Mike Patton of Faith No More and Mr. Bungle Still Feels Lucky

“Sad to say, I don’t have much of a life outside of music,” says the lead singer of Eureka’s effervescent Mr. Bungle, as he sits tired and alone in a Boston restaurant. “I’m not kidding. Like I’ve said before, I made the decision and I’m not complaining.” And if you fronted Mr. Bungle, at one time were the leader of the highly influential Faith No More-the band some say is responsible for the crossover of rap and metal, collaborated with everyone from avante-guardist John Zorn to Latin-metal’s Sepultera, released several solo albums and headed your own record label–you wouldn’t complain either. “I’m doing something that I enjoy,” says the 31-year-old Mike Patton, “and I definitely feel lucky.”

“In high school we were bored and had nothing better to do,” explains Patton. “So we started playing music.” Conceived more than 15 years ago in good old Humbolt County, the nation’s capital of heartburn, domestic violence and testicular cancer, Mr. Bungle have changed pop music. Actually they haven’t changed it, they’ve deconstructed it, milked it for all it’s worth, and added to it everything from surf, rockabilly, Romanian gypsy, disco and psychedelia. They’ve digested it, puked it back up and tossed it in the world’s face like yesterday’s spaghetti. Originally, the pre-pubescent Mr. Bungle started out as a pseudo death metal quartet, but that didn’t last very long. Soon, like a contortionist in a traveling circus freak show, Mr. Bungle found a way to fit themselves into any genre-sometimes all within one song. Whether it be funk, metal, punk, or hippie rock, Mr. Bungle bent over backwards to offend their audience. And not much has changed to this day. “Most people don’t have the inclination to do it or the courage to look like idiots,” says Patton, “and that’s one thing at this point that we’re not really afraid of.”

Let’s take a step back in time. What was it that interested Mike Patton in the arts. “Failure in sports, that’s what got me into music,” says Patton with a wicked chuckle. “Basically, I’m a failed jock. My father was a coach, so of course I had to play sports. I played sports and I loved it, but I just wasn’t very good. I met some other people and one day their singer didn’t show up.” That other person he met was Trevor Dunn, Mr. Bungle’s future bassist. “They said ‘you want to try this’ and I said ‘sure, I’ll try it’ and that was that.”

During the earlier parts of last decade Mr. Bungle readily played packed club shows in the Bay Area with the likes of the Limbomaniacs, the Deli Creeps, and many others . Eventually, they built up a large cult following. “San Francisco was the closest city to where we grew up so it kind of worked like a big magnet and we just ended up there,” says Patton about a young Mr. Bungle’s humble beginnings. “As far as being part of the scene, that never really worked for us. Even if we wanted to be a part of a scene they wouldn’t let us.” Shortly there after a slightly more mature Mr. Bungle released their debut album and vanished. Courtney Love was out of Faith No More and then eventually a really familiar looking guy showed up to take her place.

Maybe it really wasn’t such a great big secret after all. Even though it seemed that Mike Patton and the rest of his side project didn’t want the world to know his was the familiar face in Faith No More, he sported a Mr. Bungle shirt in one of their videos. But, now it seems as if Mr. Bungle had a change of heart. They now finally want to admit who fearlessly leads them. They’ve finally come clean. In previous album liner notes, Mike Patton listed himself as Vlad Drac and the rest of Mr. Bungle followed suit. They donned even more bizarre names; Scummy on guitars, Uncooked Meat Prior to State Vector Collapse on Keyboards and I Quit played the woodblock. Not only were Mr. Bungle’s names shrouded in mystery, but also the band itself were shrouded in mystery–shrouded in Halloween masks and funky costumes that is. Donning the costumes of everything from Darth Vader to a Werewolf  to wearing just plain leather bondage masks, Mike Patton preached his Mr. Bungle gospel of horror, pornography, clowns and coffee. And are they still at? “We’ve found our old magic and we’re wearing costumes again,” explains Patton.” So like a magician that wants to expose his tricks, Mr. Bungle have exposed their identities…well sort of; they are Bår on horns and keyboards, Trevor Dunn on bass and keyboards, Danny Heifetz on Percussions and keyboards and Trey Spruance playing guitar and keyboards. But on tour and in the studio the band is not opposed to hiring contract musicians to round out their sound.

