FAITH NO MORE | Smash Hits | 19.09.90

Smash Hits (Australia) | Issue 19.09.1990

AMAZIN' FAITH

By Di Godley

• Faith No More are taking Australia by storm
• But that's the only "straightforward" thing about them
• They used to be called Faith No Man
• They're from San Francisco (mainly)
• They've got a bit of a fish fetish (except one of them hasn't)
• They look fierce but they're not too bad really
• One of them says his middle name's Dracula but that's a lie
• Another one says he loves the fact his name's Bottum
• Or that's what Faith No More explained to Di Godley, anyway...

NAME:

Vladamir Dracula the Third - alias Michael Allan Patton (singer)

NICKNAME:

John Holmes (American "pervy" film star who died of AIDS a few years ago), he's one of my heroes and people realise that so that's what they call me.

BORN:

27 January, 1968 in Eureka, California.

LIVES:

Eureka, pretty much. I live at home with my mum, dad and brother, but when I get home I'll probably get my own place. It's in the middle of the forest and we don't have any neighbours. It's called Sherwood Forest - ever heard of it? Hahaha! The closest city is Eureka, it's about 20 minutes away. The house is made out of red wood and it's really nice. My room's separate from everybody else's, it's over the garage. It has a big octagonal window and I keep all sorts of occult items in there. Black candles, masks...

IN MY FRIDGE:

Caviare and mould.

GIRLFRIEND:

[No answer was written here, but in the next edition there was a correction, saying that his answer was "I don't have one"].

FAVOURITE BAND MEMBER:

Hahaha I'd have to say the drummer Puffy because he's fun to have fun with - that is he's fun to *make* fun of. We treat him like a toy, like a fish in an aquarium.

WHO'S THE MOST ANNOYING BAND MEMBER?

Jim Martin, 'cause he's 66 years old. It's really hard to live with someone that old. He's cranky, late and slow. He's Grandpa. He can't do anything like us, his bones are brittle, he's gonna die soon.

WORST JOB EVER HAD:

I've only had one other job - working in a record store and it was horrible, a nightmare. I hated it so much I stole from my boss almost every day. Half of my record collection is stolen. He was too dumb to realise that his store wasn't working, no- one was buying records, so I'd steal them and he'd think people were buying them. Plus he didn't pay me enough so that's how I got my extra payment.

THREE SONGS I'D PUT ON A PARTY TAPE:

That's a tough one 'cause I don't go to parties. If it was my kinda party I'd have "Angel Of Death" by Slayer, "Saturday Night Fever" by the Bee Gees and "Round Midnight" by Miles Davis hahaha!

FAVOURITE FISH:

Either whales or seals hahaha! No, I had seafood last night it was, um...Jewfish, barbecued. Actually I didn't, I had this other fish but I can't remember the name, so I'll say Jewfish. I was gonna get a Jewfish because of the name. Why? Don't you think it's intriguing?

NAME:

James Blanco Martin (guitarist). Blanco was my dad's, uncle's family name. It's Spanish and it means white.

NICKNAME:

Some of the guys in the band call me Grandpa. I dunno why, they think I'm old for some reason.

BORN:

July 21, 1961 in Oakland California, but I grew up in Heywood. My family has been living there for 73 years.

LIVES:

I still live in Heywood. Just me and my mum live there now. She lives at one end of the house and I live at the other. Most of the living space is at one end, it has a hallway which leads down to my bedroom. I've got two rooms, my stereo and all that gear's in the other room.

IN MY FRIDGE:

Beer, vodka. That's about it. My mum's got her own refrigerator so i eat with her.

GIRLFRIEND:

Her name's Nancy Philcox she lives about a ten minute drive from where I live. We've been together for a couple of years.

FAVOURITE BAND MEMBER:

Me.

WHO'S THE MOST ANNOYING BAND MEMBER?

They're all pretty annoying. I hate all of 'em. Yesterday they were all pretty annoying - except Roddy. We were doing this taping thing and we got there last and the other guys had somethin' up their sleeves. Then old Puff was having a hard time, so that was kinda annoying.

WORST JOB EVER HAD:

I had this job called a lumper in this cold storage place. I had to load freight onto lorries, like frozen food. The worst thing was having to start work at seven in the morning.

THREE SONGS I'D PUT ON A PARTY TAPE:

I'd find some of the most annoying music I could and put it on the tape, that'd be fun. Something like art noise...or temple bells.

FAVOURITE FISH:

Grilled trout with herbs, butter peas - all the good stuff.

NAME:

Michael Andrew Bordin (drummer)

BORN:

November 27, 1962, in San Francisco. The same day as Jimi Hendrix (60's psychedelic guitar "genius") except I think he was born in 1945, so he's older. We're both left-handed, I'm proud to share that. My grandfather came from Russia, Kiev. That side of my family is Russian and Welsh. The other side is Italian, Hungarian and i think some Polish too. I'm a real mongrel.

NICKNAME:

I have a lot of nicknames. When I was a little kid I was called Motor-mouth because I talked a lot. Jim has given me a nickname, Puffy. It's a long story...I don't like to be called it much because everyone calls me it. It has to do with how I looked as a teenager. I used to have this big, big hair - like afro hair and when I walked it'd go *whooooosh! Whooooosh!* My hair was really puffy. I've never told anyone else that! Serious. It looked like one of those foam things you put on microphones.

GIRLFRIEND:

I have a fiancée named Merilee, we've been together about seven years. She's a classically trained French chef so I'l really into eating.

