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THE FAINT INTERVIEW (ROCKist 001) by Kevin S. Hoskins I was introduced to Saddle Creek Records and The Faint with their compilation in 1997. It is an inspiration to me, a label functioning as a collective, with each band supporting each other's releases. I have been consistently mazed with both the output of the label and the progression of the bands on it. One of the bands that stood out for me upon first listen was a band from Omaha, NE called The Faint. Beware: they are a young band with the energy and requisite imagination to take on the world. That said, The Faint is ready to take on the world, but the world may not be ready for The Faint. I met the band on their first national tour and after seeing them play an amazing show at Ethan Allen Lanes in Burlington, VT, I talked to them a bit about their first album, MEDIA The Faint is: Todd Baechle (singer/guitarist/keyboardist) Clark Baechle (drums) Joel Petersen (guitars) Jake Thiele(keyboards) and Ethan Jones (bass) ROCKist: First off, why the title MEDIA? THE FAINT: It's sort of a reference to format. The medium used in this case is an audio recording. I like imagining other mediums as well, but at this point we are unprepared for them. Oh, and it also makes me think of colors or things like colors that don't exist yet. Do you remember the world without neon? ROCKist: Did the title come first and then the lyrics wrapped themselves around it or the other way around? TODD: The lyrics were written each in their own context. Any cohesiveness lyrically is not intended. Some of the songs on the album are five years old now. I guess I'm mentioning that in order to say that I am in the process of learning how to express things through lyrics. The album title is a word that we think describes the overall impression the record gives us. ROCKist: Did you have definite themes that you were looking to explore lyrically?? THE FAINT: Visual stimulation is not universal, so what you visualize and what each of us visualizes is probably totally different. (How many arguments have I had with people about colors...I say it's blue, they say it's purple and I'm colorblind, which is true. - Ed.) That's the whole trick. I guess people who are into what we are into will have an easier time relating to the topics. Some of the topics include the wishful destruction of human language, advancements in Art, Technology, Film, and Performance...and of course, some that a twenty-some-year-old dude can't go without writing (girls, boys). ROCKist: Is there a mood or a couple different moods that you guys were hoping to create? THE FAINT: Wet, futuristic, bright, electric, eclectic. ROCKist: Were there albums or bands that you were listening to while writing the album that you turned to in order to emulate those moods or even emulate their production style? THE FAINT: We like the production of the Pixies' Surfer Rosa. But we made an effort not to sound like the bands we were listening to at the time. A list?...Falco, Bad Brains...Of course, every band thinks they're better and more original than they really are. ROCKist: Was it to your advantage having a familiar face behind the boards? Was he already familiar with your songs beforehand? What suggestions did he make that stayed on the album? THE FAINT: We gave AJ Mogis a rough practice tape before we came to record. When we got to the studio, he had ideas of how he wanted certain things to sound. He helped with some of my guitar sounds. Overall, he was a big help. Everyone should record there. They recently got a new board and totally refinished the area. They are changing the name of the studio to "Dead Space." ROCKist: Were there aspects of the songs on the album that developed more as you were on tour? THE FAINT: No, but I think a band like ours is bound to become tighter through touring. ROCKist: How did you feel about the responses from people to you as a band they hadn't seen live before? THE FAINT: I think we fit in well with indie rock groups as well as hardcore bands. At least we feel comfortable with both now. We would like to think we don?it in perfectly with any certain labeled genre. (We think we sound different than you think we do.) We are too close to the songs to know what our old songs sound like. ROCKist: What do you mean by that? THE FAINT: By saying we don't think we sound like you think we sound, we mean this. After writing a song, and knowing what went into creating it, we sub-consciously look at the entire project as a whole. Therefore, your impression of each song, and what it sounds like to you, most likely is not the same as we hear it...	Last spring, The Faint released a split 7" with a band from New York called The Ex-Action Figures, followed by a new full-length in the fall. Their second album, Blank-Wave Arcade, is, in my ears, nothing short of a modern masterpiece. As the title suggests, it recalls the new wave electro-pop that seemed to dominate MTV in the 1980's...The Buggles, Duran Duran. I find the world it describes to be on the dark side, but the music is incredibly catchy and fun, and as the following interview with Todd Baechle reveals, there's more... ROCKist: How have the addition of keyboards and also the subtraction of one musician [Matt Bowen played on MEDIA] and the addition of two more changed the dynamic within the band?? TODD: We have been playing live with at least one keyboard for about four years, but it wasn't used a whole lot until the last couple. Before that I always wore a guitar when we performed. We had some new songs ("worked up so sexual" etc.) that we weren't able to play without another keyboard player. Getting Jacob to play with us wasn't easy, but it was the best decision we could have possibly made. The only other member we've added since Jacob is an Akai mpc2000, he is really working out well too! We actually fight over who gets to take him home after each practice. ROCKist: Did those changes pre-determine the move to a more electronic and I'd say dancier record and live show OR did you want to move in that direction before and the addition of another keyboard player just make that easier? TODD: I don't really know. I do know that we wanted to have better live show. We like keyboards, dance beats, dark catchy vocal melodies, so we just started writing songs with those things in mind. BLANK-WAVE ARCADE is our intentionally new wave sounding record. We didn't want it to be some super retro record. We tried to add a couple little things in each song that didn't fit that mold. ROCKist: Are the themes addressed on the 7" and on BLANK-WAVE ARCADE futurist visions or visions of the present? TODD: The seven inch song "brokers, priests and analysts" was about the near future at the time. But now it's about the past. The bwa songs are about the present. They are usually me working though some sort of complication I have with society. I use songs to think through things... to form an opinion about social and ethical issues. ROCKist: Is life in the BLANK-WAVE ARCADE as bleak as life that is depicted in, for example, BLADE RUNNER, BRAVE NEW WORLD, or 1984? TODD: I don't really see bleakness in those examples or maybe bleakness just doesn't sound too bad. From what I know of those, they are less crowded dark futuristic dreamlands. Maybe I just don't know the stories well, but those settings seem more appealing than the fucking lame XXXXXtremelife bullshit I?urrounded by. Life in the BLANK-WAVE ARCADE...I guess we wrote the songs and that?here they take place, on the BLANK-WAVE ARCADE record. I look at it more like the songs are in a room and the arcade walls were built around them, the lid was put on it, then the promos were sent out. ROCKist: I'd venture a guess that you feel we moving as a society towards the distopias that are described in those works. If so, are there things we can do to stop that movement?? Do you think technology is contributing to that movement? TODD: I can't think on such a large scale. I just take it one decision at a time. I try to act like I?n my own perfect world and make decisions based on what I think people would act like in my ideal world. I enjoy technology, but it's not a hobby of mine. I don't collect little gadgets or digital toys although I used to want to get into that. I?ore interested in what technology can do for art. The actual piece, you know? ROCKist: Do you think that music (and Art in general) plays a role in empowering people to make life better or does it act as a mirror to what's going on around us? TODD: It makes me feel better. I don't know about anyone else but there is nothing better than the feeling of making something that you are truly proud of.
The Faint Discography: -Blank-wave Arcade Remixes album -Blank-wave Arcade full-length -The Faint / Ex-Action Figures split 7" -Nothing Left Fanzine Compilation CD Issue #8 Fall '98 previously released track - Media full-length -Saddle Creek Records Compilation CD (demo versions of 'Typing: 1974-2048' and 'Some Incriminating Photographs') that were eventually re-recorded and later released on Media -Music Me All Over 7" four band split. (At this time, The Faint was known as Norman Bailer.)