On va quand même mettre l'original pas loin...
http://www.decibelmagazine.com/features_detail.aspx?id=4244You can’t stop the former Faith No More vocalist turned rock Renaissance man. You can only hope to contain him.
Why is Mike Patton such a lazy bitch? He only has, like, three different collaborations going on at any given time (currently Peeping Tom, Moonchild and General Patton & the X-Ecutioners) while he sings in two bands (Tomahawk, Fantômas), writes soundtrack material (for the forthcoming A Perfect Place), acts (dual roles in the upcoming DVD release Firecracker), and does A&R for his label, Ipecac Recordings. When the long-awaited, hotly anticipated Peeping Tom album—which features through-the-mail jams with Kool Keith, Norah Jones, Massive Attack, Dub Trio and the Anticon crew (along with past collaborators Dan the Automator, Kid Koala and Rahzel)—landed tits-first at Decibel HQ, we called Patton at home while he was sitting around on his ass watching baseball and fucking off, as usual. Luckily, he did have a few things to say about migraines, high school and boning Mariah Carey.Did anyone who you worked with on the Peeping Tom record totally surprise you with the track they sent back?Yeah, you know, in a certain sense I guess a lot of people did. Probably the biggest revelation to me was Kool Keith, just because of certain preconceived notions I had before I sent him the track. [Laughs] I was proceeding with a lot of caution, and I was just expecting the worst—not getting a track, getting a track a year later, him disappearing with the money [laughs], whatever. And how wrong I was: this guy was a consummate professional, and he delivered the goods probably quicker than anyone.
You paid him half in advance and half afterwards. Was there anyone else you had that arrangement with?No. [Laughs] Hey, you can never be too careful. This whole project has been a bit of a chemical experiment. When you do stuff long-distance, you never know what people are thinking or hearing or how things are gonna work out. It just goes to show you: when you think you have people wired, you don’t know shit.
Was Norah Jones familiar with any of your work before you asked her to collaborate?I’m not sure—I never asked. I would hope that she was somewhat familiar with my stuff, but I didn’t think it was a prerequisite, you know? I was really much more interested in getting her aboard and into the fabric of the track than whether or not she liked me. I don’t really care, to be honest. [Laughs] Maybe she just liked the track. She definitely added the extra special sauce, though.
Did you end up with any leftover Peeping Tom material?There’s a definite stockpile, but I don’t know how much will be on the next record or the one after that. I’ve got probably three or four tracks I did with Muggs from Cypress Hill, three or four from Richard Devine, who does stuff on that label Schematic—he’s kind of a sound designer/beat-mangler guy. He’ll definitely be on the next two; he did some great stuff. I’ve got another two or three from Amon Tobin, a couple more from Dan [the Automator], some from Jel and Odd Nosdam, and… oh boy, I’m sure I’m forgetting some, but there are a few people I’m still kinda working on that I don’t wanna jinx by letting the cat out of the bag.
You just finished up a John Zorn album as well.Two, actually—I just did another one last week. I was in New York rehearsing with the X-Ecutioners—we did a gig in Portugal the other day—and Zorn had already written the second installment of this Moonchild project. Just like the first one, we recorded it in a day, and it’s amazing—even crazier than the last one. He gave me one of the most severe studio workouts I think I’ve ever had. It was nine hours straight of screaming at the top of my lungs in every possible register. I got some really intense migraines, actually—it got a little scary.
Does that happen to you often?Whenever I do a really long, say, Fantômas rehearsal, or something like that—I’m talking like 14 hours straight—I get ’em, but never quite as intense as with Zorn this last time. He really worked me. I felt like I’d been in a fucking boxing match afterwards—and lost.
What’s up with the new Tomahawk record?It’s going to be completely different. We’re doing a bunch of public-domain Native American folk tunes that Duane [Denison], the guitar player, arranged for a four-piece rock band. I think it’s exactly where we need to go: we need to take a detour, and this is gonna be a nice, colorful one. It’s going to be a very quiet record—very moody, very layered, lots of percussion. It won’t sound like Tomahawk.
Will the vocals be in English?Some will. Some won’t, though, and some will be invented. On some, I’m trying to stick to the syllables in the originals. There’re no recordings of the songs that I’ve been able to find, but Duane transcribed some charts for me with some of the syllables. A lot of it’s these kind of monophonic melodies where we’re all—the vocals, bass, guitar and drums—playing a single line. It’s kind of interesting—there’s not a lot of chord information or things you would normally hear in rock music, like a backbeat or whatever. It’s unfamiliar sounding, I would say.
