On February 4th 1991 Faith No More released the live recording of their 1990 show at Brixton Academy on audio formats Their are a several dates on which to celebrate this show, February 4th 1991 (audio), April 28th 1990 (the date of the actual performance) and August 1st 1990 (the release date of the VHS). The audio release featured The Cowboy Song and The Grade, two out takes from The Real Thing, previously only available on the B-side of From Out Of Nowhere 12 inch. Metal Hammer | February 1991 Last year Faith No More were practically a permanent feature on the U.K. live scene. At times it seemed that as soon as the lights went down on one show there wasn't even time to catch a quick pint before you were screaming for 'War Pigs' at their next. Their audiences were growing at an alarming rate-a couple of years ago their glory was to achieve to consecutive sell-out nights at the marquee. That would have been enough to keep a Cheshire Cat type grin upon their faces for a good month! But a year later that achievement paled before a list of dates that included The Astoria, Brixton Academy, Hammersmith Odeon and the Reading Festival. Popping back and forth across the Atlantic with alarming regularity, they journeyed much over the surface of Britain-wearing out a considerable amount of rubber In the process! And so it was deemed that the rest of '91 will be a Faith No More no more year. Too much touring of Britain. Well we suppose they deserve a break. But don't despair! To satisfy our hunger London have put out a mini live album. Recorded at Brixton Academy in April of last year it features eight live monsters. The CD version includes two extra tracks -'The Cowboy Song' and 'The Grade' which have never before been widely available. Of course no live album from FNM would be complete without their habitual encore and Black Sabbath original 'War Pigs'.It's here, planted firmly at the end of side one, bathing in all its glory. In fact the LP includes most of FNM's finest - 'The Real Thing', 'Epic', 'From Out Of Nowhere' and 'We Care A Lot'. Capturing their essential live sound to a tee, so very well that you just want to throw your body about with the sheer pleasure of it all. We're gonna place our ears between the speakers of two very powerful amps and blast ourselves 'till our heads explode! Then we're off to Faith No More heaven. See ya there!

Faith No More 's smash single from ' The Real Thing' was released thirty five years ago on January 29th 1990 "Mean, Vicious, chunky and Funky, Faith No More continue to break barriers with their brain-scrambling amalgamation of seemingly counteracting styles. Rap with Metal? No problem mate. Funk with Hardcore overtones? Faith No More have it in hand. Hell, there's even a classical piano break at the end! FNM are the band to take Hard Rock into the '90s." - RIP Magazine 1990 Faith No More have over the years spoken openly about their dislike for the song Epic . Not about the music or lyrics but more the boredom of playing it relentlessly for such a long time. “It seems sometimes kids turn up just to hear that one song, we’re like stick around we’ve written all these other great songs, you just might like ‘em” - Bill Gould 1992 But as fans, we would have to concede that we can't help but love this song, but why?What is it that, even after all the amazing music that followed, brings us back to this point in FNM history? That's the eternal question, What is it ? For many fans Epic is THE song that began a their love affair with Faith No More's music. There is no denying that it is a work of genius, loaded with killer riffs, unforgettable hooks and some funky shit thrown in for good measure. With all these correct parts present and in order, it makes for a perfectly popular song. It is a certainty that FNM will always play it - you would be hard pushed to find a set list that didn't have Epic in it, strategically placed towards the end of the night to keep the fans happy and make sure they stick around. Despite the band’s unwillingness to admit the importance of Epic to their body of work, they understand that their fans want to hear it again and again. "Of course I knew straight away it would be a fucking hit! I already had a down payment on the Bentley and the bachelor pad in Paso Robles! However, I realised it wasn't an international smash when my speed dealer wouldn't even let me score on credit. Did 'Epic' spawn rap metal? Even it if it did, I wouldn't tell you. The again, the rest of the world seems to feel that way, so I suppose apologies are in order. OK, I'M SORRY!" - Mike Patton 2010 It is without doubt the song that propelled a group of misfits onto another level of musical stardom, From Out Of Nowhere had turned a few heads but Epic sent them spinning. The band themselves had chosen to release Epic in the U.S in mid 1989 as the second single from The Real Thing , but it wasn't until the single was released in the UK and Europe on January 29th 1990 that it found real success. In fact the record company Slash were it seems ready to give up on promoting the album until this point. Epic peaked at number nine on the Billboard Hot 100 (the band's only Top Ten hit in the United States), and was their first Number One single on the Australian charts. It is true that other 80s bands had experimented with mixing genres. Hip hop / rap outfit meets metal band crossovers existed before Epic . FNM did not set out to do this, instead they successfully wrote a great song which fed off their combined influences of metal, funk, hip hop and rap and fused them all together. The music itself has all the unmistakable elements of FNM we love. Mike Bordin and Bill’s balanced, thunderous but impeccably timed rhythms. Jim's powerhouse riff’s and ripping solo. Roddy’s graceful keyboard sounds and Patton's aggressive chants and melodic anthemic chorus. The mood of the song shifts depending on the listener, it can be the radio friendly bright and uplifting song labelled by the media or a dark and brooding experience. Bill had this to say about the inspiration for the song. "That was when we were writing ‘The Real Thing’- we’d just fired our singer and it was a song that was pretty spontaneous. Actually, it was like the release that came with loosing Chuck! I think with a lot our albums, most of the inspiration comes with the relief of loosing a member that’s too painful to keep! It’s like a sore that finally breaks, a storm that finally comes in.” - Bill 1997 Chapter 22 in Adrian Harte's biography Small Victories: The True Story Of Faith No More is titled 'The Making of Epic' in which members of the band describe in detail how the song developed. Here is a taste: ‘Epic’ started life when the trio of Bordin, Gould, and Bottum were working together in Los Angeles in the immediate post-Mosley interregnum. The rhythm section quickly worked up the groove of the song, and Bottum was also involved in the genesis, playing around with a horns patch on his keyboard. ‘I remember us wanting it to sound like 2001: A Space Odyssey,’ he recalls. ‘The horns were a reference to that. The song was all about space and not playing, as opposed to playing.’ ‘Quickly, Bill and I wrote the groove, the rhythm for “Epic”,’ Bordin remembers. ‘We knew it was cool, and it was good, and it was fun, and it was natural. We’d played it and said, wow, that’s just so massive—it’s just this huge broad, wide, open powerful thing, it’s epic.’ The name was one of the band’s few working titles that survived to become an actual title. Gould: ‘The name has to do with how it felt to play. It was epic because of the horns. The parting of the Red Sea. That was the visual imagery.’ Building on that groove, Gould wrote the rest of the song almost single-handedly. Matt Wallace remembers Gould’s demo as ‘a terrific piece of music. Before I even heard Patton sing on it. We probably spent two or three days on it. Tracking the drums, getting Bill’s bass, and then getting guitars even before the vocals.’ The meaning of Patton's lyrics have been interpreted by curious fans to be about sex, fellatio, masturbation, drugs, religion and more. They do seem to suggest an unattainable something, be it power, love or faith. The genius of the lyrics is that 'it' could be anything good or bad depending on the listener’s point of view. Mike is inviting us to guess the meaning and telling us 'it' is whatever we want it to be. Even though the singer has told us that his lyrics are more concerned with rhythm than meaning, which is very apparent in Epic , we can't help but attribute meaning to dig deeper into the singer’s mind and understand him better. “A lot of our songs start music first, lyrics later, and it was called ‘Epic’ as a kind of code word, because before the words came along, it was kind of like the parting of the Red Sea! It was a preposterous grandiose thing! Y’know, we’ve always had a sort of campy, semi-serious approach to writing, with these big cinematic sounds. Patton wrote the words to it about a week after he joined the band. I remember him explaining it to me and I didn’t know him very well, so I wasn’t sure what to make of it.” - Bill 1997 "It was about sexual frustration. Sex and lack of sex. [masturbation] Most people just don't like to admit it, I'm here to tell ya, I love it. That's kinda of what Epic is really about." - Patton 1990 "Epic is sort of a warped sexual state of mind. It deals with more material and physical things like sex. The song kind of teases you. but it's frustrated at the same time because the song want's it too. But at the same time it knows that it can't have it." - Patton 1989 "Believe it or not, 'Epic' was my best attempt at impersonating Blondie's 'Rapture'. Lyrically, I was more concerned with the rhyme scheme than any other constant train of thought. The lyrics mean whatever you want them to mean. They don't belong to me anymore, they are your responsibility now." - Patton 2000 It was the video for Epic which lent a hand in the success of the single release. A video which was nominated for Best Hard Rock Performance at the Grammies, and Best Heavy Metal/Hard Rock Video at the MTV awards in 1991. It's still amazing that one song can have such a tremendous effect on the music industry and on the fate of the band in question. As fans we would like to believe that FNM would've enjoyed success without Epic, but it is a fact that within the music industry the media plays a part in the availability of music and the airplay it gets. The newly established MTV generation of 1990 helped channel FNM into ears and hearts of the world - Epic was played on MTV up to five times a day! The video was edited by MTV and FNM let them without realising the impact it would have. The video is bursting with striking visuals - an exploding piano, terrific lightening, that 'Master' t-shirt, that Mr. Bungle t-shirt and Jim Martin 