Michael Allan Patton (born January 27, 1968) is an American singer, songwriter, producer, and voice actor, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock bands Faith No More and Mr. Bungle. He has also fronted and/or played with Tomahawk, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Fantômas, Moonchild Trio, Kaada/Patton, Dead Cross, Lovage, Mondo Cane, the X-ecutioners, The Avett Brothers, and Peeping Tom. Consistent collaborators through his varied career include avant-garde jazz saxophonist John Zorn, hip hop producer Dan the Automator and classical violinist Eyvind Kang.]]

Mike Patton was born in Eureka, California on January 27, 1968, to a social worker mother and a physical education teacher father. Patton says he has written recreationally for as long as he can remember. He and his bandmates have consistently credited their early years in Eureka, a relatively isolated city in the far north of California, to the intense curiosity that would drive their future career paths (Eureka being one of the few big towns between San Francisco and Portland, and surrounded by dense redwood forests). Both were part of the cover band Gemini that performed songs by popular heavy metal groups. They quickly gained interest in heavier styles and joined the thrash metal cover band Fiend, but were kicked out and subsequently recorded a death metal tape under the name Turd, with Dunn on vocals and Patton on the instruments. He and Dunn also had punk friends and started to branch out to that subculture; neither musician wanted to be associated with the drug epidemic in Eureka nor the school's party scene, thus soon self-identified as straight edge. In November, they performed its first show in the adjacent town of Bayside, California. While they disliked the cultural vapidness and degradation of the area, they appreciated their school teachers who nurtured their artistic interests; an English teacher turned Patton onto Marquis de Sade and The Painted Bird by Jerzy Kosiński, while Dan Horton, their music teacher, let them use the music room after school and even joined them as a temporary horn player at a show.

Patton enrolled in California State Polytechnic University, Humboldt, located in the nearby town of Arcata, California, to study English literature with plans to become a writer. At Humboldt, Patton met his future band Faith No More during a 1986 show at a pizza parlor, where Mr. Bungle played numerous times. After the performance, Spruance, who had invited Patton to the show, gave drummer Mike Bordin Mr. Bungle's demo The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny. From school to college, Patton also worked part-time at the only record store in Eureka until he joined Faith No More in 1988.

Music career

Faith No More: 1988–1998; 2009–2021

Remembering Mr. Bungle's first demo tape, The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny, the members of Faith No More approached Patton to audition as their lead singer in 1988. The band tried out more than fifteen singers to fill the role, including Chris Cornell from Soundgarden, but they settled on Patton in view of his versatility. Over the next few months, they performed a few live shows together. Patton would be officially announced as their new singer in January 1989, replacing Chuck Mosley; this forced Patton to quit his studies at Humboldt State University. Mosley subsequently formed the bands Cement and VUA, and had several special "one-off" performances at shows with Faith No More and Patton before his death in 2017.

Faith No More's The Real Thing was released in 1989. The album reached the top 20 on the US charts, thanks largely to MTV's heavy rotation of the "Epic" music video, (which features Patton in a Mr. Bungle T-shirt). Faith No More released three more studio albums—Angel Dust, King for a Day... Fool for a Lifetime, and Album of the Year—before disbanding in 1998. In one interview, Patton cited what he perceived as the declining quality of the band's work as a contributing factor to the split.

On February 24, 2009, after months of speculation, Faith No More announced they would be reforming with a line-up identical to the Album of the Year era, embarking on a reunion tour called The Second Coming Tour. To coincide with the band's reunion tour, Rhino released the sixth Faith No More compilation, The Very Best Definitive Ultimate Greatest Hits Collection in the UK on June 8. The same line-up eventually released a new album called Sol Invictus in 2015, and following its supporting tour, Faith No More entered another hiatus. In 2019, the band announced that they were reuniting for a tour of the UK and the Europe in 2020, which was postponed to 2021–2022 due to the COVID-19 pandemic and eventually cancelled with Patton citing mental health reasons, and Faith No More has since resumed their hiatus.

Solo work and band projects: 1984–present

thumb|Patton performing with an [[elastomeric respirator (without filter cartridges attached) during a Tomahawk show in 2002]]

During his time in Faith No More, Patton continued to work with Mr. Bungle. His success in mainstream rock and metal ultimately helped secure Mr. Bungle a record deal with Warner Bros. The band released a self-titled album (produced by John Zorn) in 1991, and the experimental Disco Volante in 1995. Their final album, California, was released in 1999. The band ceased being active following the 1999–2000 tour in support of the California record, although their disbandment was only officially confirmed in November 2004. Mr. Bungle reunited in 2019 with three original members (Patton, Dunn and Spruance) plus drummer Dave Lombardo and guitarist Scott Ian to re-record its first demo from 1986 The Raging Wrath of the Easter Bunny; the album was released on October 30, 2020.

Patton's other projects included two solo albums on the Composer Series of John Zorn's Tzadik label, (Adult Themes for Voice in 1996 and Pranzo Oltranzista in 1997). He is a member of Hemophiliac, in which he performs vocal effects along with John Zorn on saxophone and Ikue Mori on laptop electronics. This group is billed as "improvisational music from the outer reaches of madness". He has also guested on Painkiller and Naked City recordings. He has appeared on other Tzadik releases with Zorn and others, notably as part of the "Moonchild Trio" alongside Joey Baron and Trevor Dunn, named after Zorn's 2006 album on which the trio first appeared, Moonchild: Songs Without Words.