“It all started when I met (avant saxophonist John Zorn, who produced the debut Mr. Bungle album) at a show and basically we went up to him like a bunch of bozos and gave him a tape,” explains Patton. “We said, ‘hey we think you might like this, we’re looking for someone to produce our record.’ He said I’ve never done much production and we said we don’t care. He liked it. We liked him. It was at a time where we knew what we wanted our music to sound like but it was also the first time we went into a real studio to make a record. You kind of need someone to hold your hand and that’s what he did. He’s a good hand-holder. He was amazing and I think it was a good experience and I think that’s what’s kept me involved with him over the years.”

“We make records so seldom that in each of those records there are about five or six years of stuff in there,” explains Patton. “We’re really an inactive band. We’ve been a band for fifteen years and we’ve only done three records and about five or six tours. It’s kind of shameful. Our first record (the self-titled Warner Bros. release) was just us in our teenage years. The second one (Disco Volante also on Warner) was with a lot more experimentation; us trying to find new ways of doing what we do. And the third (the recently released California, also on Warner Bros.) was…I don’t know…us getting hairpieces or something. Actually we were all trying to reel all this shit in a little bit. We tried to harness the stuff and put it into actual songs.”

For many a year it seemed as if Patton treated Mr. Bungle like a stepchild. Collaborating with it only when he had the time. But now things are a little different. Patton has finally completely adopted Mr. Bungle…wholeheartedly. “Bungle is pretty much a priority for all of us,” says Patton. “First of all Mr. Bungle is used to me being absent, but things are different now. Pretty much whatever I do, I consider important. I don’t put one project ahead of another, but certain things take up more time than the others. And when I was with Faith No More, boy that took up a lot of time! So obviously squeezing things in got really tricky. Now is the first time that Bungle actually looked each other in the eyes and said let’s make a go of this…let’s do a long tour…let’s open up for bands we don’t necessarily understand or like, lets try some new things. [We decided to] go out and try to actually promote this record. This is the first time we’ve been able to do that. We are all kind of excited now because we have a chance to act like a real band.”

Mr. Bungle is actually acting like a real band on tour right now. “It’s funny we’re doing a tour called Snowcore which is a complete joke,” says Patton. The joke is that Mr. Bungle is a Technicolor band in a dull black and white  world. “Some nights the crowd takes it, some nights they don’t. It’s interesting, it’s funny, and it’s definitely a new situation for us. I’ve been at odds with the audience for a while over the years, especially with Faith No More doing big tours where people in the crowd aren’t really out there to see you or see anything. They are there to pick up on each other and get hammered and do whatever it is that they are going to do. But on a tour like this, it’s not our crowd. So it’s an interesting experience, like I said, some nights it works and other nights its comical.”
But what’s really funny are some of the ages of Mr. Bungle’s fans. “I guess I can see it, Mike Patton says about the young kids who attend Mr. Bungle shows, “a lot of times I try and turn the other way because I don’t want to see it. It seems strange to me that for the most part our fans are young kids. I have fans coming up to me and saying you were one of the first concerts I’ve ever seen. Faith No More was the first band, I ever saw. ‘Hold old were you then,’ I ask them and they say ‘I was 9 years old’, I feel like a grandfather or something. I don’t know how but whatever it is that we are doing crossed a generation and I don’t know what happened. To be honest I’m not really too interested in knowing who our audience really is. I think there is a danger in knowing too much.” But, they are very appreciative of Patton and Mr. Bungle exposing them to new sounds and styles of music. “Sometimes they’ll say “hey look, you opened this door for me,” says Patton. “And, that’s the best compliment I can get doing what I do. “It’s a nice thing to hear.”

Mr. Bungle has been singed to Warner Brothers Records for the existence of it’s career. And with a major record label comes major head aches, right? “Up until now, not really, I say that because I see a black cloud coming my way in the distance,” explains Patton. “They’ve been good to us so far and I would emphasize the so far bit. I really think our day is coming. We’ve been lucky. Like I say, if it’s important to you, you’ll make it work. There are a million other labels. Realistically, I don’t know why they’ve held on to us this long and I wouldn’t be surprised if they drop kicked us out the door one day. Although I think it’s great that it hasn’t happened, but I’m also not kidding myself. We are not EVER going to have a fucking radio hit and that kind of is what matters in this industry these.
If you haven’t ever heard Mr. Bungle, it is virtually impossible to categorize them. They’ve taken pieces of just about every style of music imaginable and turned it into a massive car wreck set to circus tunes. Groovy funk guitar and smooth base lines instantly morph into vicious grindcore and then take a wide left turn into the land of surf, all within the framework of one song. Often times Mr. Bungle is compared to Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention. If someone were to say to you, that you are this generations Frank Zappa, what would you say? “I’d say go to hell,” says Patton. “I think my dad had a Frank Zappa record. It was one of the few records that I liked that he had,” says Patton. “But we get the Zappa comparison quite a lot. Probably the biggest similarities are that we work inside the rock cocoon and did different things with it…that’s all.”

With all these styles of music running throughout the Bungle sound, how do you suppose the band has a chance to expose themselves to all this creativity? “If it’s important to you,” says Patton, “you make the time. This is like my life, it’s important to me. I spend a lot of time in record stores. Friends of mine, that’s pretty much all we talk about. I like going into some place like Amoeba and saying ‘O.K. what’s gonna change my life today?’”

Mr. Bungle’s newest release, California, is chalk full of studio trickery, layers and layers of samples and riffs and vocals and noise. “It is tough to play this shit live and we’ve suffered for it,” explains Patton. “But it’s okay, we’ve figured out a way to do it. We’ve incorporated samplers, which is something we haven’t done much in the past. We’ve hired a couple of extra members. If you want to make it work you make it work. In the old days we were into the Animal House kind of thing. We’d sit around and jam and that’s how we’d write songs. Over the years you get less interested in doing that, now we all kind of write on our own and then bring stuff into the room and bounce it off the walls and whatever sticks is what goes on the record. If you are thinking about how you are going to play it live then you are sunk. If you sensor yourself before you’ve even recorded the music then why are you even in there, what are you doing?  You should never think about that shit first, that’s a big fucking no-no.

Aside from his tenure as frontman for Faith No More, Mike Patton is most notably known for his amazing vocal range. All within a short few moments during a song, Patton can gently go from a barley audible whisper, to a Beach Boys-type thing,  to a shrieking wail. He can nail virtually every vocal style imaginable. So then, has Patton had any real formal training? Any vocal lessons? “Training, oh god no,” explains Patton. “I went to a vocal lesson one time and the guy, my teacher, made a huge pass at me. This old Liberache type and he was like ‘I’ve taught Stevie Wonder and this guy and that guy.’ He just kept putting his arm around me and tickling me and I just said I don’t think this is for me.” So then how does Patton do it? “I start out by imitating, by stealing little things here or there. You know, you start out playing six or seven nights a week and try and somehow make all of that parroting and copying of styles here and there work. You throw it all together and hopefully what comes out is your own style. There’s no other way I can explain it. Technique wise I don’t know what I’m doing and I’m sure I’m doing it wrong, but it works for me and I feel good when I’m doing it and I don’t know what the hell else I’d do if I weren’t doing that.”

What’s Patton’s take on the music of today? “It saddens me sometimes when I talk to musicians,” says Patton. “I remember this guy in Morbid Angel came up to me and said ‘You are lucky that you can do this, you can play what ever you want to play.’ I said ‘what the fuck are you talking about? Anybody can play what they want to play…yes you can. Who’s holding you prisoner?’ “Not that I ever want to hear morbid angel playing the blues or anything. There is absolutely no reason to be miserable.”

“By and large most of the music I see out there makes me sick to my stomach, complains Patton. . It’s very rare that you really see something that kind of blows your head off.” So Patton started his own record label called Ipecac to put out music that blow off heads. “We put [music] out for music’s sake. It’s going great it’s been a real great experience so far. It’s been too easy. I  really am still waiting for the bomb to drop on this whole thing or for us to sign some assholes and sue us for millions. Everything has been very easy and predictable. The records have sold great. There’s been no major nightmares and I’m looking forward to next year.”

So will we ever see the Ipecac logo on the back of a future Mr. Bungle release. “Well, Bungle requires a lot  of baby sitting in the monetary department. I’ll put out a Mr. Bungle album and cross that bridge when we come to it. We’re spoiled being on a major label. If we were on an indy, we’d have to change our tune. We work really slow and we end up spending a lot of money and time on records.”