Mike Patton
A Man Without Boundaries
2008-04-14
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If you were to give Mike Patton a pair of raincoats, three pennies, a lead pipe and a microphone, you’d probably have a gold record on your hands. His prolific musical life has seen unending success with the likes of Mr. Bungle, Faith No More, Fantomas, Lovage and Peeping Tom, to name a few. Recently, Patton has taken his copious talents to the silver screen, performing voice-overs for the zombie creatures of I Am Legend as well as composing his first film score for the black and white short, A Perfect Place. And, keeping with his trend of producing quality records, the score of A Perfect Place is nothing short of hauntingly beautiful, drawing heavily from Latin big band and the spookiness of film noir’s past. Bottom line: The score far outshines the film itself. In anticipation of A Perfect Place’s April 15th release, Synthesis caught up with Mike to discuss all the latest.
The past couple years has seen your career take a turn toward film; Firecracker, Romances, I Am Legend and most currently your musical contribution to A Perfect Place. What is it that’s pulling you in this direction?
To be honest, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I feel like I’m still just getting started. I’ve always been a fan of film music, and I’ve always made music that was a little bit cinematic in nature. I’ve borrowed a lot from film over the years, and always thought it’d be something I’d like to try; I just don’t run in those kind of circles… Just getting my feet wet a little bit made me think, “Wow, maybe I should investigate this a little bit more.”
How did you become involved with Fantoma Films?
I knew the guys that were running it… It’s just a comfortable, unique situation. It wasn’t like I had to go to 10 meetings in Hollywood and grease a bunch of palms to get this done [laughs].
What was the process to get the ball rolling?
He had a script written and I basically read the script, he showed me a little bit of footage after they’d filmed it—and we’re friendly enough that he was pretty much able to pretty much talk the concepts through to me—and I mocked up a couple things. He liked them, gave me a little bit of direction here and there, and that was that.
Being as this was your debut as a film composer, what were some challenges you might not have previously encountered in the band setting?
Well, a little bit. If you’re playing in a band where all things are equal and you’re kind of group composing; in some ways it’s not that much different because you’re dealing with opinions other than your own. You’re a small cog in a large machine, and this was similar, I believe, to that. When you’re composing on your own, it’s very different—which is more of what I’ve been doing these days, writing stuff for bands and writing stuff for myself. In that sense it begins and ends with you… In film composing you’re just a small piece. You ultimately have to defer to the director, and you’re just helping him realize his vision. I had to fight myself a little bit to strip the music down, to not overdo it, to keep realizing that, yes, there’s dialogue going over this. It’s really just enhancing an image, and in that regard it was a challenge for me.
Did you perform most of the instrumentation yourself?
Most of it, yeah. A lot of it was done with keyboards and samplers and things like that. I brought in a couple of percussionists and a couple of horn players, but otherwise I did everything.
Influences: What were you listening to during the creative process?
I was…listening a lot to Elmer Bernstein; Man With a Golden Arm. I was listening to Latin big band composers; I was listening to a little bit of John Barry; I borrowed a couple things from Marcone here and there… If you’re gonna go borrow something, or steal it, it may as well be at a good store [laughs]. I borrowed some other things from some of the period pieces on there. I listened to Enrique Caruso, Rudy Valez, Lee Hazelwood.
Had you been looking for an outlet to produce this type of music?
I never really thought about it. It’s not like I said to myself, “I gotta make a big band record one day.” That’s not a horrible idea, but I guess it must have been clanging around in my brain because it came out very naturally and basically I did what the film dictated. Source material as well as incidental…
Do you have any ambition to perform any of the music?
No [laughter]. I think it’s better left on record. It’s not out of question…
Are there projects of a similar ilk down the pipe?
Nothing yet… I’ve been meeting with a few directors and have been contacted about doing some TV stuff; we’ll see. I would say that there’s similar things on the horizon, but I haven’t signed on to anything yet.
Is film composing, though, something you could see yourself pursuing down the line?
Absolutely. I feel like there’s a connection there. But like I said it all really depends on who you know and how hard you’re willing to work it. We’ll see if I have the stones for it [laughs].
You’ve lent your voice to both film and video games. The Darkness, The Portal…How does the experience compare your other recent involvements in film, such as I Am Legend?
The only stuff I’ve done in video games so far is voice over. You’re basically just an actor and that’s much closer to being a session hired gun or whatever. You kind of come in for a few hours, they put a bunch of lines in front of you and you do it. Even within that context some of them are different. Doing the I Am Legend sessions was very different than doing any of the other voice over stuff I’ve done, because that was wordless. It was basically doing vocal noise improv to a Will Smith film, which was quite bizarre but really fun. I just did a game called Bionic Commando; kind of grueling… Let’s just say they give you a line that says, “I’m going to the store.” You have to do that line an infinite number of ways. Inflections on each word; do it angry, do it sad… You really got to pull out a bag of tricks to make these people happy.
Seeing as you have been staying quite busy on the film side of things, what’s the status of your straight musical projects?
Come summertime I have a new project coming out called Mondo Carne; this Italian project I did with an orchestra. It’s kind of a crooning thing; arrangements of ‘50s and ‘60s Italian pop. It’s been a long time coming.
You have worked with a laundry list of artists over the years. If you could pick one person to collaborate with that you have not, who would it be?
Let’s go with George Jones or Tony Bennett. Why not? Two heroes of mine. I’ve always thought it would be fun to do a record of duets. Kind of seeking out singers that have gotten my blood boiling over the years.
Given your prolific nature, are you constantly approached with offers of collaboration?
