Carpe Noctem Magazine (NOW Sever Zine)
November, 1995

A CONVOCATION OF FAITH:
A Conversation with William Faith of FAITH & THE MUSE

You slowly hit the "PLAY" button on your CD player with great expectation. After all, this is a project headed up by an integral member of some of the most influential bands in the genre you have grown to love. The player whirs to life and immediately you discover that all your waiting has not been in vain. Faith And The Muse is all at once a hauntingly familiar and refreshingly different band that's arrival is at the forefront of all that is right in the Gothic/Darkwave genre. They hit all the right spots, take you gently by the hand and show you types of music that you thought you didn't care for, yet now have a new found blossoming love. I recently had the pleasure of speaking with William Faith about religion, life, his music, his band's recent tour of Europe and a memorable evening in Prague. I humbly display that conversation here for you, dear reader. Enjoy it. 

CN: Where were you born? 

 W: Los Angeles, California. 

 CN: What were you like as a kid? 

 W: Very mischievous and very rambunctious. 

 CN: Has music always been a really important part of your life? 

 W: Yes, without a doubt. 

 CN: When did you first start playing? 

 W: Actually, I picked up a guitar and started making noise on it about the age of twelve. I became serious about a year later. 

 CN: What kind of musicians were you listening to at the time? 

 W: When I first started? My first love was KISS and they're probably, in some way, still why I do what I do. 

 CN: And then later, what were you listening to? 

 W: I went through all kinds of different things. I studied jazz for a brief period of time and classical music and when I was younger I fell into that for a while. I then progressed on into punk rock; glam at one point, (believe it or not, which was still back in the KISS thing) and inevitably ended up embarking on the slightly darker path which started with some of my earlier bands like Wreckage and Twist of Fate. And then I ended up in Mephisto Walz and that was what really carried me through. 

 CN: Presently, what are some of your influences? 

 W: That's a good question. I've been listening to a lot of traditional music as of late. Loreena McKennit is a current favorite. 

 CN: What inspires you to write? Is it a need - something you have to do? 

 W: Well, what compels me and what inspires me would be two different things. Inspiration can come from just about anything. There's a lot to be inspired by. It could be just a look in a person's face when I'm speaking to them, at one time. At other times, it could be events that have occurred in my life - feelings that I have. What compels me to write... If I come up with a tune or if there is a lyric in my head, it does not go away until I record it and get it out. 

 CN: I'd like to get some of your thoughts on certain phrases and certain names. I figure we can cover a lot of ground that way. First of all, Wreckage. What are your remembrances or thoughts on that band? 

 W: That was a brilliant time. It was, basically, a drunken blur. It was very loud, very harsh, yet polished. It had some sort of broodish romance to it that I still am very endeared to. It was a good period. I enjoyed it. 

CN: What about Mephisto Walz? 

 W: Mephisto Walz was a very intense period. A lot happened and the band went out of a virtual standstill into heavy activity within the time that I was with them. The music that we were doing at the time and the feeling that surrounded us was very difficult to describe or define, yet it was something that I look back on very dearly. It was a very good period and I was glad to be a part of it. 

 CN: Was that your first exposure to rather large venues? 

 W: That was some of the first chances I had to play in larger places. That was the largest amount of exposure that I'd had personally. 

 CN: What was that like? 

 W: It was brilliant. It was, like I said, a very great time. The buzz that was surrounding us, on that European tour in 1992, was really big and it was very great to be a part of that. 

 CN: Christian Death? 

 W: Christian Death...well...that one almost escapes me as to how to define it. It was really great to have been a part of a band, that had been such a significant part of my life from such an early age. I first bought a Christian Death album when I was, I must have been thirteen or fourteen years old, when I got Only Theatre Of Pain and that has been a remaining favorite in my collection for years and years. It still has a fair degree of influence on me today. When I was asked to record on the first Christian Death album that had come out since Ashes in 1985, to say that I was flattered would be an understatement. But to have been a part of the process, and to have had that chance to go in and record that music, to me, was something that I don't think I will ever be able to explain to anyone. It was a brilliant experience and I treasure it. 

CN: Did you ever play any of the old Christian Death songs with Shadow Project? 

 W: We were talking about doing some of the older Christian Death material. We were considering doing "Death Wish" but at that point, we thought it best to move along and try to do something else, because it was so expected that we were going to be doing old Christian Death things that we thought it best to throw them a curve. Confront people with the new material and make them accept that instead. 

