Mike Patton once said, “My fear is getting stuck doing the same thing over and over.” Well, no chance of that. The Faith No More frontman may have turned down the chance to front INXS following Michael Hutchence’s death in 1997, but it seems there isn’t a lot he says no to. We propose a toast to the boy from a small Californian logging town as he clocks up his half-century…
Mr Bungle
An early indication of Patton’s love of the weirdly wonderful, genre-hopping quintet Mr Bungle gained a cult following on the back of three albums in the ’90s. As with their music – which frenetically spun through avant-jazz, metal, funk, ska, punk, noise and occasionally rock, in the same song – the band had an anything-goes approach to their stage show, too.
Fantomas
Not one to mourn the loss of a relationship, Patton jumped from the split with Faith No More right into an experimental-metal supergroup in 1998. Joining former Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo, Melvins guitarist Buzz Osborne and Mr Bungle bassist Trevor Dunn, Patton added curiously compelling vocals to the band that would release four concept-driven albums on the singer’s Ipecac Recordings.
Tomahawk
Not one to be satisfied with one post-FNM project to focus on, Patton soon formed another semi-supergroup after meeting ex-Jesus Lizard guitarist Duane Denison at a Mr Bungle show in 1999. Recruiting former Helmet drummer John Stanier and Melvins bassist Kevin Rutmanis, the proggy alt-rock act would go on to release four well-received records throughout the 2000s.
Mike Patton
In the later stages of FNM, Patton found a creative outlet on his own, with his first solo set Adult Themes For Voice in 1996. Two more records later and he’d fully embraced grandiosity, with the 1950s-60s Italian pop music record Mondo Cane, featuring a 40-piece orchestra and 15-piece backing band. Ridiculous on paper, Patton’s melodramatic delivery and vocal range proved an oddly perfect match for the richly arranged numbers.
Peeping Tom
Patton also sat down to write an album on which he’d assemble a dream team of vocalists. When it came to fruition in 2006, it formed Patton’s most accessible work in a decade. “I don’t listen to the radio, but if I did, this is what I’d want it to sound like,” he said of the set, which featured Rahzel and Dan the Automator, Kool Keith, Norah Jones and Massive Attack. Interestingly, Patton says many of the guests remain “complete strangers” because they recorded their parts separately.
Kaada/Patton
You couldn’t get much further from Faith No More than Patton’s collaboration with Norwegian singer-songwriter John Kaada. The pair released three albums between 2004 and 2016, heavily influenced by classical artists like Brahms, Debussy and Liszt. What started out as a project Patton was just on board to add guest vocals too, soon morphed into much more. “All of a sudden, I found myself adding percussion and programming,” Patton says.
Tetema
Not a world away from the more filmic, widescreen music he was making with Kaada, Patton found another experimental project with veteran Aussie composer and pianist Anthony Pateras. Dark, drone-laden and eerie, the pair’s 2014 album Geocidal wouldn’t be out of place as the soundtrack to an old, gritty black-and-white horror film. They premiered the album live at Dark Mofo in Hobart last year.
Nevermen
In another first for Patton, the singer joined two other frontmen – TV On The Radio’s Tunde Adebimpe and poet-rapper Adam “Doseone” Drucker for an unlikely collaboration. After a week jamming in New York’s Williamsburg, Nevermen grew into a fully-fledged outfit and released a self-titled debut in 2016. With elements of skewed-pop, glitch-pop and hip-hop, the album is at times a gloriously textured fusion of the trio’s individual strengths.
Dead Cross
Age hasn’t wearied Patton, who at the end of 2016 was revealed as the new frontman for hardcore-punk act Dead Cross. Featuring members of the likeminded Locust, as well as Fantomas drummer Lombardo, the group have released one record, 2017’s Dead Cross. “Being in a band like this at almost 50 years old is a little comical,” he says. “I just think it’s fun, and it makes me smile and laugh a lot.”
Soundtracks… and more!
As well as providing his voice for films and video games, directing the confronting video compilation Video Macumba in 1994 and starring in the movie Firecracker, Patton also took his music to Hollywood. He scored evocative and at times highly emotive scores for A Perfect Place (2008), Crank: High Voltage (2009), The Solitude Of Prime Numbers (2011) and The Place Beyond The Pines (2013). As well as a list of guest vocal appearances, albums with Merzbow’s Masami Akita as Maldoror, with John Zorn for Hemophiliac and Moonchild Trio, and hip-hop act The X-Ecutioners, Patton clearly doesn’t like down time.
Nope, we’re not sure when he sleeps, either.
- Bronwyn Thompson
