Among their plethora of achievements, Faith No More have been accredited for influencing the Nu Metal genre. When you listen to a record like Angel Dust (which celebrates its 30th anniversary this year), there are many sonic qualities on that record that bands of the Nu Metal genre have come to embrace.
We reached out Faith No More bassist Billy Gould to ask him his thoughts regarding the band’s impact on the genre. He initially shares that he didn’t quite get what was going on when he first listened to Nu Metal; that said, with the passing of time, he has been able to connect the dots, so to speak (understanding how the band influenced those other acts).
You can read (or watch) our chat with Billy below.
Billy Gould talks about Faith No More’s influence on Nu Metal
The Pit: How do you feel about Faith No More being credited as inspiring the Nu-Metal Genre?
Billy Gould: “When I heard Nu Metal, I didn’t really get it. When these bands tried to come up with this genre called Nu Metal, I didn’t get it and when I heard that we inspired them, I didn’t get that either. I couldn’t figure out what it was about us that they liked and that genre became more popular than we ever were, so it didn’t make a lot of sense to me. You know what’s really funny though is I was just watching a concert we did from that time period of Angel Dust and it was just Jizzlobber and we played it live and I was like “you know what, now that it’s been about 25 years I can see where this Nu Metal thing comes from actually!
There are a lot of things now that I hear that we were doing then, I just don’t think we ever thought of it in that way or in that context. We were just kids, we were just doing what we were feeling and not really analyzing it. So it’s kinda hard to stop back and take a look and look at those things objectively sometimes, I think enough time has passed where I can say well, you know actually, I can see where some of that comes from.
In that way it’s super cool and actually it’s kinda interesting for me because I kinda realize we were doing something kinda interesting, where you know sometimes it’s a little too close to me and I tend to be just critical and not enjoy some aspects or let myself do that. So I’m really happy we made an influence with somebody. I felt for a long time I wasn’t sure we connected with anybody so it’s great – it’s fantastic.”
We recently chatted with Gould and other members of Faith No More and discussed their album Angel Dust. We talked about memorable songs off the record, the band’s stylistic shift, working with singer Mike Patton, and much more. To check out The Pit’s exclusive interview with the band, follow the link below: