FAITH NOIR Mike Patton
Jun 06, 2008
Mike Patton dips into film scoring.
By Doug Wallen
“I’ve always had a turn-on for film music. I wanted to give it a try,” says Mike Patton, the man from Fantomas and Peeping Tom (and, previously, Faith No More and Mr. Bungle) who’s made some insane music over the years and lent his vocal gymnastics to everyone from John Zorn to Bjork. The chance finally came when filmmaker Derrick Scocchera brought him the black-and-white short A Perfect Place, about two guys trying to get rid of a corpse.
“This was a little training-wheels way of doing [a film score],” Patton explains. Still, he wound up composing twice as much music as needed for the 25-minute noir. “I was so excited that I went a little overboard.” Having 50 minutes of music made it a natural decision to release the score and film as a CD/DVD package via Patton’s record label, Ipecac. “It was a no-brainer. I have a label, my friend has a short film. There’s no real outlet for that.”
Technically, this isn’t Patton’s first foray into film. Though it may surprise fans of his out-there output, he provided “voices” for the creatures in the Will Smith blockbuster I Am Legend. “It sort of landed in my lap. They were dissatisfied with their zombie sound effects and I guess they wondered if it’d be possible for a human to make these sounds.”
He’s also voiced videogames, including the title role in the upcoming re-imagining of Bionic Commando, an ’80s classic about a soldier with a extendable robotic arm. (“Yeah, the guy with the arm,” he laughs.) Patton says it’s not such a big leap. “It’s like putting on another suit. I have this set of tools to work with.”
As if his dance card wasn’t crowded enough, he’s finishing up an album from his latest undertaking, Mondo Cane. “It’s a big, complicated project,” he admits, citing a 10-piece band plus a full symphony orchestra and choir. The project was inspired by Italian pop crooners from the ’50s and ’60s who enlisted top arrangers and composers for backing. “It’s my version of that music, so it’s a little bit twisted and I definitely rearranged some things. But it’s me in that environment.”
When asked if the album’s coming out on Ipecac, Patton cackles and replies, “Who else would do it?”
[Photo Credit: Dustin Rabin]
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