Faithless – Interview

In New York with Sister Bliss.

How does Faithless come together to make songs?

The studio band is me, Rollo, and Maxi. Me and Rollo produce and Rollo also writes lyrics, but I’d never try to write lyrics for Maxi just as he’d never play my keyboards.

Is there something that inspires you to take a certain direction to make music or do you just sit down and let it play itself out?

God, it’s kind of a lot of things. The point of music is to express feelings. We just want to express ourselves and we have compositions where we try to do that. We have lots of different elements. We have a Buddhist rapper, a house producer, and a songwriter/composer. And a lot of songs just come from conversations we have between relationships to life. That is the inspiration, as well as other people’s music.

I’m so interested in the thought of music itself without lyrics provoking feelings.

That is the only thing I know how to do.

So it’s natural.

Definitely. I’ve always been artistic, but I wasn’t sure music was what I wanted to do. I fell into it. It happened organically. It was always the thing that made me happiest. It was what I enjoyed the most. I loved to play music with people. I’m not a solo type of person. I love being in the studio and I think I work best with others. I mean, I love the lyrics Maxi writes. I can’t write lyrics like that.

A lot of people are used to expression in lyrics, but when a song moves you without lyrics, I think that is unbelievable.

Faithless is all of those things. I think it’s about creating an atmosphere. It’s about being honest and creating a mood. If you can’t do these then you should go home. We have instrumentals that are moving, but I love songwriting.

Who got you into producing and being a musician?

My dad was a jazz musician, so there was always music in the house. I never thought I would make a living out of it, I just did it for the love of it. I started around the time house music came about, in like 1987, 1988. My dad always had synthesizers in the house and I bought an old computer off of a dj friend of mine and I was making tunes in my mom’s bedroom. I was so passionate about that sound because I never heard anything like it. And it’s interesting that house music is still here twelve, thirteen years later and beginning to become a potent force in America, even though you invented it. It just became a lifestyle for me. I live and breathe house music. I’m a complete train-spotter. Every time I saw a dj, I was looking over his shoulder, seeing what he was doing, so I just thought, ‘Why don’t I just dj?’.

What was the computer you bought?

An Atari.

That’s what I thought.

They made the first.

I was going to ask you if it was an Atari because I know somebody who has one and he doesn’t turn it on because he’s afraid it’ll break.

You know, I was in Fatboy Slim’s studio the other day and he still has an Atari. He hasn’t moved on to Protools yet. He hasn’t abandoned his old computer for the newest thing, and it touched me. But I have to say the new ways you can produce music is so exciting.

When people think Atari, they think Space Invaders.

Exactly, and Pong. We use a lot of tape and it just took longer to do what we wanted to, and when you listen you will be like, ‘Oh my God, they sequenced that album on an Atari.’ It is musical and rich with a lot of depth.

I think that has been the argument for guitars today and the lack of tubes and that it doesn’t sound as warm.

I think sometimes you just have to leave technology alone and go with your feelings and sometimes you can use a lot of digital equipment and it will come out sounding cold, but when you have someone like Maxi or Dido it comes off sounding amazing. But honestly, I think digital music can sound very warm. I’m very turned on by synthesizers. The machine still has to be operated by man.

Speaking of operating machines, how long did it take for you to become a good dj?

Well, for a long time I drove the people with absolutely crazy. When I first got my decks, I got a gig. It was just a house party, but, boy, was it fun.

What were you mixing?

It was early house and a lot of British music and Acid house.

When you finished up the last album and you had to tour, you were gone touring for three years. That must have been unusual and tough.

It was. For a while we weren’t going to tour, but then the album blew up all over Europe and then we had to tour.

Was that the longest you were away from home?

Yeah, there were little bits of coming back, but not much. It turned our lives upside down. We never thought Faithless would be as successful as it was. We had no idea it would explode like that. The first gig was a few hundred people and then it exploded. It was so long that it was a head-fry. It was amazing. After our first gig, the next gig was to three and a half thousand people and moving upwards up to ten thousand. Our second week we were touring with the Fugees. Actually it was amazing, but I was having a tough time of it. I felt divorced from everything. But I think because of all that touring we really developed as a band.

Were there worries about trying to follow that album up?

Not really. We all had a year break. Maxi loves racing cars and put a racing team together and got his fix, and I was djing. So when we got together again we were exciting about working on the album. I think the reason the last album was more introspective because we had to come right off touring and record an album and we all had relationships that broke up. This album is more outrospective, thus the name, it is outward looking. We are still learning.

Were you all surprised by Dido’s explosion?

Yeah. We know how hard it is for English bands to make it in the States. I have to say she worked her fucking ass off. She really worked hard. But she has great songs that touch people. I think her voice is lovely. I remember six years ago when we first brought her in to sing and her brother was like, ‘Don’t give up your day job, love.’ (laughs) I think she got the determination from that.

Honestly, she is the one who turned me on to Faithless.

I’m glad she is doing the promotions. I’m glad she is flying the flag. I think our music touches so many people and it’s great to know she feels it too and talks about us.

How does it feel to touch so many people with something you create?

Weird, I guess. (laughs) I feel really lucky, but there is a price. You play to thousands and thousands of people every night, but afterwards you missing being at home. It is a weird feeling because you feel like life is going on without you, and that is kind of heartbreaking in some ways.

It has to be weird to put all your emotions on the line every night and not always get them back.

Well, we sometimes get feedback, and the best is from people who’ve never heard of us before and they say, ‘Fuck me, you just blew my mind,’ and that is just the best. That is like having sex with ten thousand people.

+ charlie craine