's nod to the late Cliff Burton . The imagery is reminiscent of a Salvador Dali landscape with surreal dreamlike shots of floating hands with eyeballs peering from within, dark skies, and waves of liquid colour. The whole scene is set in a torrential thunderstorm that drenches the band to the skin. The direction of the video, by Ralph Ziman , is an accurate setting for the song without giving anything away towards the meaning. All that can be understood is that it is five men against the forces of nature - a reflection FNM's musical blend of crazy and calm. The video ends with an astonishing scene - A fish out of water which is flapping to the classical sounds of Roddy Bottum 's piano. This would again highlight the schizophrenic tendencies of the music - the grace of nature with a bizarre and cruel twist. The fish had no meaning beyond its visceral effect, which is both oddly beautiful and incredibly creepy. There are stories that the fish was stolen from Bjork at a party (started by the band) but it was simply bought from a pet store round the corner from the studio. Both Gould and Ziman claim the fishy idea was their own. "The floundering goldfish was my idea. It was that kinda (cult director) John Waters thing where you try to get maximum attention for minimum money! The piano exploding was pretty cool, too." - Bill 1997 "I remember, the band had one day off from touring and they were in London. The record company had phoned us on very short notice and asked us to do a music video. The y made it sound like a really low priority. I think it was being done for Warner Bros. at the time. I just made a list of things I thought we could do. Exploding piano. A fish flopping around. We literally had one day to pre-produce it. So we handed the fish off to the art department. I can't remember what it was. If it was a carp? It was a fresh water fish. We shot that in London in some studios next to the tour venue. And we wound up letting that fish go into the river when we were finished. We had a couple of them. We would let them flop around, and then we'd swap it over, and we'd shoot another one. I don't remember what kind of fish they were, but the animal handler had brought them in because they were feisty." - Ralph Ziman 2010 Faith No More had already been touring The Real Thing for a year before the tremendous whip-back success of the video and single forced them to continue. “More than anything I remember us being in Europe, and our manager would check in with us maybe once a week. He called and said: ‘Your single is blowing up over here,’ we didn’t believe him. We thought he was buttering us up so he could keep us on the road, and we all wanted to go home. I remember landing in the airport, going to the hotel, turning on the TV by chance and seeing the damn thing and going: ‘Oh shit….the jokes on us!” - Patton 1995 “We toured for about 18 months before ‘Epic’ was even released as a single. It becoming a hit made a big impression on us, because it was something that we chose to release on our own instincts. It worked and it gave us a lot of confidence to do the next record." - Bill 1997 The success of Epic has continued over the year. It was ranked number thirty on VH1's 40 Greatest Metal Songs in 2006, number sixty-seven on their 100 Greatest One-hit Wonders list (unbelievable but understandable to those who go by such statistics) in 2009, it was named the 54th best hard rock song of all time also by VH1, also in 2009 it charted number 46 on the largest music poll in the world Triple J Hottest 100 of All Time . Thirty plus years since the single release of Epic and it is remembered as a ground-breaking moment, in not only FNM's career but in music. It is also a shining example of who FNM were back in 1989 and how a different kind of brilliance shined. It was the starting point for Mike Patton's career with the band, who's later input changed the music as well as the sound - it is a wonderful reminder of youth and enthusiasm. It's It... Check out the Podcast Croissant episode all about Epic.

The man of 1000 voices celebrates his 57 birthday on January 27th. It is well known that Mike Patton takes savage and perverse pleasure in fucking with the press and fans alike, his statements both on and off the stage have sometimes been far fetched, sometimes offensive but always in good humour. "It's really not even worth talking about. It's just. when I'm on stage sometimes the mouth opens and, y'know. diarrhoea flows out. Anything I can do not to think on stage, I will do. Why? Because I don't think it belongs there. I've said some really bad things and gotten us into some really awkward situations and there are responsibilities." - Mike Patton 1992 The Real Thing took the world by storm and catapulted Patton into a stratosphere of fame. He handled this by being as awkward and childish as he possibly could. Patton introduced masturbation and porn into almost every interview, sidestepping questions that alluded towards lyrical meaning, his musical influences or his personal life. He became a schizophrenic interviewee, who used various personalities which were not characters or a façade he had created, he simply was revealing his true self rather than hiding behind some Rockstar mythology. Patton publicly berated celebrities in the press and from on stage while they watched - he claimed Lenny Kravitz and Sinead O'Connor were in comparable positions backstage, that Aerosmith and Poison were over the hill , that Sebastian Bach could suck his own dick! He shared stories about Axl Rose going bald and that Warren Beatty was fucking Axl's girlfriend. While FNM's contemporaries spoke of wild drunken nights and sex with groupies Patton and his fellows tackled more pressing issues such as pedophilia, serial killers and unsavoury toilet habits. These tactics were mostly used to alleviate boredom and to distance themselves from the rock n' roll circus of touring with major metal acts. Of course the stories weren't always true, in some cases they were simply pushing the boundaries to discover what the press would actually print. True or false it made for entertaining reading. This year we are wishing the Faith No More front-man many happy returns by revisiting some of his most outrageous and memorable press interviews from over the years. Spin Magazine | December 1990 "Masturbation is a lot easier to do than relating to someone. It's like playing a video machine. You can relate to a machine a lot easier than a human being. You can just pound yourself for hours and hours and not think about it. With sex, no matter how great it is, there's always something missing... Masturbation is like this little knot I have inside of me that I can't untie." NME | July 1990 "I'm an avid [porn] collector. I have a few movies but it's mostly magazines because movies are too expensive. Where I live, me and my friends don't have much to do except go into liquor stores and see if we can steal some. Masturbation is a great thing to talk about, I love to bring it up whenever I first meet people, it's just the best topic, though some people are too scared to admit it. You can really get to know someone through masturbation. Me and my friends are pretty close back home." "Ok. I admit it. Necrophilia is definitely a fascination. I haven't been put in a situation where I could explore it, yet, but Karen Greenley is someone who interests me. She was this girl who went around mortuaries and got jobs as a caretaker. She'd take the nightshift and start having fun with corpses. She got caught but I think she got off by just paying a fine or something." RIP Magazine | 1990 "I'd really like to set all that straight. What he doesn't realize is that I am Anthony Kiedis, and I'm the raddest dude. Let me tell you, I'm in the greatest band, and it's so cool. But all these jerks, one of which is that Mike Patton asshole, all want to be me. So I'm gonna get him, and I'm gonna get him good." Sky Magazine | December 1992 "On our last tour I jumped into the crowd and broke this kid's nose. I tried to get him medical aid but he said he'd rather have a T-shirt. It's bad. What do you tell his parents? The other day I met a guy who had a scar over his eye, just like mine. I asked him how he got it and he said: 'You did it to me. But it's cool'." The Face | 1992 "When I was staying in a hotel room once, I took a shit, rolled it into a ball and put it in the hair dryer so that the next guest to dry their hair would get hot shit in their face. Ain't that rock n' roll? I do hope rock stars are a dying breed. People love to lap them up -- you know how something always tastes better if you swallow it quickly." NME | June 1992 "I think meeting people is great. But on a sexual level it's much easier to get bored I guess ... I don't know ... I've had a lot of mechanical sex ... I wouldn't say that I'm seriously into S&M. I mean, come on, having somebody pee on you wearing a Darth Vader suit. It's great and everything. But take a few steps back and you have to laugh. I don't know what happened to me. Maybe I went through puberty or something. I'd say touring as much as we did -- becoming a stimulation junkie, developing a very high threshold for pain and a very low attention span -- would tie anyone in a knot." Melody Maker | August 1992 "He [Axl] came up to me the other night and said, 'Hey, man, your song really helped me through some really heavy shit in my life'. I said, 'Really? What song is that?' He said, 'Midlife Crisis'. 'What kind of shit?' l asked, He looked at the ground for about an hour then shook his head and said, 'Mmm, just a lot of shit, man'. I tell you, I was biting my lip so hard trying not to loose it. 'We've given up trying to be quiet about their stupid games. It's gotta come out somewhere. For a while we were a little cautious of saying anything, but we were uncomfortable with that. OOR Magazine | August 1992 The best shows we've done were under the worst conditions. At places where no one wanted to see us. We were supporting Metallica, somewhere in Utah. It's swarming with Mormons there. They hated us. Threw bottles. Spat at us. Fourteen, fifteen thousand people. Then I made a remark about Mormons and they hated us even more. Then our bass player played a fifteen minute solo. One note, dang dang dang. Bottles flew over our heads. War. But those circumstances, when you don't feel at ease, are often the most inspiring. Kerrang! | September 1992 "It's like when you fart in the presence of someone you shouldn't. You laugh. It's like a nervous reaction to the whole scale of things out there. It's embarrassing. You have to take a certain amount of reality out there with you. We just walk out without an intro tape, in the middle of the afternoon, and play stuff. It's like, 'Here we are, people' Time to start!'