Faith No More bassist Billy Gould recalls the struggle to convince bandmates Mike Patton and Roddy Bottum that recording new material was a good idea.
The band reunited in 2009 as a live act, but there was no sign they would release a follow-up to 1997’s Album Of The Year. Then this year they announced they were working on new music, with an album due out in 2015.
But Gould admits he feared it would never happen. Although he, guitarist Jon Hudson and drummer Mike Bordin were keen, frontman Patton and keyboard player Bottum were less receptive.
Gould tells Revolver: “There was a weird caginess they had where they didn’t want to just jump in the ring. I started to think we were just doing this for ourselves. Then little by little, they warmed up to it and decided to contribute more.”
Patton contributed to the song Matador in 2012, but then wouldn’t commit to any other new tunes.
Gould adds: “He would never let the conversation go there. It was very frustrating. I’d play him a song and say, ‘We’re working on this,’ and he’d say, ‘That sounds fantastic,’ and leave it at that. It was very hard to understand what was going on and if he was going to do it with us.”
With everyone now on board, FNM have 10 songs recorded and 15 others in demo form. First single Motherfucker is out on vinyl later this month. Gould promises the album will be a breath of fresh air.
He says: “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.
“It’ll be much different than everything else out there — but that’s sort of the point. 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.”