CN: In your opinion, how did those two bands differ? 

 W: Hard to say. Christian Death was Rozz's thing, whereas Shadow Project was more Rozz and Eva. Rozz had a more open approach to sounds and recording and influence whereas Shadow Project was a much more concentrated thing. It was something that Rozz and Eva developed over a period of time. It definitely had its own sound. 

CN: What is your take on the present state of the "Gothic/Darkwave" subculture? I mean, where do you think it's heading? 

 W: I think that it's showing signs of improvement, especially in the past couple of years as I see people opening their minds to different elements of the whole "dark" scene, so to speak. In that, bands like us and Dead Can Dance have become a little more widely embraced and it does not just have to sound like the Reptile House E.P. being re-written for the seven-thousandth time and far poorer than the original. The thing that I notice that has been plaguing the scene for the past couple of years, and is still quite present, is that so many bands, I can't even begin to count the number, are trying to do nothing more than sound like The Sisters Of Mercy at various different points of their career. I mean, any singer with a deep monotone voice, and anybody that can play staccato notes on a guitar and program a drum machine poorly are putting albums out. I find that there's very little quality coming out of it. It seems to me to be re-written material that doesn't even hold a candle to the original material that it was derived from. There's band upon band doing that. I'm not going to name names, but it's very disappointing when I see other bands that are doing things that are far more original and not getting half the notoriety. 

CN: Do you feel that there is a polarization occurring between the dark ambient music and the more "accepted" style of rock based music? 

 W: It's funny. Some people are tossed up about that. In my opinion, it's all one broad spectrum of music. I don't place so many labels and classifications on things myself. I don't put that much thought into it, I guess. I think that the "dark ambient" music, so to speak-if you are talking about things coming off of labels such as Projekt, and the more rock oriented stuff which comes off say labels like Cleopatra and the like-I think that it's all very much "interfacable", if you will. I think that it can all work together. It's all a matter of mood. 

 CN: What difference do you see between the ethereal Darkwave music and the yuppie pablum of New Age music and the bands that lie in between? 

 W: I'd say that ambient has a tendency to spend a little bit more time in minor. [laughs] Other than that, in most areas I find very little difference. In other areas, these things can range from very carefully constructed soundscapes that have many layers and different levels to them that flow in different movements through to some very experimental monotone drone things that can be very beautiful but I don't think it can encompass every mood that a human can experience. I think that it is very much mood music that is intended to set a mood. I don't think you are going to throw on Enya when you are in a very aggressive mood. When that happens to me, I put on Motorhead. I listen to Enya and Motorhead and really everything in between. I can put on Scott Walker and then turn around and listen to Einsturzende Neubaten. It depends on what I'm in the mood for. 

CN: Do you find that to be a well rounded person you have to have those sonic benchmarks? 

 W: No, I don't think it's necessary. I really don't, again, place those limitations or classifications on people. If you're passionate about something or there's something you are particularly enjoying at the moment, be it one selected type of music or one sub-section of Goth or whatever it is, then go with it. I don't feel that you have to listen to everything in order to be a real person or to be taken seriously by anyone. I think that you should just go with what you are passionate about at the moment. There will be times when I will listen to a couple of CD's for weeks or even months. Of course, that does not shut out my entire scope. However, people tend to be passionate about one kind of thing at one certain time, and I think that is very natural. I understand it. I don't think that every person in the world is necessarily into the idea of listening to a variety of types of music if they are passionate about one particular thing. Me, I can become passionate about anything as long as it's done well. Thusly, I have a tendency to listen to more types of music, but I don't think that is a sort of a pre-requisite for being a well rounded human being. 

CN: Do you see more and more of an influence of "cultural" influences such as Celtic or Renaissance music occurring? 

W: I think that it's creeping in, in a "faddish" kind of way into the Goth thing. Some are doing wonders with it, while others are finding the worst qualities of the music and making astoundingly bad CD's. Still, others are doing positively stunning things with it and adding their own sound to it, which I think is the whole point, really. 

 CN: Can I get some of your thoughts on Christianity? [laughs] It's a big bite, I understand. 

