photo by John Shafto
This new adaptation of electronic never intended to “croon.” It meant to slam a fist.
My take: EDM and dubstep artists have been trashing the party for the past five or so years, and their ooze has slowly seeped into the eyes of a new generation. But in the days of social media, no one has the attention span to hang tight for too long.
Enter an electronic bread and buzz, The Faint, back on tour after a two-year hiatus. Omaha's own takes from and adds to multifarious local influences such as Mousetrap, Slowdown Virginia and Simon Joyner, effectively quelling the nationwide electronic craze, at least while the band's music is playing.
photo by Nick Gividen
To dive headlong into The Faint's backstory, I caught up with drummer Clark Baechle and singer Todd Fink before their show at The Masquerade in Atlanta, Ga., and asked where they first heard Nebraska music live.
“The first show I ever went to was Mousetrap and Slowdown Virginia at Capitol Bar,” Baechle reminisces. “I think I was either 13 or 14.”
“That’s where we first talked about being a band,” says Fink as his sits across from me on the tour bus’s leather couch. The movie Twins featuring the former Governator and Danny DeVito plays in the background. “I was really excited for those two bands to play because I wanted Pat and Craig and all of those guys (in Mousetrap) to see that there was a new thing happening that we all felt was awesome.”
photo by John Shafto
Fast-forward a few years, past their debut album, Media, over the iconic Blank-Wave Arcade and you’ve reached 2001’s Danse Macabre, an album that breached an assumed Omaha threshold. Now The Faint revisits the 11-year-old album.
“The remastering was just to make it louder, make it sound as good as it could,” Bachele says. “We needed to press more anyway, and we figured we might make it sound better and make it more fun.”
Touring in support of a new release used to be a way of life for The Faint, but after a few years off since Fasciinatiion, the group redirected its progression by hearkening back.
“The whole idea to do the Danse album live sounded fun because we’ve never done that before,” Fink says. “And the timing worked out great because we were getting back together after a hiatus.”
photo by John Shafto
Bands recall old albums because they were groundbreaking successes, fan favorites or pledges of allegiance to a specific creative sound. No matter the reason for The Faint, the band doesn't feel 11 years removed from Danse.
“I’d like to say that we’re so different that we have a hard time even relating to something that was written so long ago, but I don’t think it’s true,” Fink says.
“If we weren’t focusing on the album during this tour, we would probably play most of those songs anyway,” Bachele says. “But there are a few songs that we usually skip or never play, and those are real fun to relearn and figure out how to pull off.”
During the downtime, the crew managed to keep their work relevant by producing a DJ/dance-infused piece with Diplo’s Mad Decent record label under the moniker Depressed Buttons. By embarking upon that endeavor, the band learned valuable lessons in production that, in turn, would be of value to The Faint.
“During that time period, I learned basic things like the names of the frequencies, how to figure out which instruments fit into what ranges, how which ones go well together,” Fink says. “It’s like, I only understood the technicalities without really understanding their purpose, so you can’t make things right initially.”
photo by Nick Gividen
The Faint’s hiatus could be considered a period of clarity and of discovery that goes beyond the band. It could also have allowed for a search for new meaning.
“We had done so much with The Faint that I didn’t think much of the band for a couple years,” Fink says. “By not listening to the band, not playing the songs, I did hear it differently than I did before, and in the process of relearning the songs, I understood them differently. I could see which things were working and which things weren’t working, as if I had no part in actually making it.”
By taking that time off and considering different perspectives of the band, Fink hopes to be able to gain a more well-rounded understanding in regards to new material.
photo by John Shafto
The Faint is also touring with a new 12-inch, featuring tracks “Evil Voices” and “Unseen Hand.” Two sets at Slowdown in August opened with the latter.
“We made it as an opener, and it’s sort of long and tension-building,” Bachele says.
“It makes you wait longer than you planned,” Fink says. “We wanted to play with the idea of how long you could wait for something before it’s infuriating.”
“Realistically, it could probably go a lot longer,” Bachele says with a laugh.
“We’re practically halfway to of Montreal,” Fink says.
The Faint will wrap up this portion of the tour by revisiting Sokol Auditorium in Omaha on Dec. 14 alongside Trust and Icky Blossoms. The return of Omaha's electronic figureheads might have taken awhile to begin again, but here's hoping the wait wasn't infuriating.
Steven Ashford is a Hear Nebraska contributor. He suggests that you purchase one of the few remaining tickets for the Sokol concert. Reach him at stevena@hearnebraska.org.