HOW FAITH NO MORE CONQUERED 2015

It has been genuinely exciting to be a Faith No More fan these last twelve months. 



In the space of a year FNM have released their first album since 1997, two singles and a video. They have performed an extensive tour of America and Europe with more shows all over the globe including live television appearances. They have provided the press with innumerable interviews discussing old and new subjects giving forth a wealth of information and answering questions we have pondered over for an age. There has been new merchandise and deluxe reissues of classic albums.

As fans we have watched and listened intently following and their accomplishments and celebrating the anniversaries of some of their most astounding works.

The t-shirt slogan 'we had faith all along' feels apt as this year we have been rewarded for our loyalty and blessed with Sol Invitcus and all the fruits new music offers.  

For those who only recently discovered FNM you have joined us at one the most thrilling eras in the career of this undeniably formidable band.

Of course you can browse each month at your leisure on this page to recap on 2015, and it seems a little futile to attempt to summarise so many amazing events in one article. However let us look back over this amazing time and rediscover some of the highlights that show just...... 

How Faith No More Conquered 2015

January

• Faith No More begin to announce dates for their tour in support of Sol Invictus, including a full leg of shows in the U.S, their return to headlining European festivals and dates in Japan.

• Faith No More's ground-breaking single Epic celebrated it's 25th year since release on January 30th.

February

• Bill Gould and Zon guitars revealed to world his very own signature bass guitar.

• Faith No More performed Cone Of Shame for the first time in Tokyo on February 18th.

• The amazing live shots of FNM at Soundwave Festival from Ross Halfin.

• Digging The Grave, the first single from King For A Day celebrates 20 years since it's release.

• Jon Hudson gives his first in depth Faith No More interview for Gearphoria.

Sol Invictus and Album of the Year were made 18 years apart. You’re all older... with almost two decades of life experiences and new influences under your belts. Did you see any of that come out on the new record? If I did, it was probably a benefit... or it was something that changed for the better. I think we came back with a renewed enthusiasm to work on things. We wouldn’t have done it if we didn’t want to. That was obviously a plus. We had played live for several years... just playing the existing material without any pressure to go beyond that. Then when it seemed like this was appropriate, we all started to work on it together. The process was different compared to Album Of The Year because technology has changed a lot. Recording techniques haven’t really changed, but today you can do a lot on your own, obviously. You can collaborate in ways you couldn’t before. I think it was probably liberating for the entire band to be able to work on things at our leisure... to be able to get things done without any time constraints. With the recording process we were able to send things back and forth. We hadn’t blocked out a studio for a month so we weren’t all stressed about it. There was not a lot of pressure in that regard.

March

• Radio 1 Rock show and Marvel exclusively reveal the next single from Sol Invictus, Superhero.

• Mike Patton gives his first interview of the year to Australian radio station Triple J.

• Jon Husdon, Roddy and Puffy sit down with Music Feeds to talk in detail about the new album.

• Noisey post a fantastic and detailed interview with Roddy.

THE UNTIMELY DEATH AND GLORIOUS REBIRTH OF FAITH NO MORE

 "It was a language that we all speak together, and it was clear that it was still there. Then we decided that we wouldn’t play any more shows unless we made more music. So we did."

• The first Faith No More cover story of the year with Revolver Magazine.

• Faith No More's fifth album King For A Day celebrates it's 20th anniversary.

• Superhero is released on limited 7" vinyl on March 23rd.

April

• More U.S and Canadian dates are added to the tour. Plus dates in London and Glasgow.

• The second big FNM cover story of the year features in issue 1564 of Kerrang Magazine.

• Pitchfork published a great tribute to FNM exploring their history and unique and challenging style.

The Misunderstanding of Faith No More

 We’ll never know whether, in private, Mike Patton feels less rewarded by Faith No More than by his other work. (His commitment to the band since 2009 suggests otherwise.) But the potential for creative friction is one of the things that makes the band’s story—and the question of how new album Sol Invictus will hold up as a whole—so intriguing. Patton and Gould recently sat together with Pitchfork to discuss what Patton referred to as their "elder statesmen" status. It’s a curious perspective to hear from Patton himself. Because if Faith No More had emerged in the '70s, they’d have stood alongside Blue Öyster Cult and Alice Cooper, acts who likewise kept one foot in commercial viability and another in just-plain-fucking-strange-ness with music that confounded as much as it dazzled. We can also point to several artists walking the same tightrope today.

