Faith No More comeback was no nostalgia trip

Faith No More drummer Mike Bordin says the band were fearful of outstaying their welcome on their comeback tour.

FNM reunited in 2009 for a run of festival shows and soon set their sights on recording their first new material since 1997’s Album Of The Year.

And Bordin says it was the realisation they might be relying too heavily on nostalgia that eventually led to the recording and release of Sol Invictus in May.

He tells TeamRock Radio: “About halfway into the 2.0 shows, we’d done about 30 shows, and it felt really great. We said, ‘I can see the end in sight unless we have something new to say.’

“You’d feel a little uncomfortable about dragging nostalgia out. And that was one thing none of us wanted, was nostalgia.

“We wanted to see if it was viable, how we felt about playing it and where it would lead us, if there was a future. It was kind of all of us saying it.”

Bordin adds that bassist Billy Gould sent a demo of the track Matador, and the rest of the band were thrilled about the potential.

He says: “The first note that was written off the new record, Bill had a demo and sent it around and said, ‘This is something I was messing with, I think it would be FNM appropriate.’

“It was Matador. We worked it out face-to-face in a room, which was nice. All five in a room, kind of more old style and seeing if we could work and collaborate together. We played it in south America and it felt great. That’s how it started.”

Faith No More played on the Main Stage at Download today (June 13). They’re the cover stars in the latest edition of Metal Hammer Magazine.

The band continue their European trek in Glasgow on June 14 before heading out on a tour of North and South America:

Faith No More tour dates

Jun 14: Glasgow O2 Academy, UK

Jun 17: London Roundhouse, UK

Jun 18: London Roundhouse, UK

Jun 20: Clisson Hellfest, France

Jun 21: Dessel Graspop Festival, Belgium

Jun 23: Hamburg Sporthalle, Germany

Jun 26: Norrkoping Bravalla, Sweden

Jun 27: Seinajoki Provinssirock, Finland

Jun 28: Odense Tinderbox 2015, Denmark

Jul 26: Austin Music Hall, TX, US

Jul 27: Dallas South Side Ballroom, TX, US

Jul 28: Houston Bayou Music Center, TX, US

Jul 30: Atlanta Masquerade Music Park, GA, US

Jul 31: Raleigh Red Hat Amphitheatre, NC, US

Aug 01: Philadelphia Mann Ceter, PA, US

Aug 02: Columbia Merriweather Post Pavilion, MD, US

Aug 04: Boston Blue Hills Banks Pavilion, MA, US

Aug 05: New York Madison Square Garden, NY, US

Aug 07: Toronto Ricoh Coliseum, Canada

Aug 08: Montreal Heavy Montreal 2015, Canada

Sep 06: Seattle Bumbershoot, WA, US

Sep 08: Morrison Red Rocks Amphitheatre, CO, US

Sep 11: Chicago Douglas Park, IL, US

Sep 18: Bogota Royal Center, Columbia

Sep 20: Buenos Aires Luna Park, Argentina

Sep 24: Santana Anhembi Arena, Brazil

Sep 25: Rio Rock In Rio, Brazil

Sep 28: Santiago Hangares Suricato, Chile

Oct 25: Sacramento Aftershock Festival, CA, US

Stef wrote close to 5,000 stories during his time as assistant online news editor and later as online news editor between 2014-2016. An accomplished reporter and journalist, Stef has written extensively for a number of UK newspapers and also played bass with UK rock favourites Logan. His favourite bands are Pixies and Clap Your Hands Say Yeah. Stef left the world of rock'n'roll news behind when he moved to his beloved Canada in 2016, but he started on his next 5000 stories in 2022.