your question

12/19/2019 ET phone home

Hi! I've got Fantomas-related questions:
1) I don't remember where I read it, but I believe it was published that the material for both Delirium Cordia and Suspended Animation was culled from the same sessions. That sounds funny from the outside -- do you remember how those sessions went? I.e. was it clear from the outset that you were recording material for two albums (one darker and more disturbed and the other more cartoonish and violent)? Or were you really just handed multiple bass parts to nail on top of whatever parts were already recorded? This ties into the next question...
2) I know, I should be more used to the notion that Fantomas is Mike Patton's baby rather than a collaborative effort. It's just that the music sounds so involved and "real" on the part of the players, it's hard for me to imagine that the process was just Patton handing over audio demos, midi files or sheet music before or during a studio session. What I'm getting at is this: what kind of suggestion or direction did Patton provide during the recording process? Was there any occasion in which he would clue you, Buzz or Dave in on what he was visualizing for a section or track? Or did he just ask you to stick to what he recorded in a cassette demo at home? (the demos for the first album sound really close to the final product, but I dunno if that's the case for the later albums).
3) What do you feel about Delirium Cordia as a finished product?

my answer

1. From my standpoint it was all one session. We rehearsed all of that music in one go, although I think Delirium was put together more or less in the studio
2. Probably the reason the records sound “real” is because we spent hundreds of hours rehearsing that stuff. Just four guys in a room hammering away. Essentially it was exactly as you describe it: He handed over a cassette of completed demos which we had to sift through and decipher. He was constantly cluing us into everything and was very specific about what he wanted to the point of telling Dave which cymbal to play on any given nanosecond. So ultimately we were urged to stick to the pacing and phrasing of the demos as well as the notes.
3. I haven’t heard it in so long I don’t remember.