• Duff Mckagan joins FNM on stage dressed as the gimp at The Wiltern. 

• From the same venue Live footage is aired on Carson Daly.

• Roddy Bottum's Sasquatch The Opera debuts in Brooklyn as part of the Experiments in Opera group.

May

• Chuck Mosley joined FNM on stage for Mark Bowen during the encore at the Filmore in Detroit.

• This rather amusing 'shred' of Faith No More playing live at Amoeba in SF.

• Faith No More perform on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, their first live TV spot in 20 years!

• On May 19th Faith No More release their 7th studio album Sol Invictus.

'This is not a time-weathered, diluted imitation of Faith No More. This, ladies and gents, is still The Real Thing.' - Kerrang!  

'It’s the rare, rare reunion album that’s shoulder to shoulder with what came before it, standing on the band’s solid catalogue instead of trying and failing to start the climb anew.' - The AV Club  

'Sol Invictus scratches a creative itch created by the band's Second Coming Tour, and reasserts that they will not be second-guessed or pigeonholed.' - Mojo  

'Faith No More had nothing to lose by staying on history’s sidelines, for once, but Sol Invictus proves that they belong back in the game.' - Consequence Of Sound

 'This is the most imaginative and urgent FNM have sounded in years--not to mention the most relevant.' - Alternative Press 

'Sol Invictus is their best and most compelling work since Angel Dust, and the rare reunion album that truly adds to the strength of the group's legacy rather than diluting it.' - All Music Guide 

'This isn't just a new Faith No More record, it's one of their very best.' - Q Magazine 

'With the exception of one tune seemingly about Patton's breakfast ("Sunny Side Up"), it's as much a triumphant victory lap as it's a comeback record.' - Rolling Stone

June

• Faith No More take to the stage in Vienna fully kitted out with lederhosen. 

• Faith No More return to Maida Vale studios in London to record five live studio versions.

• Sol Invictus wins best album at the Metal Hammer Golden Gods awards.

• Faith No More at Download 2015.

• Faith No More at Hellfest 2015.

• Faith No More were filmed for Arte TV in Berlin, the set included all ten songs from 'Sol Invictus'.

July

• Another fantastic feature and cover for Metal Hammer magazine Issue 271.

• The Guardian detailed interview with Roddy, Bill and Patton.

Faith No More: 'We’ve made bad decisions our whole career.That’s why the English champion us' |  By Dorian Lynskey

“I don’t know who our fans are. I’m still fucking mystified. I was looking at them last night thinking: ‘Who are you?’” 

• Roddy Bottum introduces Tour Talk, a three minute live Periscope broadcast in which he chats to someone involved with Tour Sol Invictus. This first guest was Mike Bordin!

August

• Faith No More play at Madison Square Garden in New York.

No MSG, No Problem as Faith No More Rocks the TheaterBy Dan Milcz 
The band came out for a three-song encore featuring another new track (“Motherfucker’), another Angel Dust classic (“RV”) and a favorite of theirs to play live (“Just a Man”). From start to finish the band was feverishly giving it their all, sweating through their white outfits and making them pretty much see through by the end of the show. Patton’s voice never wavered once, hitting every single note with such ease that you just know he must be doing some kind of Voodoo to keep his singing capabilities so perfect after all of these years and shows. Billy Gould’s bass made the Theater come to life and Jon Hudson’s guitar work was so stellar, going from shredding to wah wah funkiness in a blink of an eye. Add in Bottum’s terrific keyboards (see the aforementioned “Epic” and “Superhero”) as well as Bordin’s relentless drumming and you have one of the most entertaining shows you will ever see.

• Mix Online publish an insightful interview with Matt Wallace.

Classic Track: “Epic,” Faith No More

 “I started with those guys in 1982 in my parents’ garage,” Wallace said. “This tiny little suburban garage studio I put together.” During Wallace’s senior year at UC Berkeley, he was attending classes two days a week and making 8-track records in the garage four days a week. The first 7-inch as Faith No Man, including bassist Billy Gould and drummer Mike Bordin, was one of about 40 records Wallace produced at his folks’ house or at his studio after he moved it to neighboring Oakland.

