During this sad rock-and-roll hiatus our country is experiencing, music fans have consequently began to look for something new, whether it be new or unusual or both, that mixes things up a bit. When the soulless melodies of corporate concept pop dominate radio airwaves and television screens around the world, it is so rewarding to find a gem like The Faint.
The band dubbed “New-New Wave” by the music media hails from the flourishing rock scene of Omaha, Nebraska. The group draws on its member’s diverse musical tastes to create a unique new sound. Lead vocalist Todd Baechle and his drummer brother Clark teamed with bassist Joel Peterson in 1993. In 1997, Jacob Thiele added the keys that The Faint now are trademarked for. Earlier this year, Dapose joined the band, moving over from Omaha’s top death-metal band Lead. Dance Macabre, the band’s latest, most complete work to date, is the follow-up to the critically lauded Blank Wave Arcade.
The electro pops, squeals and zaps that permeate the Faint’s intense and haunting songs bring their deep and often dark lyrics to life in a catchy new sound that has kids writhing in robotic bliss all over the dance floor. Songs like “Worked Up So Sexual” and “Agenda Suicide” explore serious questions about sexuality, death and living your life from the heart, issues everyone is faced with at some point in his or her life.
It does The Faint no justice to compare them to other bands, but their sound is reminiscent of Devo and the Severed Heads with a spooky, macabre twist. The Badger Herald recently caught up with bassist Joel Peterson after a show at The Globe in Milwaukee.
Badger Herald: Do you like playing in Milwaukee? Is there a good fan base there?
Joel Peterson: Yeah we’ve played there quite a few times. Relatively early on we formed some super-nice relationships. It’s a good town.
BH: Why did the band decide to move away from indie rock toward a synth-rock new-wave revival?
JP: It was kind of our dissatisfaction with guitar and all of us wanting to move away from that and looking for other options. We looked to move towards synthesizers and keyboards. We just felt that there were more options with those instruments, as far as songwriting styles go. We were just looking for something that would be fun to play in front of people fun — for an audience to watch and people to move around to.
BH: Who are your musical influences?
JP: It’s really all over the place — like our guitar player that just joined in January. He came from a death-metal band that really intrigued us. That was something that we were all defiantly interested in. I myself originally was into glam metal Ratt, Mötley Crüe and stuff like that. Todd the singer, he was all over the place when he was younger, like anywhere from Bad Brains and Bad Religion to Bruce Springsteen and what not.
BH: Was it a goal of the band to produce such a dark sounding album?
JP: I think for the most part we usually write music that is a little dark. Pretty much all our songs are in a minor key. I think we consciously made Dance Macabre a little darker than Blank Wave Arcade. Overall we just really wanted to make an album that we all really like we don’t call a song done until we all like it and that’s going to stay true for now.
BH: I was really impressed by your live performance with all the lights and smoke. Is your stage show something that has progressed along with the other changes the band has gone through?
JP: Our live shows are defiantly something that has evolved over the years with lighting and the way we move around on stage. It’s just us being comfortable performing and having a good time dancing.
BH: I saw recently that The Faint was featured on MTV online. Is MTV and music videos a direction you want to move in the future?
JP: I wouldn’t say MTV, but we are definitely interested in visual art and how that pertains to our music.
BH: With all the media hype in Europe around American “underground” rock bands like the White Stripes and the Strokes ,do you think Europe is a better market for emerging rock acts?
JP: I don’t really know much about what’s happening over there. I do know underground American bands have been really blown up over there, and maybe right now they’re looking for that kind of thing.
BH: When did you feel The Faint had established its own unique sound that set you apart from other bands?
JP: I think we always thought that way after we made the switch to a more synthesizer-based group. It was s a reaction to what was going on around us. We were just tired of guitars..
BH: Does The Faint have plans for another album soon?
JP: Yeah we are all in separate cities right now. The plan is that we are all going to write music as individuals and then come together sometime early next year and just see what happens with the band then.
BH: What other bands do you like to play with?
JP: We toured with two bands on this last tour. One band was for a week, they were called Outhud. They are my favorite band. They’re instrumental dance music. They draw influences from early techno and early electronic music. Total blast!
BH: Do you have any plans to play in Madison soon?
JP: We did pretty good on college radio with this last record. It went to No. 3 on the CMJ charts, so apparently somebody was playing it. As of right now we have no plans of playing anywere in the United States, but Madison will probably happen sometime in the future.
