Mike Patton / Photo by Jay Blakesberg
Three years ago, Mike Patton (Faith No More, Fantomas, Mr. Bungle, etc.) unveiled a new chapter in his work with a series of live concerts fronting a 30-piece orchestral unit billed as Mondo Cane (pronounced "Mondo Con-ay"). The name, plucked from a 1963 Italian documentary about bizarre traditions and rituals around the globe, means "a dog's world." But more to the point is that the movie introduced the Oscar-winning hit song "More," whose soaring romanticism has become emblematic worldwide of a musical point in time. That time is Italy in the early 1960s, when Rome was one of the major film capitals of the world. Italian soundtrack music has enjoyed a renaissance of interest in recent years, long enough for collectors to become wise to the fact that many Italian film composers (Ennio Morricone, Riz Ortolani and Piero Umiliani, to name a few) got their start as tunesmiths and orchestra arrangers for Italian pop records.
Patton's Mondo Cane is a rich and heartfelt celebration of Italian pop music, a special breed distinguished by innovative instrumentation, orchestral color, playful gimmickry (sea sounds, heavy breathing, gun shots) and, particularly in the case of romantic ballads, grand operatic passion. The heroes of this particular world are people like Gianni Morandi, Adriano Celentano, Don Backy, and the sublime Mina, not to mention any number of crossover artists who left their marks on this narrow but deep shelf of music, like Gene Pitney, Connie Francis, and Francoise Hardy. Patton's long-awaited first Mondo Cane album (more volumes will follow) was just released on his own Ipecac Recordings, which has previously put out such Italian soundtrack compilations as Ennio Morricone's Crime and Dissonance. (One of Morricone's compositions, "Deep Down," from the 1968 Mario Bava film Danger: Diabolik, is a highlight of Mondo Cane.)
All the lyrics are in Italian, but if you can accept Patton's vocals as one of many instruments in a deliriously colorful stew, the words somehow convey their meaning through his virtuoso inflection. This is not a tribute album, but rather an up-to-date, impassioned, mouth-to-mouth resuscitation of a music of feeling that deserves to be better known internationally. And don't expect it's all sweetness and light: "Urlo Negro" ("Black Howl") is as throat-stripping a number as anything Fantomas ever released. Here Patton, 42, speaks about the Mondo Cane project and his plans with the recently reunited Faith No More.
Mondo Cane adds another color to your impressive spectrum of musical expression. I'm sure you must get a lot of business counsel to be "just one thing." How do you make a career of such diversity work for you?
No one has suggested I do just one thing for years. It wouldn't matter. That isn't something I would ever consider. As an artist, I would never let myself get boxed in. I'm a human being too and, like most humans, I have interest in many different types of music. I also get easily bored. There are so many ideas that I have in my mind, of projects that I would love to tackle, people I would love to work with, genres I would love to experiment with, and sounds that don't fit any of my previous projects that I need to find a home for. I am constantly amazed at the musicians that are able to do the same thing over and over for 20 or more years. That would drive me absolutely insane.
The essence of Mondo Cane is the Italian pop song, circa the 1960s. How did Italian culture begin to assimilate itself in your creativity?
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.
How did the music first grab you, via pop music or through film music?
Perhaps it first came to my attention via film music, but it really started to fascinate me when I started listening to all of the old Italian pop music. In the same way that people in America discover Sinatra, I started learning of all these historical musicians in Italy that created this beautiful emotive music.
All of this music hails from roughly the time you were born, or a little before. You've said there is "timelessness" to this music, but do you think it speaks to people differently now than it did in the '60s?