“I have to say 90 to 95 percent of that drum sound is Mike Bordin’s contact with the drums,” Wallace said. “He plays in a unique way; it’s really a wrist thing. His toms are very flat, and he always had bigger tom-toms than you’re ‘supposed’ to have.”
Even though Martin always wanted more metal to the sound, every day he and Wallace would play the theme from Ennio Morricone’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, salute each other and start working on guitar. “There’s nothing comparative sonically,” Wallace said, “but we wanted that feeling of grandeur, size and panorama when we did Faith No More.”
 “Honestly, Patton was right, because that kind of adolescent, bratty thing he did was absolutely right for that song. If we had gone my way, I don’t think it would have connected like the version we did. Patton was right in sticking to that irritating, kind of ‘f*ck you’ vibe on his vocal. I think young people connected with it because he was singing the way young people thought of the world, like, ‘no one understands us.’”

• Roddy Bottum and Mike Bordin sat down with Rolling Stone Magazine to discuss Faith No More's remarkable rise, breakup and future. 

Faith No More Talk Success, Split, Scars and 'Sol Invictus'

September

• Faith No More perform live on ABC show Jimmy kimmel Live.

• Faith No More perform a surprise small show at the Troubadour in Hollywood.

FAITH NO MORE DELIVER FLAWLESS SURPRISE PERFORMANCE AT THE TROUBADOUR Photography: Melissa CastroWords: David Charles On the set list, it said they were going to close with “Epic” and “From out of nowhere”, but by the time they finished “Worm”, the band and pretty much everyone in the room knew that this show, this motherfucking magical moment in time, was already epic enough and they decided to cut it short and cut everyone loose from this dizzying, electrical shock that was this secret show of theirs.You know, these days there’s a lot of talk of artistry in music or the lack there of and I never once saw Faith No More being mentioned by other artists or in those articles. And I know, they don’t give a rats ass about it, but in all honesty, we should.

• Faith No More appear on the Brazilian TV show The Noite presented by Danilo Gentili.

• Mike Bordin gives an in depth interview to Modern Drummer.

Faith No More’s Mike Bordin Discusses Sol Invictus and HisHard-Hitting Playing Style

 MD: Watching you play, it’s clear that you still just live and breathe drumming, like you were born to do only this. How old were you when you started? Mike: I was thirteen years old. It was 1975 and I was sitting in my friend Cliff Burton’s bedroom and he said, “Hey man, I’m going to play bass.” And I said, “Okay, I’ll play drums.” It was a total knee-jerk reaction. It was completely unthought-out. And from the moment I started playing it kind of took over for me. It was an obsession, but it was positive. It was something that kept me out of trouble and defined those middle years where I could’ve gone way off the rails and gone the wrong direction. When I first met Ozzy I told him, “You don’t know me, but Black Sabbath saved my life.” And that’s the power of music. That’s the beauty of it. It’s transformative.
 MD: Wow. Cliff Burton.
 Mike: Yeah, we’d already been friends for three years or so—at that time that’s like a third of your conscious life! And we just loved music, all kinds of music. A major turning point was when the two of us saw the Sex Pistols at Winterland. Would you have guessed that judging by where Cliff ended up professionally? Maybe you would, but the point is, we were open-minded. We were open to evolution. Evolution is important. You’ve got two choices: you’ve got to roll with it or it’s going to roll right over you.

•  Mike Patton declares his love for Football team Palmeiras.

• Faith No More return to Rock In Rio, their first show since 1991. Mike Patton performs an ill fated stage dive!

October

• Faith No More have release their first video for a song in 17 years! Sunny Side Up, directed by Joe Lynch.

November

• We Care A Lot the debut album from Faith No More celebrates it's 30th anniversary.

• For Record Store Day 2015, RSD release a video of Faith No More 'Superhero' live at Amoeba in 2014.

December

• A video to accompany Separation Anxiety by Finch Lynch is revealed by Ipecac. 

As we sit back to digest just exactly how momentous the last year has been for our five favourite musicians and us the fans we can't help but wonder what 2016 will offer. We know from interviews with the band that there are no plans for FNM, or that they are making public knowledge yet we are also aware that there is more material.

Each member has put their heart, soul and energy into FNM so we can expect a well deserved rest. Plus of course Bill, Roddy and Mike have other projects they can turn their attention to at the moment.

The success of Sol Invictus and the support of old and new fans took the band by surprise and if there was any doubt before it's proven there is a rich future for FNM.

Let us not forget however this is FNM and they have also proved their unpredictability and tendency not to conform to the rules of their contemporaries is still strong. So we will have to wait and enjoy what we have been blessed with during 2015......