Artist

Mike Patton

Eureka, United States • b. 1968

Mike Patton is a musician from Eureka, United States, active since 1968. Their discography on Gatefold includes 9 records.

Start your shelf →Open in app

Albums tracked

In collections

1968

Since

Biography

Michael Allan Patton (born January 27, 1968, in Eureka, California) is an American singer, songwriter, composer, multi-instrumentalist, and video game voice actor, best known as the lead singer of the rock band Faith No More from 1988 to Present. He has also handled lead vocals and composed music for Mr. Bungle, Tomahawk, Lovage, Fantômas, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Moonchild Trio, Peeping Tom and many others. Patton has earned critical praise for his diverse vocals

The Arc of Mike Patton

The pivots — what forced Mike Patton to reinvent.

The Hostile Takeover
When Chuck Mosley got fired, Faith No More grabbed Patton and suddenly had a singer who could actually hit the notes. Producer Matt Wallace pushed him to keep that nasal, bratty tone on 'The Real Thing' to cut through the heavy slap-bass and Big Sickett guitars. It turned them into global stars, but Patton hated the box it put him in. By the time they recorded 'Angel Dust,' he was actively trying to sabotage his own vocal beauty with distorted growls and absurd characters just to see if the fans would stick around.
The Ipecac Infrastructure
After Faith No More folded the first time in '98, Patton stopped playing the major label game and founded Ipecac with Greg Werckman. This move shifted him from a frontman-for-hire into a curator, leading to the birth of Fantômas with Dave Lombardo and Buzz Osborne. They weren't writing songs anymore; they were writing comic book storyboards and horror movie cues. The production got drier, the cuts got sharper, and the music became about the physical execution of impossible arrangements.
The Italian Crooner
Patton moved to Italy, got married, and became obsessed with the 1950s and 60s pop orchestration of guys like Gino Paoli and Ennio Morricone. This culminated in 'Mondo Cane,' where he fronted a forty-piece orchestra to sing traditional Italian pop. There were no masks or distortion pedals to hide behind. It proved he wasn't just a noise merchant; he had the technical vocal chops of a mid-century opera star, and he treated those pop arrangements with more reverence than any of his rock records.

Influences

Ennio Morricone — Patton curated a collection of Morricone's 'Crime Jazz' works for his label and has cited the maestro's non-linear arrangements as the blueprint for Fantômas. You hear it in the sudden, violent shifts between silence and orchestral chaos. He treats the studio like a Foley stage because of Morricone.
Frank Zappa — The DNA of Mr. Bungle is rooted in Zappa’s 'Uncle Meat' era, specifically the total disregard for genre boundaries within a single track. Patton shares that same obsession with rigorous rehearsal and punishing his bandmates with complex, high-speed charts. It's about the technical discipline required to play something that sounds like a joke.
Diamanda Galás — Patton has repeatedly pointed to her as the ultimate vocal authority, specifically her ability to use the voice as a literal weapon. Her influence is all over 'Adult Themes for Voice' and his work with John Zorn. He took her blueprint of the voice-as-instrument and pushed it into the red.
Slayer — Before he was a crooner, he was a thrash kid, and Dave Lombardo’s drumming in Slayer was the foundation for Patton’s sense of rhythm. He eventually recruited Lombardo for Fantômas and Dead Cross. That double-kick precision is what allows Patton to timing his vocal barks with millisecond accuracy.
The Beach Boys — Patton is a vocal harmony obsessive who has cited 'Pet Sounds' as a perfect record for its layering and arrangement. You hear this on the Lovage project and Peeping Tom, where he stacks twenty tracks of his own voice to create those lush, eerie textures. He’s looking for the dark side of Brian Wilson’s pop perfection.