Is Terry Bozzio (Frank Zappa, Missing Persons, Dokken) the new drummer for Fantômas now that Dave Lombardo is back in Slayer?No—Dave is still really our main guy, and we work with Terry when Dave can’t do it. Dave’s a busy fella, so at a certain point we decided that we’d better have another option, an ace in the hole. And Terry is quite a weapon to brandish if you’re trapped in a corner. [Laughs] I think eventually we’ll have him do a record with us as well—maybe an improv record or something, where he can really stretch out, because I think his strengths are using his head and thinking on his feet. I noticed that immediately and gave him a lot more free rein than I did with Dave, because he’s got some really unique instincts. He plays things that I would not or could not ever come up with.
Do you have a direction for the next Fantômas record?Yeah, it’s gonna be all electronic—no acoustic instruments. I haven’t figured out exactly how to do it yet, but there’s gonna be a lot of MIDI involved and it’s gonna be a technical nightmare to put together. I think I may have Buzz [Osborne] and Trevor [Dunn] play keyboards, as opposed to guitar and bass. And I think I’m gonna have Dave play an electronic kit. I’m gonna basically record MIDI information and find the sounds later. It should be yet another left turn. Or right turn.
You’re working on a film score, too.Well, I should be, but I’m not. I kind of overbooked myself, and I have a bunch of tour dates coming up, so I’m a little behind on that. The film is called A Perfect Place, and what I’ve done so far is pretty fun.
How do you juggle all these projects and still have fun with what you’re working on?Well, it’s tough. I wouldn’t say that I have it figured out by any means. There’s many days where you scratch your head and go, “Why the fuck am I doing this to myself?” But on other days, you remember. It’s not about finishing a record and looking at it on your wall, or collecting trophies, and it’s also not a race to see who can complete more tasks before he or she dies. It’s really about being in love with the process of making music—recording, composing, all of it. The gift is really caring about it enough to keep doing it and seeing each and every little child through inception and its teenage years until it’s out in the world and out of your fuckin’ hair. I think that’s what keeps me motivated and still in love with it.
Do you ever catch yourself going through the motions?Sure. It can come from any moment to the next, but usually it’s in a live context, when you’re in the middle of a long tour or something. You can’t really take a night off, but you may take a bar off or a song off. [Laughs] Maybe you’re thinking about taxes or what restaurants are gonna be open after the gig, and then all of a sudden you make a mistake and realize you’re onstage… Oh, bummer… I’m watching the Giants’ home opener, and they’re down two to nothing…
What’s the best rumor you’ve heard about yourself lately?I think the best one was that I was boning Mariah Carey. I don’t know who makes this shit up, but wow—I mean, let’s make it happen.
What’s the strangest gift you’ve ever received from a fan?Someone sent me a used tampon once.
How recently had it been used?Oh, it was like, wet. I forget who picked it up at the post office, but they were like, “You gotta get down here!”
Ipecac released an Ennio Morricone compilation last year. Have you ever had a conversation with him?No, I haven’t, actually. But I’d love to speak with the master someday.
I don’t think he speaks English.That’s okay—I speak Italian.
No shit?No shit. I’ve been married to an Italian for 15 years, and I used to live in Bologna, off and on, for about five or six years in the mid-to-late ’90s, toward the end of Faith No More.
What’s the biggest lesson you learned from Faith No More?How to say no. When you want to create your own universe, the first step is saying no. We weren’t very good at that—we didn’t really learn how to say no till our later years, and I think that’s when we stared having an identity. “No, we won’t open for Robert Plant.” Had we said no on a few more select occasions, I think we might have lasted a little longer. It’s tempting, especially when you have success—which we did, at the time—to overdo it, to milk it, to keep chasing the buck around the globe instead of looking at the big picture. I mean, the first record that went platinum [1989’s The Real Thing], we toured on that for two years nonstop, and the result was that we didn’t wanna fuckin’ see each other for a year after we got home. During that time we became a real band and found our voice, but it did take its toll.
What’s the biggest lesson you learned from Mr. Bungle?You can’t be in high school forever.