 W: How much tape do you have left? Organized Religion, to me, is the most reprehensible, vile, disgusting, fascist thing ever invented. The only real evil left in society. In my opinion, it is inherently responsible for most of the bloodshed taking place in the world today. Religious war, to me, is probably the sickest thing, second to the concept of religion, organized religion that is, Christianity in particular. I haven't the words to express my contempt that it exists. The people who actually believe and really put all of their passion into something as obviously corruptible and so blatantly fascist as Christianity there must be absolutely no brain in their heads...whatsoever. To me, they're just human voids looking to latch onto something. 

 CN: Do you think that it is an end result of the fact that the idea is pure and it's just been put into the hands of Man? 

 W: The hand of Man has destroyed nearly everything it's touched, more often than not. It's a situation where, if you were actually going to go back to the words of Jesus Christ as they are printed, I don't think that there is much that Jesus Christ said that I would inherently disagree with. However, the interpretations of and the construct that occurred around it, is where my problem lies. 

 CN: Remember the old game of "Telephone"? 

 W: Yes. Well, that's basically what's happened. 

 CN: In your opinion, is it because of a pursuit of a self propagation and money that's done it? 

W: From an evangelical point, yeah certainly. I really don't think there can be any argument against that. I think that these money hungry individuals who grab hold, so to speak, of their interpretation of religion and start cramming it down people's throats with such fervency and raise themselves to such a nearly explosive pitch when delivering a sermon...that, obviously, is only going to encourage people to fall into that. The whole laying on of hands, and these fake faith healers, it just encourages an almost circus-like aspect to religion which, to me, is even more absurd and comical, in a very black way. While these people are beneath contempt, I understand where they're coming from, and what they are trying to do and it's vile, but unfortunately lucrative. 

 CN: Speaking of lucrative...The Music Industry. 

 W: Those two are not mutually exclusive you must know. [laughs]. 

 CN: What are your thoughts on it. 

 W: It's very difficult to make a living in this industry. It's something I've always wanted to do. To me... my reason for doing music has absolutely nothing to do with money whatsoever, and I know that's probably a very popular thing to say. This is something that I would do if it was illegal. This is something that you could not stop me from doing. This is my passion. I think it's borderline hysterical that people get paid for doing this, because, again, it's something I would do if it was against the law. Dressing up and going on-stage and making noise for a living is very infectious and that's what I do. Yet, it's not something that, at this moment, I can survive very comfortably from. So, there are little supplements that one must make in ones life to do it. I continue to hope and put my faith, so to speak, in my music and hope that it will eventually sustain me. I am able to spend lengthy amounts of time being sustained by my music, when I'm on tour, when I'm in the studio and things like that, usually those expenses are covered, but from time to time, I do have to find a small part time job. That's disappointing because that takes away from my own time, takes away from the things I enjoy doing. While it's a reality, it is disappointing and I don't enjoy it and by Gothic musician standards, so to speak, I'm a lucky one. 

 CN: Where did you and Monica meet? 

 W: We met when I was on the Shadow Project tour, we were doing the Dreams For The Dying tour, and we were playing a club in Virginia;Norfolk to be exact, and our opening band was Strange Boutique. I knew absolutely nothing of them previous to that. I thought they were a Reggae band [chuckles] after meeting Fred the guitarist. I had met Monica previous to her show, but we were doing our makeup out in the RV and when I came inside, to check out the opening band, they were playing "Heroes" by Bowie, we heard them from outside, at which point Rozz instantly hated them, because anybody who is defiling Bowie in his book is really bad. When we came in and saw the band, he actually took a liking to them after a very short amount of time. I, meanwhile, found myself staring at Monica and enjoying the band quite a bit and decided to speak to her after the show, which I did briefly. Following that, we played our performance, which she watched in its entirety. There was something there that I could sense from the stage, but I am still at a loss to put it into words. Afterwards, we spoke and said that we definitely needed to hook up again and talk more. Following that, we had another show with them in Washington D.C. two nights later at which point Monica and I firmed up plans to do a project together. We didn't know exactly how it was going to happen or when but it was something we both wanted to do. Obviously, at that time, my hands were full with Shadow Project, so I was pretty busy. After I got back, we kept in contact and then Strange Boutique came out on tour. Strange Boutique was touring the West Coast, we hooked up and actually got a chance to experiment a little bit together and that's how we wrote "Heal" our very first song in my bedroom with just an acoustic guitar, her and myself. The name Faith and the Muse followed in about five minutes and the concept was pretty much born from there. 

