The Faint get Fasciinatiing
The electro pop mad scientists that are The Faint are back and better than ever with their latest album Fasciinatiion.
The quintet hailing from Omaha Nebraska, recently made the drastic move of starting their own record label blank.wav , therefore ending their contract with Saddle Creek Records. Keyboardist Jacob Thiele explains the reason behind the move : “It solidifies our career and what were about as a group. We’re in it for the long haul, we wanna keep doing this - making records and making art in general. It’s more a commitment with us saying ‘this is our life, this is our lifestyle, lets put it on paper, lets get incorporated’ or whatever it is we have to do.”
Now they are in charge of their own label nuisances such as illegal downloading start to become a major concern. “We were a little paranoid about the album leaking. It didn’t leak until a week before it come out, which was actually iTunes fault. iTunes accidentally released it a week early, but luckily we picked up on it before too many people noticed,” explains Thiele (pronounced teal) with a chuckle.
Far from being bitter about people who prefer to download instead of legitimately purchasing their music, Thiele admits that he too on occasion gives in to temptation. He downloads mainly when he wants only to hear a few tracks to ‘try out’ a band to see if he likes them or not.
“I think people who do it [download music] are just music fans, I think if they were to actually buy all they music they truly appreciate they wouldn’t be able to buy a house or a car or any of the things that you actually need. I think the goal is to make music affordable, so anyone ban buy it.”
When it comes to his bands latest creation Fasciinatiion Thiele describes it as being similar to past releases but better. “We have a pop structure which comes from most of our song writing. We felt like Wet From Birth , our last album, was a little over-produced, over-exaggerated and has too many embellishments. We wanted an album that is stripped back, where there’s not layers of guitars but just one guitar…”
When Thiele says ‘stripped back’ he doesn’t mean it in the acoustic sense that may first come to mind, instead what he means to say is that the album is not as overstimulating as past albums. But rest assured there is still plenty of quirky chaotic music on the album that will turn you into a hyperactive child. Thiele also claims that the lyrics less abstract in an effort, perhaps to make them more relatable.
“I feel like with this record in particular is kinda more straight forward then the rest, with the exception of The Geeks Are Right which is kinda like a dream more than it is a story,” he states in a matter of fact way.
Performing a song in the recording studio and then in front of a live audience are two bi-polar opposites, so I asked the chilled out keyboardist what songs off the new album he enjoys playing live. “All the new ones I actually enjoy playing live. I especially like Forever Growing Centipede cause I get to do a lot of knob twisting. Mirror Error is probably my favourite song to listen to on the record….”
With The Faint are set to play shows in Brisbane, Sydney and Melbourne from the 24th to the 26th of this month, what can audiences expect from their live show? “We just dance and have fun and hope people follow our example. Were not the greatest dancers we just kinda do what we do,” answers Thiele.
The future is looking very peachy indeed for this US band. Now that they have their own studio and label they can record music at their own leisure and there is even talk of signing bands and doing some producing work. The immediate future however is full to the brim with gruelling tours and promotion for Fasciinatiion.
The Faint play Brisbane's Zoo on September 24, The Metro in Sydney on the 25th and Melbourne's Prince of Wales on the 26th.
The Faint's Fasciinatiion is out now on Pod through Inertia.