Sometimes. Sometimes. There’s been a few of those recently, and you know, you got to be careful. One thing I like to do is try to keep a balance. Balance on collaborations, balance on your own stuff. It would be very easy to just kind of sit back and guest on people’s records for the rest of your life. And although I really like doing that, I can see the dangers of it. I can see where you could really just become a bit of a jingle factory. “Do your thing over this, do your thing over that.” I think that would be really depressing if I did too much of that. These days I’m trying to be a little bit more conscious and keep a balance.
The past couple years has seen your career take a turn toward film; Firecracker, Romances, I Am Legend and most currently your musical contribution to A Perfect Place. What is it that’s pulling you in this direction?
To be honest, it’s something I’ve always wanted to do, and I feel like I’m still just getting started. I’ve always been a fan of film music, and I’ve always made music that was a little bit cinematic in nature. I’ve borrowed a lot from film over the years, and always thought it’d be something I’d like to try; I just don’t run in those kind of circles… Just getting my feet wet a little bit made me think, “Wow, maybe I should investigate this a little bit more.”
How did you become involved with Fantoma Films?
I knew the guys that were running it… It’s just a comfortable, unique situation. It wasn’t like I had to go to 10 meetings in Hollywood and grease a bunch of palms to get this done [laughs].
What was the process to get the ball rolling?
He had a script written and I basically read the script, he showed me a little bit of footage after they’d filmed it—and we’re friendly enough that he was pretty much able to pretty much talk the concepts through to me—and I mocked up a couple things. He liked them, gave me a little bit of direction here and there, and that was that.
Being as this was your debut as a film composer, what were some challenges you might not have previously encountered in the band setting?
Well, a little bit. If you’re playing in a band where all things are equal and you’re kind of group composing; in some ways it’s not that much different because you’re dealing with opinions other than your own. You’re a small cog in a large machine, and this was similar, I believe, to that. When you’re composing on your own, it’s very different—which is more of what I’ve been doing these days, writing stuff for bands and writing stuff for myself. In that sense it begins and ends with you… In film composing you’re just a small piece. You ultimately have to defer to the director, and you’re just helping him realize his vision. I had to fight myself a little bit to strip the music down, to not overdo it, to keep realizing that, yes, there’s dialogue going over this. It’s really just enhancing an image, and in that regard it was a challenge for me.
Did you perform most of the instrumentation yourself?
Most of it, yeah. A lot of it was done with keyboards and samplers and things like that. I brought in a couple of percussionists and a couple of horn players, but otherwise I did everything.
Influences: What were you listening to during the creative process?
I was…listening a lot to Elmer Bernstein; Man With a Golden Arm. I was listening to Latin big band composers; I was listening to a little bit of John Barry; I borrowed a couple things from Marcone here and there… If you’re gonna go borrow something, or steal it, it may as well be at a good store [laughs]. I borrowed some other things from some of the period pieces on there. I listened to Enrique Caruso, Rudy Valez, Lee Hazelwood.
Had you been looking for an outlet to produce this type of music?
I never really thought about it. It’s not like I said to myself, “I gotta make a big band record one day.” That’s not a horrible idea, but I guess it must have been clanging around in my brain because it came out very naturally and basically I did what the film dictated. Source material as well as incidental…
Do you have any ambition to perform any of the music?
No [laughter]. I think it’s better left on record. It’s not out of question…
Are there projects of a similar ilk down the pipe?
Nothing yet… I’ve been meeting with a few directors and have been contacted about doing some TV stuff; we’ll see. I would say that there’s similar things on the horizon, but I haven’t signed on to anything yet.
Is film composing, though, something you could see yourself pursuing down the line?
Absolutely. I feel like there’s a connection there. But like I said it all really depends on who you know and how hard you’re willing to work it. We’ll see if I have the stones for it [laughs].
You’ve lent your voice to both film and video games. The Darkness, The Portal…How does the experience compare your other recent involvements in film, such as I Am Legend?
The only stuff I’ve done in video games so far is voice over. You’re basically just an actor and that’s much closer to being a session hired gun or whatever. You kind of come in for a few hours, they put a bunch of lines in front of you and you do it. Even within that context some of them are different. Doing the I Am Legend sessions was very different than doing any of the other voice over stuff I’ve done, because that was wordless. It was basically doing vocal noise improv to a Will Smith film, which was quite bizarre but really fun. I just did a game called Bionic Commando; kind of grueling… Let’s just say they give you a line that says, “I’m going to the store.” You have to do that line an infinite number of ways. Inflections on each word; do it angry, do it sad… You really got to pull out a bag of tricks to make these people happy.
Seeing as you have been staying quite busy on the film side of things, what’s the status of your straight musical projects?
Come summertime I have a new project coming out called Mondo Carne; this Italian project I did with an orchestra. It’s kind of a crooning thing; arrangements of ‘50s and ‘60s Italian pop. It’s been a long time coming.
You have worked with a laundry list of artists over the years. If you could pick one person to collaborate with that you have not, who would it be?
Let’s go with George Jones or Tony Bennett. Why not? Two heroes of mine. I’ve always thought it would be fun to do a record of duets. Kind of seeking out singers that have gotten my blood boiling over the years.
Given your prolific nature, are you constantly approached with offers of collaboration?
Sometimes. Sometimes. There’s been a few of those recently, and you know, you got to be careful. One thing I like to do is try to keep a balance. Balance on collaborations, balance on your own stuff. It would be very easy to just kind of sit back and guest on people’s records for the rest of your life. And although I really like doing that, I can see the dangers of it. I can see where you could really just become a bit of a jingle factory. “Do your thing over this, do your thing over that.” I think that would be really depressing if I did too much of that. These days I’m trying to be a little bit more conscious and keep a balance.
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