Mike Patton
Master Plan
2007-12-14
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Peeping Tom is the nom de guerre of Mike Patton’s latest release, an FTP’ed musical mélange featuring an eclectic cast of collaborators like Kool Keith, Massive Attack, Amon Tobin, Dan the Automator and Norah Jones. Working around his many roles, from frontman for Fantômas and Tomahawk to running Ipecac Records, Patton spent five years fermenting Peeping Tom and wrangling files from 12 different collaborators. The result is an always entertaining, frenetic, sometimes surprising variation on the theme of pop music by Patton.
Let’s talk about the how the Peeping Tom project worked; did you come up with the basic tracking for songs and then send it out to your collaborators, or did you send them a finished product?
I sent them a finished product in that the songs were written and the arrangements hammered out. But there were some weak parts, usually in the beat department. That’s why I gravitated towards programmers and producers and beat-makers as opposed to guitarists or keyboardists. When I was writing this stuff, it became clear to me that I didn’t want to hire an organic band for this. I wanted more of an electronic rhythm section, and I also realized simultaneously I was a horrible programmer.
Did you have a master scheme, or it was an organic process?
For the most part, I gave people pretty specific instructions like, “look at the bass and drums on the verse, but leave the chorus alone.” Or, “I am not happy with the arrangement...rearrange this.” I tried to give some freedom within those instructions. It was a mixture. To be honest, nothing’s worse than getting asked to be a guest on something and having someone say, “Do whatever you want.” It’s nice to be directed and to help someone realize their vision, so I tried to give people something to work with.
Is this a process you’d go through again?
Sure! I’d probably streamline it a bit. Instead of giving it out to 30 different people, or whatever the hell I did, I’d probably select five and really stay on them. I think I was a little too diplomatic [laughs]—“Aww get it back to me when you feel like it.” I was just so happy to be working with these people, the deadlines became quite elastic.
Any plans for this summer and beyond?
This summer I’m kinda ping-ponging about between a few projects. Peeping Tom is up for a couple of fall tours. Otherwise I have a bunch of stuff to do at home in the studio, a couple of film scores, working on a new Tomahawk record and a few other things.
Is staying busy important, a part of who you are?
Yeah, it happens without me thinking about it [laughs]. It just feels natural for me to work that way. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Everyone in this world is busy and has too much shit going on. Mine is just all work-related.
Let’s talk about the how the Peeping Tom project worked; did you come up with the basic tracking for songs and then send it out to your collaborators, or did you send them a finished product?
I sent them a finished product in that the songs were written and the arrangements hammered out. But there were some weak parts, usually in the beat department. That’s why I gravitated towards programmers and producers and beat-makers as opposed to guitarists or keyboardists. When I was writing this stuff, it became clear to me that I didn’t want to hire an organic band for this. I wanted more of an electronic rhythm section, and I also realized simultaneously I was a horrible programmer.
Did you have a master scheme, or it was an organic process?
For the most part, I gave people pretty specific instructions like, “look at the bass and drums on the verse, but leave the chorus alone.” Or, “I am not happy with the arrangement...rearrange this.” I tried to give some freedom within those instructions. It was a mixture. To be honest, nothing’s worse than getting asked to be a guest on something and having someone say, “Do whatever you want.” It’s nice to be directed and to help someone realize their vision, so I tried to give people something to work with.
Is this a process you’d go through again?
Sure! I’d probably streamline it a bit. Instead of giving it out to 30 different people, or whatever the hell I did, I’d probably select five and really stay on them. I think I was a little too diplomatic [laughs]—“Aww get it back to me when you feel like it.” I was just so happy to be working with these people, the deadlines became quite elastic.
Any plans for this summer and beyond?
This summer I’m kinda ping-ponging about between a few projects. Peeping Tom is up for a couple of fall tours. Otherwise I have a bunch of stuff to do at home in the studio, a couple of film scores, working on a new Tomahawk record and a few other things.
Is staying busy important, a part of who you are?
Yeah, it happens without me thinking about it [laughs]. It just feels natural for me to work that way. I don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Everyone in this world is busy and has too much shit going on. Mine is just all work-related.
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