. Basically, we are a small band. We are a pubic hair in Guns N' Roses' shower!" SKY Magazine | December 1992 "I mean we do our own thing, like I don't use toilets -- I just don't. It's not a wild rock n' roll thing; it's a hobby -- shit terrorism. I did a shit on the bench outside Charles and Diana's palace, but that didn't cause any rumpus. It could have been anyone's shit really. The consistency wasn't so good. It wasn't a prizewinning trophy." Melody Maker | July 1993 "I don't think about anything onstage. Definitely for me it's usually about an absence of thought. And usually I don't remember anything afterwards, I just get told what I've done. Sometimes it's just like passing out for and hour or so. I always thought that if you're able to have a coherent thought or complete sentence onstage then you're in the wrong job. For me, it's always been the opposite. It's kind of like waking up in the middle of the night and running through a storm, naked. You come back. What happened? I don't know. You don't think, you just open your ears-thoughts enter and process themselves." Metal Hammer | January 1995 "Ha ha. Oh my god! My favourite thing, especially on this record, is to write lyrics and not tell the band what I'm singing, and then have them guess what I'm singing. Usually they go, 'Are you saying what I think you're saying?' and it's better than what I wrote. So I just use what they wrote instead. Instead of the word 'horn' it's supposed to be 'hole', and 'came' is not in there either. But I didn't wanna correct you, because it's just too beautiful." CMJ Monthly | April 1995 "Revenge is good. I think revenge is healthy too, and if you can use music in that way, a sort of therapeutic way for yourself, it can't do any harm. So if King [For A Day] is angry in any way, it's angry in a random, chaotic, healthy way. Like the guy who goes into a building, shoots a bunch of holes in the wall and then leaves. He didn't kill anybody." Kerrang! | August 1997 "I make music. I lock myself In a studio. It doesn't make for a very well-rounded, interesting life, but that's what I do. I have a lot of friends to play with in a lot of different groups. Apart from that, dominoes, cards and my Sony Playstation are good." Kerrang! | March 2001 "I wish I could flip burgers because it'd be something to fall back on when the music dries up, but sadly I never had such a prestigious job. The 'famous' thing comes and goes and you learn to take it with a grain of salt. Fame is a joke. It's an absolute crap shoot. I mean I was most famous when I was making my worst music. I had absolutely no perspective on fame when 'The Real Thing' took off, I was just goofing around with a new band, I had my head in my ass and I didn't know what was going on. It was bizarre but if you can't laugh at it is there any meaning to life? I appreciated it for what it was, a total out-of-control nauseous carnival ride." Kerrang! | October 2001 "They [INXS] called and asked with a straight face. But I couldn't answer with a straight face. They were really pissed off with me because I've told people about it. They wanted me to be hush-hush because I'd turned them down. They don't have a clue what they want, that's the funny thing about it. They just wanted someone who had a bit of a name behind them." Kerrang! | May 2003 "That probably happens on a daily basis. It's not like you sit down with a glass of wine and look off into the sunset and are struck with divine inspiration. Most of the time for me it's like brushing your teeth, it's routine, and what I do is try and write, or work, on music a few hours a day, no matter what. It's more like, for me, a chore. I force myself to do it. So, there it is, in all of its romantic glory." Tape Op | 2006 "Having no real musical education, my canvas — the only way I can document the stuff — is by pressing record on whatever it may be. Ghetto blaster. I'm constantly leaving myself messages at home. In a way, I had to learn how to use "the studio" as an instrument." Believer Magazine 2013 "I’m not a poet. I’m not up onstage to get something off my chest. I’m making musical statements, or, most of the time, musical questions for people to figure out, and I’m not going to get in the way of that." Decibel Magazine | March 2013 "If you love your work, it's not really work. It becomes something you do without thinking about. It becomes a bodily function, like waking up in the middle of the night and taking a leak. Except I wake up in the middle of the night with an idea. One thing I try to be conscious of is not putting out everything I write or record. It's like working out or exercising—that's how I see it. What I love about what I do is the work and the process of creating. It's not the producing of a document in the form of a record or even a live concert. It's the actual spark of having an idea and putting it down—for yourself. Later on, you decide whether it's worth putting out so the world can hear it." Alarm Magazine February 2014 "I think that this Faith No More reunion taught me a pretty good lesson: 'Hey, these things that you've done in the past aren't your enemies.' They're not something to run away from but rather something to just understand. If I'm going to write a piece of music tomorrow, I'm not really going to understand it for another 10 years—maybe, if I'm lucky! The reunion with Faith No More was a really eye-opening experience because it taught me how to appreciate the music that I've done from a distance. When you're in it, you're too close. When you're writing it, it's still like a part of you." Kerrang! | April 2015 "I'm sure you could pull up all sorts of quotes from me where I'm saying, 'We'll never make another record again, I never want to be a part of that ever again.' But, you know, circumstances change. And it's nice to be wrong; it's nice to admit when you're wrong. And I was wrong! I did not know that this band had more statements in them. Believe me, I was as surprised as anyone when I heard this music and realised that I wanted to be a part of it." Rolling Stone | April 2022 “This is fucking great. I can stay home and record. I’ve got a home studio. So I was like, Yeah, what’s the big deal? And then something clicked, and I became completely isolated and almost antisocial and afraid of people." Revolver | October 2022 "...in a weird way, I guess my career is a fucked-up mixtape. I do what feels right and what sounds right. At the time I joined Dead Cross, I really needed to do that. Now I’m on to some other stuff. Maybe I’m a wanderer. I don’t know. I just wanna do justice to every recording or concert that I’m involved in. I wanna do it the right way. Hopefully in an authentic way."

FAECAL ATTRACTION Gina Morris Should MIKE PATTON cut the crap? Does RODDY BOTTUM need to come out of the closet? Does BIG JIM MARTIN treat women like dirt? And are FAITH NO MORE a mess of insecurities, attitudes and extravagant contrasts congealing into a thrilling whole... or just another rock band? Not an 'Easy' question to answer, reckons GINA MORRIS, as she spends a week in France with America's premier scatological strew-ups and wonders why such a nice boy like Mike Patton feels the need to swig his own piss and shit in a hair dryer. Mike Patton is urinating. Not into a urinal, not on the street and not in private. Mike Patton is pissing onstage - in front of thousands of people - into his shoe. Then, with a coy smile, he lifts the brimming vessel to his lips, opens his mouth and drinks the boot dry. Less than two weeks later, in the small village of Besancon, France. Patton is casually making coffee on stage. Freshly percolated cups of coffee for his sweat-sodden, dehydrated crowd. Faith No More are all about extremes. Severe extremes. Faith No More - an archetypal rock band? - release an opulent new single and it s a straight-faced, straight-up cover of The Commodores' 'Easy', so beautifully unscathed that it stupefies the majority of the audience every time they play it. FNM are a twisted fairy tale with no real plot and no conclusion, just a dense subtext of symbolism and a multitude of characters. No-one has ever managed to disentangle them, to go beyond their reputations, to de-mystify them. It's a daunting task. FNM thrive on tortuous perplexity, to the degree that it has become both their drug and the only unifying factor in the band. It's a bind so tight, it hurts -hurts itself. And it's ugly. The rock pigs, the perpetrators of myths, the groupie- shaggers, the dumb f—ers, the lads. It's all there if you want to see it. The band themselves have surpassed all hope of ever being truthfully represented. Now they're just enjoying the ride. They've perfected the art of confusion. So Patton will continue to be the jerk who grew up into a wanker, Jim Martin will continue 'abusing' women, and nobody will ever even think about asking keyboardist Roddy Bottum what it's like to be a gay man in a rock band. Right? "To me," he says calmly, "throughout our career, the representation of the band and the way I've been portrayed everything has been so homosexual every we've ever done. I've portrayed some absolute blatant, stereotyped homosexual. I've been the boy in bondage, the sado masochistic cop, the homo-cowboy. I mean. I've been so blatant about it - it just blows me away that people don't pick up on something like that. Y'know. what am I supposed to do? Hit people over the head with this? That hurts, right? It hurts your head and it's an insult to people's intelligence." Roddy and I are having lunch in a hotel restaurant in Paris. The idea is to interview each member of the band separately, because, as Patton later confirms: "We wouldn't communicate. It would be a lot of misfiring, uncomfortable jokes and a lot of sarcasm." He's dead right When they're all Together, they whine on in nonsensical gibberish which makes it impossible to glimpse anything like a stereotype. So I've stolen Roddy and he's stealing a forkful of my creamed potato and, in his soft, laid-back, winsome American drawl, continues to talk about his sexuality for the first time into a tape recorder. "If I'd ever been asked about this before, lm sure I would have been completely open about it. I mean, I cannot be embarrassed about this. I told the others I was gonna talk about this as soon as I knew you were gonna ask me about it. I told them I was going to be upfront and they said, 'OK. do what you gotta do'." So do you think the reason it's been ignored is because homosexuality isn't supposed to have a place in 'rock' music? "Maybe. The thing is. rock stereotypes are so ugly. Pop stereotypes are not so bad but rock ones are hideous. It's like the Queen thing - I don t know how old I was when I started listening to Queen, but even back then it was so apparent to me. There's these four guys playing in a band calling themselves Queen and singing opera music, pretty much, and then people have the audacity, years later, to say Freddie Mercury never came out of the closet. "Y'know, it's like, get with it. I think it's a symbolic thing, people are not picking up on those symbols, I don't think that's so wrong either. I think people can get away with seeing a movie that's chock full of intense symbolism and deal with it on a strict pleasure level. It's just a different level. "I mean, if people don't pick up on the band's subtleties or the band's jokes or whatever we put across and they're enjoying it for other reasons, then I'm not sure if-that's wrong. In an ideal world I'd love to think people understood what we're doing, but it's not going to be like that. I'm flattered that people tike it on a gut level." Are you aware of the power you have being a gay person in a rock band, particularly when you consider the genre's ignorant and archaic values? "I guess so, but there's a certain disgust in me about wearing my heart on my sleeve and being as blatant as that. I think it's an insult to peoples intelligence. I absolutely understand and sympathise with the gay community against backwards views on homosexuality in this day and age, but in Los Angeles, where I come from, it's so liberal, openminded and experimental I forget what an island it is and how spoilt we are. I guess I just take it for granted. " You were pretty blatant when you wrote the lyrics to 'Be Aggressive. Ejaculation. Tribulation.  