LIVES:

I live about six blocks from where I was born, with my fiancee. It's a Victorian house, all wood and high ceilings with those mouldings around the top. It has windows that when you pull the stick it goes *splleeeek* (??).

IN MY FRIDGE:

There's good food...old food sometimes because when I'm not home nobody eats the leftovers.

FAVOURITE BAND MEMBER:

Hahahaha! I could cop out and say my kit. I like them all for different reasons. Probably right now I'd have to say Roddy the keyboardist, because he's pretty easy going and he's guiet. I like it quiet and low key. This band is my family and we have our ups and downs. They're all okay.

WHO'S THE MOST ANNOYING BAND MEMBER?

That could be anyone, that could be me!

WORST JOB EVER HAD:

Roofing for a day. A friend of mine asked me to help him, but I'm not really cut out for scraping pitch off roofs. It was dirty and hot and nasty.

THREE SONGS I'D PUT ON A PARTY TAPE:

I'd probably put on a Louis Armstrong song. There's this song called "I'll Be Glad When You're Dead You Rascal You", that's a lot of fun. Maybe a Metallica song...and something off the Beastie Boys' "Paul's Boutique" album.

FAVOURITE FISH: I don't know, I had a bad experience with fish about two years ago. We bought this fresh fish at the market and we cooked it. We made a whole elaborate casserole. When we pulled it out of the oven there were these huge worms crawling out of it. They were all crispy on the top, and when we opened it up on the inside they were still juicy. It was nasty! We took it back and the guy said 'You just have to cook it good'. I haven't eaten that much fish since. It was brutal!

NAME:

Roswell Christopher Bottum (keyboardist)

BORN:

July 1, 1963 in Los Angeles. I grew up in Los Angeles and moved up to San Francisco when I went to college.

NICKNAME:

None. Was I teased about my surname? Absolutely. Day and night, all my life. Now I love it though.

LIVES:

Nowhere, i kinda stay at friend's houses when I'm at home. We've been on tour for a year so it's pointless putting money into rent.

IN MY FRIDGE:

There's not much usually. Juice...cottage cheese.

GIRLFRIEND:

I have one on and off! Mostly off. Her name's Courtney.

FAVOURITE BAND MEMBER:

Oh God. There's no such thing. It changes every day. You gotta keep changing or else it gets dangerous. People gang up on each other.

WHO'S THE MOST ANNOYING BAND MEMBER?

Hahaha. We all take turns. Yesterday it was probably the drummer Mike, but it wasn't really his fault because he has a back problem. When we were in New Zealand we went bungee jumping and instead of going head first, he kinda just jumped. His whole body got thrown and he got whipped around. Now he's got two separated ribs! Last night we tried to do this performance at the radio station and his back went out, he threw a little tantrum.

WORST JOB EVER HAD:

Um...it was probably when I was tested on drugs for money. It was this drug that was used to control your heart rate. They took our blood every ten minutes for 24 hours to see how it reacted on our systems. The group I was in were the first to go in to be tested and the doctors didn't really know what they were doing and they gave us too much. We were allowed video tapes to watch, so we said, 'Alright when the drugs come on we want to be watching *Texas Chainsaw Massacre*.' But when the heart control drug started coming on, everyone started turning white and feeling sick. This one guy immediately ran into the bathroom and threw up and the doctors were saying 'Don't lose your medicine, don't lose your medicine or you won't get paid.' It was terrible. It was a stupid thing to do.

THREE SONGS I'D PUT ON A PARTY TAPE:

Dawn of the Dickies (??)...what's another fun party song? The B-52's; something off their first record. And Abba.

FAVOURITE FISH:

Swordfish I guess. Grilled on a barbecue.

NAME:

William David Gould Junior (bass)

NICKNAME:

Well people used to make fun of my last name when I was a kid. I went to a Catholic grammar school and my surname's Jewish. They'd say, 'How'd you get baptised with a name like that' and I'd get Gouldy, y'know, like ghosts.

BORN:

April 24, 1963 in Los Angeles. I've known Roddy since i was nine or ten.

LIVES:

Nowhere at the moment. At the hotel hahaha!

IN MY FRIDGE:

I have a mini-bar which is full of all kinds of alcoholic beverages and soft drinks but I don't drink any of it, I want to make that clear.

GIRLFRIEND:

Yeah, her name's Christine. In a way she's not really my girlfriend, I met her maybe a month before we went on tour a year ago so I don't know what the hell to think!

FAVOURITE BAND MEMBER:

That's interesting. It depends on favourite *what* hahaha! Everybody does completely different things so it'd be really hard to pick out a favourite. I think everybody's equally neurotic.

WHO'S THE MOST ANNOYING BAND MEMBER?

That depends on the day, it could be any of them hahaha! Yesterday it would have to have been Mike Bordin the drummer. We did a live performance at a radio show last night. What a fiasco! Mike has hurt his back, so he was taping it up and we were getting a kick out of that which was making him really mad. He was having a hard time playing because he was in pain and we were laughing at him. The four of us were teamed together so we weren't gonna let it annoy us, we were going to annoy him. Publicly!

WORST JOB EVER HAD:

There's been a few, did Roddy tell you about his drug study? Yeah, I had one that was really bad. I was hooked up to a heart machine - eight hours a day. These doctors would come in and try out this new device that would x-ray my heart, they'd look at it on this TV screen. I was hooked up to this machine all day. I'd take a half hour lunch break around noon, then I'd come back, take my shirt off and they'd strap me up to this machine again!

THREE SONGS I'D PUT ON A PARTY TAPE:

Three bands would be Cameo, Public Enemy and N.W.A.

FAVOURITE FISH:

It would have to be swordfish.