Mike Patton
I lived in Italy for quite a while and married an Italian woman. While there, I immersed myself in the complete culture: the music, art, literature, film, food, and history. It's easy to fall in love with. As a country, Italy does a good job of holding onto its rich traditions and culture. There's a real lack of embracing history in America.Collection: History
I have to make an effort about things like going to the grocery store. That stuff reminds me that I don't live in the real world, and you know what? I'm thankful.Collection: Thankful
I've always been in awe of filmmakers and their patience in realizing their vision because I could never do that.Collection: Patience
With Faith No More, even though we're a bunch of old men, what I remember about our best shows is some sort of confrontation with the audience.Collection: Faith
If I was in a bad mood, then maybe I won't talk about it, but you're going to know about it somehow. If something was bothering me, maybe I would have acted a little bit like a child, meaning I go break something in a room.
The creative process for a musician is very different than for a filmmaker. I have an idea, and I can pretty much execute it.
You can get bored up there on stage, night after night. But it's an open forum where you can get away with almost anything, so you might as well do it.
I saw G.G. Allin live once.
I lived in Bologna. I go back quite often, and I still have lots of connections and lots of friends. It was a nice period in my life.
In earlier years, I was more of a clown with a big bag of tricks. I'd show up in the studio and kind of go, 'Well, what do you want? Do you want the screaming banshee or the howling owl?'
My wife is Italian, and I lived there for six years.
There's a danger in anything that is unfamiliar. That's the world we live in.
I'm at a point now where I crave healthy musical environments, where there is a genuine exchange of ideas without repressed envy or resentment, and where people in the band want to be there regardless of what public accolades may come their way. Unfortunately, Mr. Bungle was not one of those places.
Everything with Peeping Tom is kind of a guessing game. It's constantly exhilarating but also exhausting.
'A Perfect Place' is character-driven. The director for that wanted a couple of identifiable themes with a bunch of variations. That is what I did. The director for 'The Solitude of Prime Numbers' did not want that at all.
I like the cut of my gib. I dislike the way I move.
With Mr. Bungle, I'd lay down a really rough demo of my vocals and then play them for the guys without telling them what I was saying. Our drummer at the time had the coolest takes on what he thought I was saying, so I'd ask him to write out what he thought the lyrics were.
I don't like to use toilets - ever.
I know where my bread is buttered, and for the most part, I'm better off doing my own thing.
Golf is the only sport I've encountered where you can really suck but still have a good time.
I write lyrics based on music, on a musical flow, and what sounds good at the time.
That's what my music is good for - clearing out the house and being alone.
I grew up in a really small town.
Movies were, to me, like a way out. It was an escape valve. I remember having my parents drop me off at movies all the time.
When you come into a pre-existing situation, you gotta have your own thing going. You gotta be really strong about it, and you gotta look at the older material in an aggressive way - 'I'm gonna make this mine somehow.' You need to put your imprint on the situation that you're in.
I've had at least a couple botched surgeries.
To me, the stage is like the free zone. That's what makes it exhilarating. For whatever reason, there's this weird little square where it's kind of a romper room for adults.
There has to be an element of danger, or at least an element of intrigue, for a band to be interesting.
Legacy is something you talk about when you're dead - and I'm not dead yet.
The music should speak for itself, and hopefully it will.
Relationships are complicated - put it that way, okay?
Hearing other peoples' interpretations of your lyrics, to me, is just a total kick in the pants. Half the time, they're better.
I'm not some young tough guy trying to prove a point anymore.
I think you create your own freedom.
I think you create your own boundaries, and you work within them.
Being able to have a home studio is the greatest thing ever.
I always forget about some of the things I've done, because you do 'em, and sometimes they don't come out, and... most of it's almost like daily chores or something. You check it off your list, and then it's gone.
Forgive me, but Wolfmother, you suck!
I'm not in the business of suffering.
There are reasons that bands and musicians make demos and outtakes - because they are not good enough to make the record. A lot of people forget that.
Touring is a weird thing. It's like getting married to four different people.
I've had the new band experience plenty of times, and sometimes, it just sort of peters out.
I'm not a trained musician.
I remember playing with John Zorn and Ikue Mori in Taiwan in a school classroom. There were, like, 15 people there, maybe, and they were sitting at the classroom desks, and we played under the chalkboard. There's no difference between playing that and the 'download' festival.
Part of what Faith No More shows are is chaos and unpredictability.
Not all ideas are like a twinkling star in the sky, and you get inspired to make a record the next day.
I had never been taken in like I was in Italy just by saying a few words. That made me feel like I had to put in the effort, and I want to be one of them.
When you do live abroad, you're basically searching for some kind of peace.
The only way I can make sense of my music is to compartmentalize it as opposed to having one band that I have to throw everything into. For me, it's just more fun and more challenging to create little worlds where a song or a piece can make sense.
We're constantly being fed images and being told what to like and what is good, and for the most part, I think people enjoy living that way. It takes a lot of the thinking out of it.