I SWALLOW. I SWALLOW." "Yeah! I mean, HELLO, WAKE UP! When we wrote that song we were all very aware of the lyrics, we had it all in check and then the issue has never come up. It's so funny, no-one ever even asked us about it. It's the same thing, we just expect a lot more from people." Roddy Bottum is charming and sincere but, like the rest of the band, he'll occasionally seize the opportunity to wind up a susceptible victim - and this causes problems. Maybe some people don't get the message, because FNM tend to respond to people like a mirror image, reflecting dubious personality traits and firing them back. It's a way of dealing with the adulation bestowed upon them. "I just have to be as down-to-earth as possible, admits Roddy, "I sometimes catch myself being so absolutely stupid to these people, just to get the point across that I am nothing you are everything. OK? Realise that." Is it tricky keeping your feet on the ground? "Well, that's one of the  good things about the band, we all have strong sensibilities, probably because we re all so f—king sarcastic. We're pretty hard on ourselves and I guess everyone has that in check." FAITH NO More are not the egomaniacs they've often been made out to be. There's a reason behind, for instance. much of Patton's extreme behaviour .When he joined the band almost four years ago he'd never been away from home. He was a geeky. non-smoking, Virgin teetotaller with appalling dress sense. A kid who did what he was told, played basketball for his college team and looked forward to his summer vacations. Going straight from home comforts to road traumas, he's had to grow up fast. This may not excuse puerile antics like shitting in a hotel hair dryer but, then again, he hasn't turned into a pompous asshole like Axl Rose. Patton means no harm really - unless it's to himself. "We're a band that encourages extremes." laughs Roddy, "so when anyone is doing things like that. I think: Well whatever you wanna do, whatever you wanna try - no matter how outlandish - just make yourself happy. Which is a healthy environment. I'm very proud of the extremes that go on in our band, I'm proud of the fact that Mike is like that. I'm proud that he carries a doll around a voodoo doll called Toodles and I'm proud that Mike Bordin would have us believe for two years that one of his best friends was killed (it was a lie!). That's such a bizarre thing, but extremes are what we're about." FNM also provoke a massive amount of misunderstanding. Earlier this morning, the band were handed the letters page of a rock magazine full of outraged letters in relation to a FNM feature, in which the journalist had translated Mike's comments on a child porn video (that he'd been given by a fan) as an endorsement of paedophilia. "It's kinda our own fault," shrugs Roddy wearily. "We assume too much. I mean, it's 1993 - don't you understand this? And the bottom line is a lot of people don't, and that bugs me. It's like, who do you cater your ideals to? Do you cater your ideals to a lower mentality or a mentality like your own, y'know? The worst thing is to have to simplify your values and act in a different way just so simpler people can relate to you. You can't do that, right? It's not optimistic, it's a backwards way of thinking." MIKE PATTON is slumped in a fake leather armchair backstage at the gig in Lyon. In one hand he holds a Martin Amis book, in the other he clutches a control console. Every few seconds a green light flickers across it and he flinches slightly. He's wired up to electric shock pads... switched to full power. This is Mike Patton's pre-gig relaxation period. Bassist Billy Gould is in the dressing room, alone, playing a guitar. He hears the door open, turns his head and smiles, "You wanna talk now? OK." Roddy and Billy have known each other for almost 20 years it was the two of them that decided to form the band. As kids Bill and Roddy would ride their bikes around the roughest, sleaziest parts of Hollywood Boulevard, trying to look cool. Two nice middle-class kids trying to live on the edge. Nothing much has changed now they just have further to fall. Do you miss Chuck Mosley at all? "No." Chuck was FNM's old singer. In his days, the band were closely linked to rap/thrash music. Then, he lost control, was replaced by Patton and the band released the more mainstream 'The Real Thing' LP. Hell immediately beckoned in the form of a Guns N' Roses support slot and - hey! - suddenly they were Rock. They did, however, escape hell with their souls intact. "I hate rock music. Bill spits. "I've always hated it. Like Led Zeppelin and stuff like that. I mean, my dad used to listen to that shit. It's the least interesting thing in the world, the excess and all that stuff, it's so boring. The world has gone through its period of exploration in that area. A stadium gig is fun to do once in a while, but that Guns N' Roses thing really got me down because it's as rock as it gets. It's the mentality I don't understand. I think it's disgusting. It's not natural, it's all role-playing. complete bullshit and I hate it when our band reflects things like that. "I mean. we do whatever we want to do and 'The Real Thing' was like an exercise in that. But we're still figuring ourselves out. We don't really know who we are yet, we're still learning. Hopefully, we're not burning too many bridges in the process." So how do you view the band? Is it like four of you against Jim Martin, the real rock element? "It gets more and more like that. I can see it more and more every month. I don't know how long you can keep going on like this, really. It's kinda ridiculous, it's like, what's the point, y'know? Actually, for all the shit I give Jim - and he deserves it he's only doing his job. As if on cue, Jim enters the room. Billy smiles at him. It's a Healthy animosity he has towards him, like when a friend tells you that you've got bad breath. Jim exits. Is Bill happy with Mike fronting the band? "Yeah. I think he's doing great. When he joined, he was living with his parents, he was 21 and had never been in a bar before. He didn't even like the taste of alcohol so, in three years or so, he's come a hell of a long way. I remember we were about to go on tour and he said: 'Look guys. I'd better get my summer vacation this year or I'm going to be real pissed off.' We were like. sorry but we're adults now, we work all year round, this isn't high school. He's kinda eccentric, y 'know?" OEDIPUS WAS the mythical Greek king who slayed his father and screwed his mother. It's also Jim Martin's nickname. And he's sat opposite me, chain-smoking, on the bottom deck of FNM's luxury coach heading towards Besancon and another show. Patton calls him a timepiece, a representation of an era, a broken record. Big Jim Martin, visually at least, is rock personified. He's the one the rock mags turn to. He's the living proof... and he's living at home - with his mother. "We have a whole house to ourselves," he explains. "She lives at one end and I live at the other. We pretty much do as we please, we eat dinner together, she comes home and fixes it." Don't you ever cook for her? "No, she cooks better than I do." Jim has the worst rock'n'roll reputation of them all. Does he consciously perpetuate it? "To a degree. If someone wants to exaggerate it, I don't tell them not to... Anyway, what is my reputation?" Y'know, chicks and pool. "Well. I do like those things." Big Jim Martin, the band feel, is more naive than malicious. He became close friends with L7 during their tour together and there's no way they would let him get away with any sexist bullshit Patton reckons: "He has a sharpened point to his personality that nobody else agrees with, but sometimes y'gotta eat shit and like it." So has Jim really ever taken advantage of women? "Certainly not. To take advantage would be a discredit to the girls, it would be like saying they don't know what the f— they're doing. Y'know, we're all intellectual people and I would have to assume the women knew what they were doing." Have you ever felt that maybe they didn't? "Well. I always explain carefully: I'm here this evening to play a concert and I'm leaving tomorrow morning." Does it bother you that these women may only be sleeping with you because you're famous? "No, it's pretty much the case... though of course it's not always the case. It's difficult to tell." Would you prefer it if people wanted to sleep with you because you're you? "Absolutely not. If I wanna sleep with them. I'll do my best to get them in the sack. I mean, I haven't always been famous. You better your chances, sure, but it isn't always easy." I FOUND a present for Mike Bordin in a post office in Lyon. It's a stamp. A stamp with one of Francis Bacon's self Portraits on it. He's ecstatic - we're friends for life. But Puffy isn't a get-together kinda bloke. He's amiable and affable just like the rest of them - he just goes to bed earlier, that's all. The band are about to go on stage. Bill is throwing up in the toilet. Jim is completely engrossed in his Game Boy. Roddy is sprawled full out on the floor with his eyes closed, Mike's strolling in and out of the dressing room pointlessly and Puffy is thrashing his sticks against a lump of silly putty stuck on to the edge of a table. How do five such different people work together? "Well, if you have people that are very different and very strong, then it's definitely a strength and it can make it a more interesting or more challenging brew," Puffy remarks without dropping a single beat. "That's not to say it can't work when everybody is the same, but we don't have that, so why pretend?" So how come people still assume you're a 'rock' band? "Well, forget about the inverts. We play rock music, in our way, that's the way it is. A lot of the others are uncomfortable with the position of being a rock band. Like a night like tonight will make some of them feel uncomfortable and guilty in a way." But you're happy with it? "lm happy that we're playing our music to a lot of people and we didn't have to suck a dick. If that's all you wanted you could put together a band tomorrow - if you were conniving enough— but to get there in the car that you designed and built and laboured over, that's the satisfaction." Are you different when you're not with the rest of the band? "Oh sure, definitely, by definition, I don't spit as much." "OK, WHO SHAT IN THE ORANGE JUICE?" It is hard to find the art in Mike Patton's antics. To appreciate the beauty when the beast is shitting in your beverage. "Oh god, oh Jesus, I'm sorry,"he wails. "It wasn't meant for you." Mike had been accused of "not f—ing shit up" on the tour by L7. So he, erm, did. Mike and I are slouching on the sofa in the 'techno section' of the tour bus, on our way back to the hotel for the last time. It's 1 am, post-gig, and Patton's eating raw meat out of a plastic container and indulging in his favourite drug - coffee. The Cardiacs are blasting out of the speakers and Patton is highly amused how similar they sound to his other band, Mr Bungle. Mike has been avoiding my tape recorder for four days now. He doesn't believe there's much point discussing anything other than his various obsessions. He's become accustomed to being misunderstood by the press. "Writers paint pictures and they leave colours out, and what can I do about that? I can get upset and smash the painting, but that doesn't achieve anything. You gotta take it and you can't take it too personally because it's impersonal. It's very easy to get upset, but no-one feels better for it. Maybe if we beat up all journalists, we'd be good guys. How'd we ever become bad guys?" He chuckles, with a mouthful of beef. "There's just too many channels. I mean, we're doing an interview here. how are we really supposed to communicate any information to anyone? We re not talking to anyone, we're not looking anyone in the eye, this is almost cowardly really. "I don't think any of us have any desire to explain ourselves or be understood, it's no comfort, it doesn't make you sleep better at night, it's not what we're in this for. "The child pom thing? Well someone probably asked me what's the weirdest thing you've seen or what's the strangest thing a fan has given you, and that's indeed what it was. It was such a shock that something like that was handed to me by a little petite Japanese girl. But it's not about understanding, there's too many avenues, y'know. the story never gets told the same way twice." At least when you do disgusting stuff, like drinking your own piss, you generally only do it to yourself. "Yeah. Oh, I dunno. there's no logic behind it. I don't know who I am or what I'm doing here, that's what that is, it's the absence of logic. It's not something that's too easy to rationalise." .....Even if you wanted to. "Sure. I don't know how I can make anyone feel any better. We don't even know what the hell we're doing, we haven't even figured out what it is we do. We don't even know how we even relate to each other really, and maybe we'll learn, maybe we'll become great salesmen someday, but now it just doesn't compute. You should have to answer for what you do - you may not be able to articulate it - it's not a playpen where you get to do whatever you want and never take responsibility." Was it hard growing up in a band like this? "Yeah. I was a real terrified kinda student, so I always did what I was told. I still do." He smiles wryly, like we're supposed to believe him. Mike loves winding people up. He's into shocking people with his various obsessions his voodoo doll, his S&M fetish wear and his  weird books. If there's a target - he'll hit the bullseye. "Some people are easy targets and some people ask for it, so if you have a particular interest and you want to use it against someone then... here's a funny example. Jesus, God. See now, I'll talk about this and it's similar to the child porn story, basically it's like bad shit and I have it... oh f— it! I'm not gonna talk about it, it's too stupid. There's no morality in anything, y'know? What matters? That*s what I want to know - what matters? Does our personal life have anything to do with our music, however much seeps in? I mean, I don't even know, so how can I tell you?" Mike looks slightly flustered, even nervous. I've spent nine days in total with Faith No More, both in Britain and Europe, and he still doesn't trust me? "I do trust you. that's why I'm telling you this much. Okay, basically I think defensiveness or humiliation is a motivating factor in the way we behave, in the way we make music, in the way we relate to each other. Sometimes I think the way we manoeuvre is in a defensive way, rather than an offensive way. So all these people are saying, 'You're so offensive and you're trying to shock people to make a point and use it as a weapon, and it's not. It's not a step forwards, it's a diversion. We have no harmful intent." Mike looks down into his dinner. "It's really not even worth talking about. "It's just. when I'm on stage sometimes the mouth opens and, y'know. diarrhoea flows out. Anything I can do not to think on stage, I will do. Why? Because I don't think it belongs there. I've said some really bad things and gotten us into some really awkward situations and there are responsibilities." So you do care about Faith No More? "Yeah, I'm learning to. I didn't for a long time. I thought, what a horrible situation, it's candy coated, take it with a smile - for what it is - you can't take your time card and punch it out at the end of the day. You can't. I tried it and you can't." The bus pulls up outside the hotel and the rest of the band file into reception. Patton doesn't move. "No matter what you do." he says sternly. "You can't win. " You can go now. "Arrh!" he cries. "The sense of finality!"

Faith No More released their debut single We Care A Lot on January 18th 1988. With it's thwacking drums , bass and heavy guitars. Faith No More's debut single, released in 1988, is funk metal with added punk sensibilities -both in the raw, untutored vocals of Chuck Mosley, the manic singer later replaced by Mike Patton, and in its gloatingly non-PC lyrics. A seminal alternative rock song, We Care A Lot still sounds electrifying. - Metal Hammer According to Q magazine when writing a rock song that will survive the test of time you need a few key elements: a simple yet powerful chorus, a message that the audience can relate to, and a hook you can repeat over and over again. Faith No More certainly hadn't read that article when they wrote We Care A Lot but it unequivocally proves the theory! A revolutionary but tongue in cheek song such as this would be an apt anthem for present day America. The song has been in FNM's set list since 1984, appeared on three of their albums (not including compilations) and they have released it three times as a single. ''We Care A Lot was an accident. We just played the song and everybody liked it" - Jim Martin 1990 The song bares all the hallmarks of the early FNM sound. The unmistakable drumbeat resonates like the rhythm of a beating heart, the atmospheric Keyboard swells providing a perfect contrast to the punch of the beat, a bass-line that thumps with severe discipline during the verse, breaking only for the slap and twang of his strings in the pre-chorus. And one of the most brutal and iconic FNM guitar riffs. Chuck Mosley 's vocals are his usual blunt almost emotionless sounds, an acquired taste that many of us love. The ironic thing about Chuck's tone of voice is that while he's singing We Care A Lot he gives the impression that he couldn't actually give a fuck. This was the song that got FNM a management contract and an advance to finance the recording of their first album. As Bill recalls his roommate at the time was playing the demo in the San Francisco branch of Rough Trade Records when Ruth Schwartz heard it and immediately offered to take them on. The band recorded their first album in producer Matt Wallace 's garage over three consecutive weekends. That whole funk/rap/metal crossover thing started here, challenging the typical glam American cock rock of the 80s, We Care A Lot was more inline with the US rap scene and music coming out of Europe. Roddy Bottum actually described the song as 'kraftwerk meets Black Sabbath!' , and added 'I wrote this song after listening to a whole lot of Run DMC' . The actual genre for the song listed on Wikipedia is 'Funk Metal', a phrase that wasn't used until a couple of years after it was released. A label which the band themselves disowned. "Roddy had this song he had come up with overnight. My initial response... To be perfectly honest, it was the least challenging to me. It was a little bit more commercial than what I was used to being part of. Especially after all of a sudden being in a position where you had a single, and you had to make sure you'd play it every night. I'm a punk rock rebel, so I had to complain about it - 'God dang, this is so commercial!' I thought I was above that, and it was below me. It was fun to sing for a while, then it started feeling kind of silly to me. But it was Roddy's song, and Roddy has a total taste and ear for catchy hooks. Coming from that perspective, I totally respect anything he does, but I felt it was a little soft." - Chuck 2010 The song was first released in 1985 on the band's debut album of the same name and re-recorded with updated lyrics for the band's second album Introduce Yourself in 1987. "We played We Care A Lot as an instrumental for a year before Roddy wrote the lyrics. We got all excited when Chuck sang it because it was the first thing we ever did that sounded like real music." - Bill Gould 1988 "We named the first record after it, and put it on there. With that record, we ended up shopping it around for a better deal, which. ended up being Slash/Warner Brothers. One of the things that they little irritating at the same time. So, for the heck of it, we came up with a whole new intro, and we would end it with the chorus chant. Just to mess with people. Or we would do [sings the bass line], sing We care a'lot', and then end it there. Then it just kept growing. Until we decided to do it over - but our way - and have it more laid-back and grouchy. And fatter and louder, fuller." "We were determined