 CN: Was it intimidating to strike out on your own and form your own band? 

 W: Intimidating would be the complete opposite of what it was, if anything. It was very inviting to actually go out and do that, that was something I had wanted to do for so long. I didn't have as much room as I was after in my previous projects. With Mephisto Walz, it was primarily Bari-Bari's music. With Shadow Project, it was Rozz and Eva's music. 

 CN: Was it liberating, in a sense? 

 W: Very much so. I was able to shake off all the years and years of working under, or beside people and actually go out and do the music that had been in me for so long and do it the way I wanted to do it , in the form I wanted to do it and present it my way. 

 CN: So, it's a purer sense of your voice then? 

 W: It's a pure as it gets, yeah. 

 CN: What can you tell us about your involvement on the Bauhaus tribute CD? 

 W: Nightmarish! Basically, the Bauhaus tribute CD was being complied by Nosferatu Productions and, sort of, co-released by Nosferatu Productions and Cleopatra Records. I recorded "Hollow Hills" along with Monica as Faith and the Muse, that was our very first recording. Following that, This Ascension went in and recorded "In The Flat Field" and Blade Fetish did "All We Ever Wanted". A number of other bands were putting things together for that. When I was speaking with a friend at Nosferatu Productions, Jeremy, he stated that he'd been a little bit too busy to organize bands for that, so I took a look around and got a few people to do a few tracks. And at this moment, it's in their hands. I have pretty much done as much as I can for it, so I really hope that it comes out soon. 

 CN: Have either of you ever published any original poetry? 

 W: No. 

 CN: Would you like to be? [laughs] 

 W: Yeah. We keep a pretty good catalogue of our stuff around the house and we've been more or less compiling, very loosely, our material and we eventually plan on publishing it separately. These are things that are developing slowly over a period of time. We've got lots of old odds and ends laying around from long before either of us had even known about each other. It's all very different. Once we have a few more movements in the whole story, I think we will probably publish some things. Once the level of public interest is really there for that. 

 CN: Tell me about your recent trip to Europe? 

 W: Absolutely brilliant! It was thirty shows and we played in Germany, Belgium, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and we were the very first American Goth band to ever to play in Slovenia. It was a great tour. I was very glad to get back. This time it had a completely different feeling to it because I was doing my own music. We were very well received, despite the bands that we were playing with; Das Ich and Kalte Farben are not anywhere near the style of music that we play. Das Ich are more of a techno-industrial kind of thing, whereas Kalte Farben are about as frantic as Skinny Puppy at some of their harder moments. So, our music was a definite break from what was going on each night. I think that people were shocked at first and didn't know exactly how to respond to us, but they ended up really getting into the show, as their involvement would indicate. It was just brilliant, every aspect of it was wonderful. 

 CN: It was mentioned to me to ask you about absinthe. 

 W: [laughs] The absinthe story. [laughs] Basically, what happened is Faith and the Muse played in Prague in the Czech Republic on this last tour. When I found out that absinthe was legal in the Czech Republic, and it was literally on sale in the club that we were playing at, I went ahead and bought a bottle. Various members of Faith and the Muse partook of the sacrament with me. I didn't really feel any profound effects whatsoever, other than the fact that it tasted like licorice and went down like unleaded gasoline. So, inevitably, we kept drinking and drinking and, by the end of it , most of Faith and the Muse and Das Ich found ourselves at the bottom of three bottles and still nothing seemed to have happened. Actually, Glenn, one of the live members of Faith And The Muse, and I personally finished about a bottle and a half of it ourselves. [We] didn't feel anything. Later, I was holding a standard conversation with Monica and, the way she recalls it is that my eyes started un-focusing and not fixing on any particular object in the room. It was pretty much downhill from there. 

 CN: I guess you forgot about mean Mr. Metabolism. 

 W: Yeah, I wasn't paying too much attention to that and completely neglected to remember that I hadn't eaten anything all day. Absinthe, as you may or may not know, is seventy per cent alcohol, one hundred and forty proof and also contains a hallucinogenic. The end result was that we were incredibly inebriated. We still have two absinthe bottles, empty of course, remaining as trophies of that particularly ludicrous experience. 

 CN: So, it's another year of touring. 

 W: More or less [laughs] 

 CN: How do you feel about that? 

 W: It's the life for me. If I could just record and tour and record and tour, with the occasional vacation, that would be a very satisfying life for me.