Artist of the Month, March 1996
Faith No More
They've been together over fourteen years, endured the standard
personnel changes, had arguments, reconciliations, and hit records. Numerous
obituaries have also been written about the demise of the band. Drummer
Mike Bordin has addressed some of the most recent rumors of a band split,
"What's ludicrous about the rumors of a breakup is that we're happy
about what we're doing. We're happy about the lineup. For the first time
ever we're all on the same page. Now would be a ridiculous time to stop."
Enough said. Faith No More heads into 1996 strong, confident, and hard
at work on a new record.
Faith No More's determination to be successful and their
sense of purpose helped them survive the early years slugging it out in
the San Francisco music scene. Certainly not the darlings of the often
times small minded community the band never the less survived. The multi-platinum
sales of their record THE REAL THING began to change things, and as bass
player Billy Gould now says, "There was some bitterness, but there's
no problem now."
The band has always had a strong sense of what they wanted
to do and how they wanted to get it done. "We're all overachievers,"
Gould has said, "And we push ourselves. We push each other. We're
probably all a little bit obsessive about the high standard thing, because
when it fails we get really down."
 The band released WE CARE A LOT, it's first record in 1985.
In 1986 they signed with Slash Records and the following year released
INTRODUCE YOURSELF. The band toured heavily, crossing the ocean to the
UK and back a couple of times and building a strong following. With the
release of THE REAL THING in 1989 Faith No More stepped up into the ranks
of world class bands. THE REAL THING sold more than 1.5 million copies
in the United States alone. The band toured non-stop for almost two years,
doing shows all over Europe, South America, and Japan. After the release
of ANGEL DUST in 1992 the band once again went on a world wide tour. Though
ANGEL DUST didn't match the sales of THE REAL THING in the U.S., the album
went gold all over Europe. Of course, with big success come big expectations
and additional pressures from the business side of the music industry.
Faith No More is a smart bunch, however, and they have kept themselves
together by reordering some of their priorities. They've changed their
work schedule a bit to reflect these considerations. "We've decided,
instead of doing our normal year and half tour we'd be adults and get
off the road (for awhile) before we completely burned out," said
Bordin.
Faith No More's current lineup includes original 1982 members
Bordin, Gould, and Roddy Bottum on keyboards. Mike Patton has been singing
for the band since 1989, and guitar player Dean Menta joined the band
in late '94. The band is working well together, looking forward to their
next release, and everybody is happy. At least as happy as this group
of guys is likely to be! We'd like to thank Mike Bordin and Roddy Bottum,
Wendy Griffith of Reprise Records, and John Vassilou from W.E.M. for their
help in making Faith No More the HEARNET Artist of the Month. We suggest
you all keep your eyes open and ears healthy and, if you haven't already
done, so check out Faith No More. You'll be glad you did.
|