to have a version that blew away the first or second one. We just hit on something and it clicked. We wanted when they signed us was to have us updated the lyrics - actually, that time it do the song over again, because they felt it hadn't fallen on enough ears. They thought it was a hit. Hence the second version. There were two years between the two versions, and we updated the lyrics." - Chuck 2010 It was released as their first ever single in January 1988 to moderate reception in the U.S. The song later appears on the album Live At Brixton and this live version was again released as a single in 1991 this time with Mike Patton on vocals. The third release was in 1998 as a double A side with I Started A Joke taken from Who Cares A Lot? the greatest hits compilation, this was the 1987 studio version. It reached number 53 in the UK singles charts in 1988 and was more recently listed in Pop Matter's 65 Greatest Protest Songs, describing it as a 'smirking account of everything that pop and political culture shoved down our throats at the height of the Reagan revolution'. The video was FNM's first, directed by the late Bob Biggs (the founder of Slash Records) and Jay Brown it has no comparison to any rock videos at this point and pays homage to rap culture of the time with lots of bright colours. It also began FNM's reputation for surreal and unexpected imagery in their visual accompaniments. The bouncing baby, flying dog and bizarrely not the last appearance from a transvestite in a FNM video! WCAL is a parody of what was going on in music and pop culture at the time. The Live Aid concert and USA's Feed the World song seemed to have irked FNM into creating some kind of statement against the pop singers taking part who cared more about their public appearance than the consequences of poverty itself. The lyrics are in keeping with many by the band at this time and were written by Roddy with Chuck throwing in the odd line here and there. "It's all mixed up, because me and Roddy both wrote that. He wrote the title and the chant, and a lot of the first lyrics in the verses. I wrote the "dirty job" part on that first verse, and then I wrote more of the verses when we changed them on the second record." - Chuck 2016 Although the band weren't 'out to save the world' exactly, FNM lyrics at this time regularly had an issue and something they wanted to express. The relevance of the lyrics seem somewhat dated nowadays, not just because of the topics mentioned but because the music industry is much more liberal, instead of lyrics being ironic or having a hidden agenda they can be more direct. But regardless of this the message of We Care A Lot is still strong. "If we did a 4th version it would go something like this: Donald trumps a lying, law breaking, tax evading, constitution ignoring, spoiled, sociopathic, psychopathic, misogynistic, lying ass son of a motherfucking useless pile of shit, so unfortunately placed by our sheer stupidity and ignorance, in charge of what I no longer consider, my country, and he’s gonna kill us all, WE CARE A LOT!" - Chuck 2017 25 years after he sang the original Chuck recorded a new version of the song for his 2009 album Will Rap Over Hard Rock For Food . Roddy guests on the song and it also features a reference to Epic and Mike Patton with the line, "We care a lot about the guy who wanted it all but couldn't have it" " we care update it wasn't a knock on mike Patton, but it was a reference to him. I wanted to update the lyrics so to be relevant. We did the first version on the first LP, then the 2nd version on introduce yourself, with updated lyrics, so, naturally the new version had to have current references, duh, and currently mike Patton is the singer of FNM, so I mention him. I only said" little", cause he's younger than me and the phrasing called for a two syllable word. maybe it would get your juices flowing, if it was a "knock" on mike. if I had something to" feel bad about", but I've know him for over twenty years, and he's always been very kool to me, and we have always shared a mutual respect for each other. I think. he's a great singer. i sing ok, but, I'm unique, and original, and I write awesome lyrics. but I'm glad you noticed, that's very observant. Can you tell me where else did i reference him, or his lyrics? I'll give you a hint... oh, no I wont..." - Chuck 2010

Chilian band Como Asesinar a Felipes have dropped their latest single Buscando la luz on Bill Gould 's Koolarrow Records which also features the man himself on bass guitar, guitar and percussion as well as producer of the track. Photos Ignacio Gálvez / Freb Auble Bill spoke with latercera [ full interview ] We haven’t played in Chile for a long time, but I feel a good connection with the people there and well, maybe what I would say is “if you don’t know CAF you should do it”, because for me this is a gem, it’s something that you have that is in your own home, that you should be proud of and it’s something that I connect with because what I was doing with Faith No More all these years, I feel that they are doing it in Chile themselves, with a very similar approach. That’s what I would say to FNM fans. Listen to Bill's unmistakable bass sound on the track below. Thanks to our friend Adrianno Mazzeo here is Bill talking about the collaboration.

On January 12th 1998 Faith No More released Stripsearch , the third single from Album Of The Year . Kerrang | May 1997 'Stripsearch' is a supremely atmospheric chunk ol sci-fi funk that succeeds despite the lack of any discernible chorus because it sounds just fantastic. Young Gods producer Roli Mosimann has worked his usual magic here, 'Album Of The Year' sounding so good that even if there wasn't a sniff of a decent melody anywhere (which is always a risk with Faith No More) you'd still come back to it time and time again to marvel at the full-blooded luxuriance of the thing. Roddy Bottum | 2015 "Going into Album of the Year felt like a changing of the guard. In a technological sense, and in an ownership sense. We'd been doing what we'd been doing for a long time - recording five records, touring for more than a decade. The production had gotten bigger, the stakes had gotten higher and the playing field was changing. Suddenly, making a record on our own was completely and realistically doable. Billy was kind of the first in our camp to get savvy with the Pro Tools setup, and as a result, a good part of AOTY was made in Billy's basement. We did all the tracking at Brilliant Studios and Razor's Edge in SF, but the editing and production were done on our own. It was our first step in taking back what was ours in a technical sense. Kind of ironic that it was our final record....at the time, anyway. We all knew where it was going, the writing was most definitely on the wall - we were all branching out, everyone had a side project, and it felt like FNM was becoming harder and harder just to schedule. Collectively, unconsciously, individually and as a group, we were acting out. Dressing in black suits for the tour, referencing a funeral, the death of the band, the audacious titling of the record, we were fucking with our own destiny. We were definitely referencing our musical roots as well, going back to the melancholy, the sombre, the monotonous loops, the brooding keyboards. Last Cup Of Sorrow, Ashes To Ashes, Jon's involvement and writing in songs like Stripsearch and Collision; in retrospect it feels really strong and an undeniably prolific chapter in what we ultimately set out to do. It might have been a hard pill to swallow for our fans and critics who kept looking to us for a radical change, which of course was understandable... we'd changed so many times. Maybe the change this time around was more of a 'behind the scenes' change. The way we recorded, Billy and the basement, bringing in Roli Mossiman, writing with Jon. Internally, to us it was radical. Roli had worked with Young Gods, a band we loved. He worked a lot with computers. He came in to help track and record, but stuck around to help mix. A testament to his work, we all liked him a lot and appreciated what he brought. Looking back, it seems like a good album to the world with, because it was almost a full circle return to the core of what FNM was. Of course, we had no idea at the time that we'd revisit it, it was the last thing on anybodies mind. We all needed to leave it and walk away, and not look back for a long time. The amount of angst we'd shared as a group of friends was devastating. I don't know how we survived as young people doing what we did. Friends writing together, creating together, making business decisions together, living together, 24/7 for the most part. Looking back on it, they were truly special days of our lives, particularly at the end, when the seams were busting, and the glass had overflowed. The spillage was Album of the Year, and it was an end and a beginning." Bill Gould | Keyboard Magazine | 1997 "The song "Stripsearch" was a prime example of Mosimann's magic. Roli programmed the beginning of the song, but then he took a drum loop from the intro, chopped it up in [Steinberg] ReCycle, and matched each piece of it to Puffy's drum track, one by one. I think he said there was something like 30,000 edits, or something ridiculous like that. But that was the kind of thing where it's Puffy playing so it doesn't sound like a machine, but it really makes a difference, Coming from an analog recording background, we would have never thought of doing things like that. But still, those weren't extreme edits: It was just putting little sounds in there, making it grittier, and it made the whole sound change. The loop in the beginning made such a difference. Before we put it in, the song sounded more like Queensrÿche. But after the loop, it sounded more like Portishead or something. It gave it a darker, different slant. It didn't sound like a rock band anymore. " Bill Gould | Metal Hammer | 1998 "The kernel of that song came from John Hudson, our guitar player on the last album. Writing wise, we just weren't speaking the same language as Dean, the guitarist we were touring with, I had known John for years, and he said he could provide what were looking for... so he produced this midi file of an idea he'd had and it was pretty good. We changed it just a little bit, but it was his song. The most amazing thing was he wrote a song which worked with us and we didn't have to teach him to do it! Musically we connected. I think he was the first guitar player we had where that happened." Roddy Bottum | Keyboard Magazine | 1997 "The percussive noise effect in the intro is Patton making noises with his mouth. My favorite part on the whole record, is the simplest thing...and that's the bleeps [in the intro of this song]. It was just a simple tone that we tapered down so it sounded like an SOS, or Morse code."

