Kik Axe has unearthed a series of early interviews of the band done by James Zahn – in Illnois in 1992 – and packaged them together in a great series on their site.
Back story and part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Here is a selection of the videos:
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Gotta love that Jim Martin response in the first video:
Interviewer: Do you have a favorite that the band does, that you like to play on?
Jim: (Silence) Uh…(More silence) Not really.
Cool interviews all around. Just when I think I’ve seen all the Faith No More footage that exists, something like this pops up.
SORRY TOTALLY UNRELATED BUT IT APPEARS THE BILBAO FESTIVAL IS BEING STREAMED EITB Gaztea Live http://goo.gl/1AtE take a look…unless I’m totally crazy…Feeder is playing at the moment which puts FNM at about 6:30 Eastern standard time.
Thanks for the head’s up Ti Mort, I’m watching it right now!
ahh Jim what an unappreciative miserable prick you are in that clip. I think he sincerely meant that what he said there and thats why hes gone.
uh yeah Roddy it must really suck being in one the worlds best bands and touring the world playing sell out shows….come ON!???
Puffy really loves FNM and their music. he truly does.
Thanks for posting these on the FNM 2.0 site!
Glad to see that you’re all enjoying the clips. There are some very “telling” answers and emotions present in some of these, especially some of the more subtle moments. I have some more clips to post (including a really funny one with Billy). Still encoding from the VHS which is a pain in the bum.
Looking back after all this time, it’s kind of like Mike Bordin is the serious, “elder statesman” of the bunch. His responses display passion, and he was even trying to guide me in learning how to interview. Roddy seemed tired; Patton had a lot of youthful excitement and was really laid back – interesting to see given the expansive discography he’s built since then; Billy was the closest to Bordin in terms of passion for what they were doing, and also being very attentive to the business of the band; Jim Martin… well, I think a few other commenters have pegged it. Regardless, He lightens up in some of the forthcoming clips that actually don’t focus solely on FNM.
I’m gonna try to finish these videos within the next two days.
Thanks for watching,
James
The sound is bad. A pity.
Thanks James. Any more thoughts you have on FNM, feel free to share.
@Integra
I think by that time (1992, just starting the Angel Dust tour) Jim was totally beaten down and defeated to say the least and even if he comes off as bitter (and he certainly does in that clip) it’s hard for me not to feel some fort of sympathy for the guy. It’s well documented that the recording of Angel Dust was extremely frustrating for him and by this time I think he knew his time was pretty damn limited. It also didn’t help that the other band members had pretty much completely ostracized him by that point.
Probably most of you already know/read stories about how little Jim had to do with Angel Dust and how much he disliked most of the songs/the direction the sound went, but this post with producer Matt Wallace seems to confirm it:
http://www.gearslutz.com/board/so-much-gear-so-little-time/43592-angel-dust-classic-any-info-2.html
Also, if you get a chance, check out the complete video tapes (6 hours worth? more?) of the Angel Dust studio sessions that are floating around (and on You Tube) and read “Faith No More: The Real Story”–the authorized FNM biography by Steffan Chirazi: It’s pretty damn eye-opening. The book goes through the Angel Dust tour and the very end has appended quotes from Billy and Jim about his departure. It’s crazy to read the various interviews about how much tension existed between Jim and the other members from the very beginning and why it was there (hell, Puffy refused to be in a band with Jim before Faith No Man was even formed) It helped me gain a more well-rounded perspective of the whole Jim-the rest of the band situation at least.
Faith No More clearly couldn’t have continued to exist while Jim Martin remained in the band, and while I LOVE Trey’s guitar-work and Jon’s work/continued involvement, I do still miss the days with Big Sick Jim!
STATION!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2i5ct_27n4
Thanks for posting that Matt Wallace link Just A Fan, interesting stuff. Personality issues aside, Jim Martin will always be my favorite FNM guitarist. I would like to hear some of those original tapes of whatever Jim recorded that made the rest of the band so furious. And I’m curious to know what songs Jim played on on Angel Dust, since Matt Wallace said Billy handled 60% to 70% of the guitar work. I’d assume Kindergarten and Jizzlobber were Jim, but I wonder what else.
great matt wallace stuff there! no suprise that Jim didnt want to participate at all in a reunion!
Sometimes I like to flip on “Be Aggressive” and imagine Big Jim in the early fall of ’91, sitting at home surrounded by empty/half-drunken cans of Schlitz, listening to the guitarless demo tape that he just received in the mail that morning thinking, “What the fuck am I supposed do with this goddamned shit?!”
This is pure speculation but other than Jizzlobber and Kindergarten (which Jim is listed as having writing credits for), I could see them keeping most of his solos and some of his leads in there for most of the songs but replacing a lot of his busier guitarwork with more subdued rhythmic guitar patterns, especially during the verses. Of course on the previous albums, Jim clearly illustrated that he was capable at playing around the bass and keys without overpowering them so who knows? I’d certainly love to, that’s for sure.
And yeah, I would love to hear the tapes of what Jim originally came up with!
Oh, you might enjoy this: I recently came across this the other day (I remember reading the article at Blabbermouth a while ago but this article has an awesome photo of what Jim looks like today, and of course he’s posing with a pumpkin)…translated from Portuguese.
http://translate.google.com/translate?js=y&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=1&eotf=1&u=http%3A%2F%2Fdiariodorock.blogspot.com%2F2009%2F10%2Freview-faith-no-more-jim-martin-nao-vai.html&sl=pt&tl=en
“The guitar player can’t learn it!!!!”