"I make my records by maybe not doing a lot of other things which normal human beings do. You know that when things are important to you, you just make them happen, and believe me I would do more if I could, and I was working on much more than that. Making a record is really not the rocket science which you might think it is: you have some ideas, you take a few weeks, and then you put them down. Done."

For alternative music legend Mike Patton, the task of simultaneously composing, recording and mixing multiple recordings under the strictest of deadlines appears to be the most natural and easy thing in the world. With a musical career which transcends the scope of any other performer that readily comes to mind, what else could he possibly have left to achieve? The man involved with such projects as Peeping Tom, Kid 606, Faith No More and Mr Bungle (to name but a few) is clearly open to almost anything.

"Hmmmm... what else to do? Get back to me on that one," Patton laughs. "I mean, there are plenty of things that you aspire to do, but you don't actually sit down and go 'I'm going to do this, or that.' I really don't put that much thought into it. I mean, you have an idea, you put some effort into it, and it happens. That's what living is about. I think that is what makes me more comfortable with myself the older I get, because I have no goals, I have no aspirations, I just have to be myself and I know that I'm going to be okay," he laughs. "People with goals are miserable people."

After entering the music scene at age 15 with his high school project Mr Bungle, Patton gained commercial success when he took over vocal duties in Faith No More in 1988. Patton is surprisingly relaxed talking about about a career which has had its share of uncertainty along the way.

"I've been doing this shit for twenty years, I've been in a bunch of different bands, and there has been a lot of great shit, a lot of bad shit, and a lot of in-between shit. I remember points in my career where I was thinking that this is as bad as it gets, and then looking back and going 'what the hell, what was I thinking? That was great!'" he reflects. "I remember feeling miserable in the middle of long Faith No More tours where we had packed houses and thinking 'god, this really sucks' - but it never sucked, I was just an idiot," he laughs. "It really depends on what set of glasses you are wearing when you are looking at it."

Even so, Patton doesn't hold back in discussing his experiences of the music scene over the past couple of decades. "The industry sucks and it always has. It is full of lecherous fucking liars who manipulate people who do what they do because they love it. I think a lot of the blame rests on the fact that musicians are very easy prey, and don't mind being that way," he spits. "Still, we're not children and we shouldn't let people take advantage of us like this: like signing horrible fucking contracts, and selling your music for fucking peanuts, and going out and playing on the road for nothing - it's making it a lot fucking harder for the rest of us. A lot of musicians just don't care; they're happy going out on the road, having girls look at them, and having people pour whiskey down their throats."

Although he was more than eager to point out that his myriad other projects are not being neglected, at present Patton is focusing on the promotion of Fantomas and Tomahawk. The upcoming Fantomas release 'Delirium Cordia' is different, to say the least: it's a one-track, 30 minute showcase of extreme chaos and ambient sounds, a fitting soundtrack for a hypothetical apocalyptic war film. Patton becomes very animated talking about its upcoming release: "I'm actually having a lot of trouble with the record cover right now, so I really don't know when the hell it is going to come out. I mean, it will come out eventually, and I'm sure that the reaction will carry some degree of confusion as there always is with our Fantomas recordings," he laughs.

"The Tomahawk one ['Mit Gas']managed to get quite a nice response though, and now we are getting a bunch of touring behind it. That recording has done really well, and has had quite a nice little life span to it," he adds, proudly. "With this one we became more of a band instead of a lab experiment, which is what we were when we first started out. We hadn't really spent any time together at all, it was basically just an idea, and it was kinda enchanting for what it was, and we made a record which I think turned out great, but we weren't really a band yet. I think that by the time we had done the second one we had done a lot of touring, and knew each others' ins and outs - quite literally! - and I think that the record sounds like a closer knit unit, and serves more information and feels more comfortable to me."

Given the obvious influence which films of all eras and genres have had on a lot of Patton's work, one might assume that he has aspirations to write or direct his own piece of work. He claims this will not eventuate in this lifetime: "I've always been interested in soundtracks so I would like to take a crack at that one day, but I'm not a very visual person so directing probably wouldn't work," he laughs. "I'm actually acting in a movie right now, and believe me, that's weird enough! I wouldn't want to have to write, direct, and dodge egos, all the stuff I watched this director do. But it's been pretty fun. I did it knowing that it was going to be pretty bizarre and surreal, and it turned out to be exactly that and then some. It's been weirder than I had ever imagined, and then it has got weirder again since then. Tomorrow's my last day shooting and I'm happy to be done with it."

Adam Hood

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