On December 29th 1992 Faith No More released their cover of the 1977 Commodores song Easy. The song is to this day their most successful selling single however amongst fans it is possibly their most controversial. "It feels really good to have couple of thousand people flipping you off. Just to see the number of middle fingers go up when we went into 'Easy' was amazing." - Bill Gould | Billboard | 1993 The song aided them in reaching their highest UK chart position of number 3 and number 1 in Australia in 1992. The song reached out to a much wider audience, whether it was an audience FNM wished to reach out to is another question, but we can be sure the record company were pleased. So why did FNM chose to cover Easy ? And why was it so successful; why did this slick and slightly tongue in check rendition sell more in the UK and Europe than their own unique brand of music? FNM have been playing Easy in their live set since April 1990, the earliest record of it being played is at Rock City on April 25 1990 . According to setlistfm.com the band have played it live 418 times and it is their third most played song after Epic and We Care A Lot . The band decided to add Easy to their set as a counter balance for their faithful version of War Pigs by Black Sabbath , which they had been playing to audiences since Chuck Mosley 's days: "First off, we did it live. We used to do (Black Sabbath's) 'War Pigs', so the meat heads started coming just to hear us do that all the time, and Jim's chest was puffing out. He got to be Mr Black Sabbath, so we decided we wanted to do 'Easy' to fuck with people. We heard It on the radio and went, 'This is a great song, let's do it!'' - Bill Gould | Kerrang | 1995 It was during the recording sessions for Angel Dust that the band laid down a studio version originally to be released as a b side. However the record company decided to add it to later copies of the album and of course release it as double a side with Be Aggressive under the title I'm Easy . "Recording it was probably Billy's idea. Our fans would scream for 'War Pigs', but being the kind of band we are, never wanting to be pigeonholed, never wanting to give people what they expect, and as a way of balancing things up ... when people yelled for the cover song we gave them a different cover. The flip-side of the coin. Then because we liked how we played It and the way Mike sang it. we recorded It tor a B-side. Then the record company had a brilliant idea to put it out as an a-side: we made a really nice video." - Roddy Bottum | Kerrang | 1995 "For our own personal satisfaction, we like to do things that are left field. Warner Bros. has been marketing us a a rock band; we like to think we're other things too. There was a little hesitancy to put the record out there, but it's just exploded. I think it might be our best hit." - Bill Gould | Billboard | 1993 Section from an interview in 1995 | Kerrang Do you get any weird reactions from that? Have people come to the band from that single? Roddy: 'Not really. I honestly don't think we got a lot of easy listening fans from that song! Maybe it's the video. Even though the execution of the song is pretty faithful you can see from the video that we're up to something. The tongue is definitely in the cheek' Bill: 'I don't think we were ever gonna play it live again at that point, but we just happened to have it recorded. It wasn't a hit in the States, though. In fact, we were over there while it was a hit here, and it's only now that we've come back that it's managed to sink in: people keep saying to us, 'Well. your last big hit was 'Easy' ' Patton: 'It's a bit like stealing your own gun, then shooting yourself with it.' Bill: 'Or stealing your gun and shooting somebody else with it!' The coupling of these two songs is in itself a comical match due to the homoerotic sexual references of Roddy's lyrics of Be Aggressive and the story of a love sick Lionel Richie . Was there any sense of irony in the FNM version? Were the band playing the song to provoke a reaction? "The only ironic moment in that whole song is right before the guitar solo when Patton goes 'eww', which was a comment, not on the song, but on Jim Martin. Because there was such acrimony and tension between the band and him during the making of that record." - Matt Wallace | Diffuser | 2015 ”It would be too obvious just to slag it. We like it in a painful kind of way. It gives the band memories of our childhood. We all grew up with it." - Bill Gould | Billboard | 1993 ”Usually we just do songs we like, so we have to do them sincerely. If we did a Commodores cover and chuckled at the end of it, it would make everyone else feel a lot more comfortable with it, but that's not the point of it at all. It's stuff we like and we deliberately put it in between two noisy songs to make people take a step back." - Mike Patton | Kerrang | 2009 Easy had two different design packages. The US version featured the photo of two rhinos 'having fun' also used for the covers of Everything's Ruined and the EP Songs to Make Love to . The rest of the world were treated to a rather disturbing image of two young boys and a pistol a photograph by William Klein . The Video mixes live footage from the Angel Dust tour and the band hanging out in a hotel with a bunch of transvestites and flamingos! (Funnily enough the second appearance of TVs in a FNM video the other being for We Care A Lot ! ) The live footage also features a snippet of Mike Patton 's infamous 'drinking piss from a tennis shoe incident' at Brixton Academy . The video is opulent and indulgent; watching Patton throw luxury chocolates from a hotel balcony, Bill Gould swigging champagne from the bottle and Roddy Bottum crooning over a grand piano is nothing but classic FNM style. "Of all the videos we've done, it probably has our personality the most'" Gould says, "people can find something sympathetic through a weird medium. It's almost touching that this transvestite is sitting there drinking champagne while Mike's singing." - Bill Gould | Billboard | March 1993 If we look at the array of cover versions FNM have committed to vinyl we notice that majority seem to explore genres of music far from that of their own unique brand of music; jazz, pop, punk and soul; I Started A Joke , Spanish Eyes , This Guys In Love With You , I Wanna Fuck Myself . With the exception of a few particularly fantastic songs FNM generally make aggressive up tempo music, so these cover songs sit amongst their own compositions as a complete contrast. At the time of Easy 's release FNM fans heard the song differently than the general public, it was a bit of a joke, the band poking fun at the record industry and the rock genre like they had pulled off live. But we get a song such as Evidence on the very next album and She Loves Me Not on Album Of The Year , each flirting with the soul and pop genres. Years later we hear Mike Patton experimenting with soul and easy listening music. The Mike Patton we know now is adept to creating beautiful, soulful and sensitive laments with his Mondo Cane project and recent movie soundtracks, amongst others. Mike Bordin is reported to be a huge collector of Jazz music. And of course Roddy 's other band Imperial Teen are much more pop-like. The media had always cited Jim Martin as 'the rock influence' in FNM, he was the guy with the leather, beard and attitude, but this song was recorded and played in his time with the band and his contribution is essential to the song. A note perfect solo. All this suggests FNM wanted to play songs like this from very early on but weren't sure how to place them on their albums amongst the rock genre they had been slotted into. The song Edge Of The World was there only nod towards lounge previous to Angel Dust . So maybe this cover of Easy was a way of doing that without alienating too many fans and testing the water for further song writing on their later albums? As to why Easy was so successful in Europe and Australia, I think the UK public in particular are suckers for a revamped golden oldie and a song that translates into karaoke! But after all this discussion who actually cares? FNM and their record company might care about the money but we as fans don't give a monkey's how successful a song was in the charts, we care about the music. And personally I love their version of the song. I loved it back in 1990 when I first heard a live recording and I still love it as I write this. Although I would've loved a version of Sweet Dreams (The Nestlé song) equally as much... Let us leave you with Lionel Richie 's opinion on Faith No More EASY. . ... "I was actually quite flattered that much about the song. Yes, I loved it." - Lionel Richie | Washington Post | 2001

Ex Ozzy Osbourne guitarist Joe Holmes has finally released music from his much anticipated new album featuring Mike B on drums. The new single Cross Eyed Stare is now available to stream. The album has been finished since Summer 2023 but Joe explained the delay in its release on social media. ‘HEY-EVERYONE, FIRST THANKS FOR THE MESSAGES AND REACHING OUT. THE RECORD AND ARTWORK HAVE BEEN FINISHED FOR A WHILE, THE REASON FOR THE DELAY Of THE RELEASE MAS BEEN THE DECISION OF THE BEST DISTRIBUTION OPTIONS AND TRYING TO FIND THE RIGHT HOME FOR IT. I REALLY APPRECIATE THE SUPPORT. STAY TUNED!!!’ The band also features Rob Trujillo on bass.

