Faith No More’s Mike Patton has spent quarantine chipping away at “several records at once”, but he’s managed to find the time to put together a directory of films and music getting him through isolation.
Rolling Stone published a feature checking in on Patton, and asking him how he was spending his time, how he was coping amid the pandemic, and what art he has been consuming.
“I’m working on several records at once, which isn’t abnormal for me, but it is somehow refreshing to not have other distractions interfering,” Patton revealed.
“Personally, this lockdown lifestyle is not terribly different from my normal routine, as I’m quite hermetic and private. But sometimes it does resonate deeper — like, when you want to hit a restaurant with family or friends. No. What do we do? We adapt or die.”
Isolation has seen Patton turn to comforting, yet hallucinatory” music. The musician detailed that he had turned to “exotica” of the fifties and sixties. “It somehow transports me into a happy place, between the Enchanted Tiki Room and Haunted Mansion at Disneyland.” Finding solace in the sonic realms of modern classical, and experimental music of Les Baxter, André Popp, Ferrante and Teicher, Yma Sumac, and collaborator Jean-Claude Vannier.
Listen: ‘Moonscape’ – Les Baxter
Patton recommends that those in isolation should watch epic films to pass the time; rattling off a list of list of classics like Barrabas, Ben-Hur, Lawrence of Arabia, The Godfather, Goodfellas, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, and more.
“Watch epic films. To me, watching anything less than three hours doesn’t work in this time. Check out any sword-sandal epic, or gangster epic — anything that soaks up this quicksand of time we are in.”
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You can find his full list of recommendations below.
Mike Patton’s Quarantine Music Playlist:
Les Baxter: Space Escapade, The Passions, and Ritual of the Savage
Ferrante & Teicher: Denizens of the Deep
André Popp: Delirium in Hi-Fi
Dick Hyman: Electric Eclectics and Moon Gas
Yma Sumac: Voice of the Xtabay
Esquivel: Latin-Esque
Bernard Parmegiani: Pop’eclectic
Jean-Claude Vannier: Electro Rapide
Raymond Scott: Manhattan Research Inc. or Soothing Sounds for Baby
“The Voyager Golden Record”
Mike Patton’s Quarantine Film Watchlist:
Barrabas
Ben-Hur
Lawrence of Arabia
The Godfather
Goodfellas
Sergio Leone’s “Dollars Trilogy”
Seven Brides for Seven Brothers
THX 1138
Marooned
Woman in the Dunes
Pandemic
Contagion
Panic Room
The Shining
Seconds
