Faith No More keyboardist Roddy Bottum seems like a seriously funny, down to earth dude. In a recent interview with Noisey, he reveals a lot about Faith No More initially calling it quits, his fears on getting back together and says he doesn't feel responsible for the wave of nü metal that eventually came crashing down on the shores of our enjoyment. We need someone to blame, Roddy!
Roddy brought up the fact that Faith No More initially got back together in 2009 because a few members were at his wedding and the topic came up, alongside an opportunity for a show a bit later. He called the experience "nice" and the feeling about the reunion was general excitement, which is awesome!
"Three out of five of us hung out when I got married in Los Angeles. We didn’t really talk about it then, but it was the first time we were in the same geographic space for the first time in a long time. It felt very comfortable, like a high school reunion feels. I’ve been through a lot of stuff with those guys, you know, and being in the same room with them after such a long time felt really nice. I think everyone felt that way. Suddenly some opportunity came up for a show, and though I don’t think any of us ever thought we would do it, having spent some time together made us more open to it than we would’ve been. I don’t know. It just happened."
He does add a counterpoint to the answer though, essentially saying by the time the group broke up, they were just sick and tired of being Faith No More. Bottum brings up that when the band was going to play its first show for the first time in years, he was feeling a little apprehensive about the whole thing. I'd imagine despite numerous practices and personal time alone with your parts, getting out on stage for the first time in years upon years is terrifying!
"It was really, really crazy. I don’t know if you have these kinds of dreams, but I have these dreams where I’m back in high school and a test is coming but I haven’t studied. I used to have that dream an awful lot. And then sometime after Faith No More broke up, it turned into this dream: I’m showing up for a Faith No More show, and I’ve forgotten how to play the songs. It was a nightmare that kept coming back and coming back. So when we played that first reunion show, it was this crazy reckoning of getting through that nightmare, addressing it, and moving on in some weird, pivotal way. It was super, super emotional. The band was so much a part of my youth, you know? Going back to it and having it be a good thing after all those years was really, really empowering. It’s an opportunity that no one gets. I don’t know who gets to rebuild those bridges that have been burned in their lives."
He also adds that the group did in fact reach out to guitarist Jim Martin about the reunion, which ultimately didn't work out.
"Oh, we totally reached out to him. I was of the mind that, of course we would not do this without Jim. There’s no way. I think we all felt pretty strongly about that initially—well, some of us maybe more strongly than others. Jim was a real contentious person in the band, but I loved him. He’s a great guy, and a real oddball. He’s the total polar opposite to what I’m all about—you could not find two more different people in a band than he and I—but I like him and I’ve always liked him. I wanted him to do it, and I actually talked to him about it. I thought it was going that way, but it just didn’t work out."
During the interview, an interesting question came up as well not quite pertinent to Faith No More- what was the group's role in bands such as Korn, Linkin Park and Limp Bizkit? I guess there are similarities to be drawn, though not very many that I myself can parallel. Bottum takes the best route possible for his answer and pretty much comes one step short of saying all of those bands suck.
"No responsibility whatsoever, really. That’s out of my realm. I don’t even really know what those bands sound like. But I certainly don’t feel an affinity towards them. That’s a weird breed of music. I’m in the fortunate position of having brought the sort of feminine sound to the band, so I feel safe. I’m never gonna be tagged as the aggro one, you know? [Laughs] But I guess there’s elements of the band that other people pick up on and focus on. I don’t really hear it myself, though. But I do find that people who make bad music often have really good taste."
Check out the full interview here!