Ten years ago on November 28th 2014 Faith No More performed a surprise show at Amoeba Records in San Francisco. FNM surprised us with a show to celebrate Record Store Day Black Friday and the release of Motherfucker on 7" vinyl, their first new music in 17 years. Photo by Jason Miller [full photo album] Black Friday 2014 saw the auspicious return of both Star Wars and Faith No More . And both “returns” were morsels that demanded feasts in their wake… for which we’ve been asked to wait. The 88-second trailer for the seventh Star Wars film teases a movie we won’t see for another 13 months. One hopes Faith No More, whose five-song set at Amoeba last Friday left fans ravenous, won’t make us wait that long. Fans as young as 5 and as old as 70 filled the aisles in anticipation of the 6 p.m. start time. By 6:15, the band took the stage with their Album of the Year-era lineup — Mike Patton, Mike Bordin, Billy Gould, Roddy Bottum, and Jon Hudson — fully intact. They also brought out a man sheathed in a leather suit and facemask whom they referred to as “The Gimp.” It was unclear what purpose The Gimp’s presence served: possibly he’s some greater thematic component of their new material or a potential ally for Patton’s legendary onstage shenanigans. But so it goes: without explanation or qualification Faith No More launched into their new single, “Motherfucker,” a rousing return to form for this singular and strange band. The energy was a bit sluggish initially, the vibe slightly harshed by the mid-evening pace and brightly lit stage. Patton’s soaring chorus, however, gave the crowd chills — they were now very much back. Bassist Gould and keyboardist Bottum joined in for some righteous three-part harmonies on extremely deep cuts, “As The Worm Turns” and “Spirit,” from their debut, We Care A Lot and follow-up, Introduce Yourself, respectively. Both roused the audience against the limits of the record-strewn aisles and served as a reminder of what a great thing it is to have this band back. Their sound, at once atmospheric, metallic, poppy, and transgressive, remains unmistakable and without peer of a comparable calibre. “Ashes to Ashes” off of their last full-length release, 1997’s Album of the Year, saw them hitting a steady stride that finished off with new track, “Superhero,” a perhaps even more promising taste of their new material than the aforementioned “Motherfucker.” Then…that was it. The band left, gimp and all, as the Amoeba crowd clamoured for more. Even your humble encore-averse reporter was dying for at triple what we’d just heard. Their manager came out and shook his head, the house music went on, and the audience departed, frankly shocked that it was all over and done with so quickly. As someone else in attendance pointed out, bands usually do an in-store at Amoeba in advance of a headlining show elsewhere in town. But despite a handful of festival dates abroad in 2015, there’re no live actions on the Faith No More docket for the near future. One hopes and presumes these are simply under wraps at the moment because damn…that was just not enough. Critic’s Notebook: Most of the band’s Bay Area family — including their teenaged nieces and nephews — crowded along the side of the stage. Said nieces and nephews mercifully did not roll their eyes when others in attendance explained they had been following the band since they were “their age.” Set List Motherfucker As the Worm Turns Spirit Ashes to Ashes Superhero

On November 28th 2014 Faith No More released their first single since 1998, Motherfucker . It's hard to believe it has been a decade since FNM's glorious return to releasing new music. The first new material released by FNM in 17 years was unleashed 28 November 2014 on 7" vinyl limited to 5000 copies. The single was produced by Bill Gould , mastered by Moar Applebaum and recorded in the band's Oakland rehearsal space. It was released through Ipecac on their own imprint Reclamation Recordings . Artwork was by Cali Dewit and design by Roddy Bottum . The b-side is a rather cinematic reworking of the song by J G Thirwell simply titled as a remix. The single was later released digitally on 8 December topping charts all over the world including number 1 spots in Finland and Bulgaria. 'Eighteen years after their last outing. Faith No More return with Sol Invictus, an album that stands alongside the very best of their illustrious output. In typically contrary fashion, its most radio friendly song comes saddled with a title that will get it precisely zero airplays anywhere. By god, we've missed 'em.' - Metal Hammer | July 2015 In true Faith No More style their first single from Sol Invictus was unplayable on the airwaves because of it's lyrical content. Between them Roddy and Mike Patton chant the words 'mother' and 'fucker' together approximately twenty five times. "It feels apt that the first track we're releasing is 'Motherfucker,' a song about accountability. Basically we've created, recorded and mixed a new body of work by ourselves and we're releasing it on our own label. It's a huge deal for us to only have ourselves to answer to at this point in our career and the song is about that, where the buck stops via the basic imagery of foie gras production, bondage. . .y'know, stuff like that." - Roddy Bottum | Rolling Stone | November 2014 'The lyrical content was about foie gras. Keeping ducks in a small contained cage and force feeding them and bloating them and then taking advantage of their body parts and selling it as a commodity. It seemed like a good allegorical representation of what music was in the early 90s and 80s'. - Roddy Bottum | Faster Louder | February 2015 "It felt like a really nice statement to put out into the public, to let people know we’re not playing any games. We don’t really care if it’s on the radio. It’s sort of offensive and playful and bold and maybe a little bit antagonistic. Just the word itself was a fun thing to put out there. But yeah, it’s totally different than the rest of the record. It’s me singing on it, which is a little bit different, and it’s really simple and stripped down. Something called “Motherfucker” just felt like a nice place for us to kick off a new chapter for Faith No More." - Roddy Bottum | Noisey | March 2015 "Motherfucker leaped out at us because Roddy brought it to us, and it was fairly complete, except for the drums. I like what Mike sings in the chorus; it makes me laugh. Whenever he says, "motherfucker," it makes me smile because it sounds as if he's smiling when he's saying it. On "Super Hero," there are a lot more layers. It has a lot of energy; it's driving and forceful. To me, that's what Faith No More should sound like" - Mike Bordin | OC Weekly | April 2015 "A lot of people were like, 'That's a weird one'. My friends were like, 'What's that all about?' It's different - it's sparse and repetitive, it sounds to me like stuff we did when we were younger. People expect us to surprise them. And when we do, it's like, 'Oh yeah, that sounds like Faith No More'." - Roddy Bottum | NZ Herald | February 2015 "Roddy wrote it. I think it has to do with taking responsibility for people who think they own us. And calling them motherfucker [laughs]. It's accountability. Looking back at us as a band years ago, we were put on this treadmill. We did it to ourselves, too, by not knowing any better. We were 18 and 19 years old when we started, and we didn't question certain things. But we were being manipulated a little bit." - Bill Gould | The Stranger | April 2015 "Everything we’ve ever done was from gut feeling even if it didn’t make a lot of sense at the time. Releasing a song called Motherf---er as your first track after 18 years makes absolutely no conscious sense at all, but I think it was the right thing to do. It worked out great.” - Bill Gould | Vancouver Sun | April 2015 "We wanted to put something out there that was clearly us doing something in an uncompromising way, to let people know that we weren't doing this for radio attention or to make money. We were clearly just doing something that felt right to us in an artistic way, and that set that tone. A song called Mother fucker is not going to be on the radio. We wanted to let people know that that's where we were." "It's a lot like Motown. The music is the property of the artists, right? We all know this, but big industries take advantage and take ownership of these properties that are not theirs. It's really crass and over-the-top. The song is about that, and the consequential reclaiming of what's ours, taking ownership and retaining it. - Roddy Bottum | Rock A Rolla | June 2015 Reactions from the press and fans were mixed, however there was no denying that FNM had returned with a certain finesse. "Motherfucker" marches forth with the doom-laden raps of their 1989 breakthrough The Real Thing, the triumphant choruses of their 1997 swan-song Album of the Year, the moan-to-screech dynamics of Mike Patton's avant-minded solo career and a merciless snare cadence tip-tapping at the edges of sanity. - Rolling Stone It is very rude, very noisy, very political: all the prerequisites that make a Faith No More song awesome . - Gigwise   It’s probably intended as a warmup for the LP, and is thus sort of a throwaway for the band, but sonically and structurally, “Motherfucker” sounds like vintage FNM, owing largely to Mike Patton’s remarkable vocal range and attack. It’s not going to make anyone forget Angel Dust, but it might make some people remember Angel Dust, and it sets a pretty high bar for the new album . - Stereogum It’s like, y’know, a bajillion times better than that shitty video of the band playing it live. I am now more confident than ever than the new Faith No More album is going to be worthy of the FNM name. -   Metal Injection A typically schizophrenic jumble of genres ‘Motherfucker’ features all those classic FNM hallmarks: Patton’s giddy vocal acrobatics, The Real Thing -era raps, a thunderous rhythm section and those sweeping, theatrical choruses which defined their later work. It also happens to be really, really good. - Faster Louder So many bands return after a long hiatus only to disappoint, they’ve changed or they’ve moved on from their sound, it’s just not the same. Not Faith No More. Earlier in the year we heard the first live performance of the first new FNM music in 18 years and now we have an official release of their brand new track “Motherfucker”. And…..the track does not in any way disappoint, it’s the gravelly, dark and epic FNM that we love . - Triple M

Mike Patton and Danny DeVito are friends, they have been since 2005. DeVito took his 18 year old son Jake to Coachella festival in 2005 to see Fantômas and he loved the show. In 2006 he spoke with pagesix.com about seeing the band. "Fantômas blew me away. They are super out of this world beyond! Mike Patton is a genius. You know he was in Faith No More and MR BUNGLE, right? Fantômas are experimental and just crazy." “I get a lot of inspiration from my daughters and son,” DeVito said. “About four or five years ago – we usually go to a music festival called Coachella -and one year, all my son Jake could talk about was Fantomas. So a bunch of us went over to the Fantômas tent, and boy, I’m telling you, it was one of the greatest shows I ever saw. And from that day on, I’ve been a huge Mike Patton fan.” “I’ve revisited listening to Mr. Bungle, Faith No More, and all the stuff,” DeVito continued. “Anyway, about a year or two ago, he put out a new group called Peeping Tom, and on that album is Five Seconds. The thing about that song is that you want to listen to it a lot. The words are amazing. When he says, “you are the air that I breathe,” it just blows me away. There’s kind of an angst, but a declaration of love in there.” From there friendship blossomed with each artist supporting the other's work. Patton and Peeping Tom performed at the after party for the premier of season 2 of It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia , an American sitcom starring DeVito, in 2006. DeVito was also pushing for Patton make an appearance on the show according to an interview with cast member Glenn Howerton . "I know that Patton was willing to do it at one point. I don’t know if that is still the case. We haven’t got anything for him at this point. But I do want to have him on the show. I am a big fan of his." In return Patton included DeVito in the video for Peeping Tom Mojo . DeVito portrays a white trash TV junkie who briefly appears at the end to switch it off. This mutual respect for each other's artistry was discussed by both in a short interview for the online feature Artist On Artist. In which DeVito reveals just how he discovered Patton's work. "I don't really limit my influences. Everything in my life influences me, from my morning coffee to each meal. Really hard to nail down. Danny Devito influences me!" - Mike Patton 2006 The pint sized Hollywood A-lister has always followed Patton's projects closely and over the years often can be seen side stage admiring his friend's performance. In 2007 DeVito was spotted at Coachella Festival onstage with Peeping Tom. In 2008 DeVito was onstage introducing Patton and Zu . During Faith No More 's show at Coachella in 2010 Danny was spotted rocking out at the side of the stage. Also during the band's show at Hollywood Palladium in 2010, DeVito can been seen on the drum riser hanging out with Mike Bordin . In 2012 during FNM's show at Hammersmith in London DeVito again found a comfortable spot at the back of the stage to watch. We also saw DeVito's famous alter ego Trollfoot appear side stage at The Wiltern in 2015. Patton and DeVito's most recent hook up was in February 2020 at the Fonda Theater in LA when Danny showed up at a Mr. Bungle show to give Patton some acting tips!