Alternative rock band Faith No More have recorded 10 new songs after years of playing the same material at live shows.
Faith No More discussed the process of recording new material in an interview with Revolver Magazine. It began with bassist Bill Gould, drummer Mike Bordin and guitarist Jon Hudson recording demos together in Gould’s practice space in Oakland, California. Keyboardist Roddy Bottum and vocalist Mike Patton both liked the new material, but were hesitant to become involved with the new project. Patton specifically was busy with other things and barely had time to join them for new recordings. Eventually, he agreed to work with the others on the track “Matador,” which they played in concert in summer 2012.
Bottum lived in New York, but sent keyboard parts to the other members digitally for a while. He then decided to travel to Oakland to record piano parts for the new tracks. Patton was the last one to fully commit to the new music, finally listening to all of the demos and figuring out what he wanted to do for each one vocally. His parts were recorded in his home studio, which led to the 10 new songs which are finished, two of which may have been played at the 2014 British Summertime Festival. There are 15 more demos waiting to be tracked by Faith No More.
The first single is “Motherfucker,” which will be released as a limited-edition 7-inch single for Record Store Day’s Back to Black Friday event on the day after Thanksgiving. Gould’s favorite of the tracks is “Matador,” the first one Patton agreed to collaborate on. Gould says of the song, “Parts of it remind me of the first Siouxsie and the Banshees album. We used real pianos and that brings this organic quality to it to the music.”
The new album will be released in April 2015. “It’ll be much different than everything else out there—but that’s sort of the point,” says Gould of the record. “It’s a combination of what we don’t hear in the outside world and what we feel is lacking from other bands. And in the end, it will sound like Faith No More.”