In 1998, Patton formed the metal supergroup Fantômas with guitarist Buzz Osborne (of The Melvins), bassist Trevor Dunn (of Mr. Bungle), and drummer Dave Lombardo (of Slayer). They have released four studio albums. In 1999, Patton collaborated with Japanese experimental musician Merzbow on the album She, released under the name Maldoror.

left|thumb|upright=0.75|Patton playing with Fantômas in 2005

thumb|upright=0.75|left|Patton in [[Milan, Italy, as part of Peeping Tom, 2006]]

In 1999, Patton met former The Jesus Lizard guitarist Duane Denison at a Mr. Bungle concert in Nashville, and the two subsequently formed the band Tomahawk. Tomahawk's straightforward rock sound has often been compared to Album of the Year/King for a Day era Faith No More.

In 2001, he contributed vocals to Chino Moreno's group Team Sleep and released the album Music to Make Love to Your Old Lady By with the group Lovage, a collaborative project consisting of Patton, Dan the Automator, Jennifer Charles, and Kid Koala.

Patton performed vocals for Dillinger Escape Plan's 2002 EP, Irony Is a Dead Scene. That year, he joined violinist Eyvind Kang and his ensemble Playground to play the piece Virginal Co Ordinates at the in Bologna. The performance would be released as an album in 2003.

In 2004, Patton worked with Björk and the beat boxer Rahzel on the album Medúlla. That same year, Patton released the album Romances with Kaada and contributed vocals to the album White People by Handsome Boy Modeling School (Dan the Automator and Prince Paul). In 2005, Patton collaborated with hip hop DJ trio and turntablists The X-Ecutioners to release the album General Patton vs. The X-Ecutioners.

In February 2006, Mike Patton performed an operatic piece composed by Eyvind Kang, based on the 1582 work Cantus Circaeus by Giordano Bruno, at Teatro Comunale di Modena in Modena, Italy. Patton sang alongside vocalist Jessika Kenney, and was accompanied by the Modern Brass Ensemble, Bologna Chamber Choir, and Alberto Capelli and Walter Zanetti on electric and acoustic guitars. The singer remarked that it was extremely challenging to project the voice without a microphone. This performance was later released as the record Athlantis in July 2007, through Ipecac Recordings.

Patton's Peeping Tom album was released on May 30, 2006, on his own Ipecac label. The set was pieced together by swapping song files through the mail with collaborators like Dan the Automator, Rahzel, Norah Jones, Kool Keith, Massive Attack, Odd Nosdam, Amon Tobin, Jel, Doseone, Bebel Gilberto, Kid Koala, and Dub Trio.

In 2008, he performed vocals on the track "Lost Weekend" by The Qemists. In December 2008, along with Melvins, Patton co-curated an edition of the All Tomorrow's Parties Nightmare Before Christmas festival. Patton chose half of the lineup and performed the album The Director's Cut in its entirety with Fantômas. Patton also appeared as Rikki Kixx in the Adult Swim show Metalocalypse in a special 2 part episode on August 24.

In June 2009, Mike Patton and Fred Frith performed in Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, England as part of that year's Meltdown Festival.

On May 4, 2010, Mondo Cane, where Patton worked live with a 30-piece orchestra, was released by Ipecac Recordings. The album was co-produced and arranged by Daniele Luppi. Recorded in 2007 at a series of European performances including an outdoor concert in a Northern Italian piazza, the CD features traditional Italian pop songs of the 1950s and 1960s as well as a rendition of Ennio Morricone's "Deep Down".

On June 18, 2010, Patton performed the 1965 work Laborintus II by classical composer Luciano Berio in Amsterdam, along with the orchestra Ictus Ensemble and vocal group Nederlands Kamerkoor. This show would be released as an album on July 10, 2012. On October 8, 2016, Patton and Ictus Ensemble played this piece in Krakow, Poland, preceded by a performance of the album Virginal Co Ordinates the previous day, alongside its creator Eyvind Kang.

thumb|right|Patton (left) with [[Gavin Bryars, Bill Laswell and Milford Graves in a 2006 tribute to guitarist Derek Bailey]]Patton is a member of the supergroup Nevermen, alongside Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio and rapper Doseone (with whom Patton had previously collaborated on the Peeping Tom side project). In 2016, the group released an eponymous debut album on Patton's Ipecac label.

In August 2017, Patton released an album with the band Dead Cross, a supergroup that includes Slayer and Fantômas drummer Dave Lombardo and Retox members Michael Crain and Justin Pearson.

On December 27, 2017, Patton performed his collaborative EP, Irony Is a Dead Scene, as well as a cover of Faith No More's "Malpractice," with the Dillinger Escape Plan live at the band's first of three final shows at Terminal 5 in New York City.

In May 2018, Patton performed two concerts entitled Forgotten Songs in Modena, Italy, with the American pianist Uri Caine. The setlists of the concerts varied and included songs from Olivier Messiaen, Elton John, Slayer, Violeta Parra, George Gurdjieff, and many others. They also performed a new song called "Chansons D'amour" from an album Patton would later release with French musician Jean-Claude Vannier, Corpse Flower of September 2019. The shows were recorded, but it is not certain if the material will get a release.

On January 25, 2020, Patton joined Laurie Anderson and Rubin Kodheli at the SFJAZZ Center for a performance based on the 16th century military manual Quanjing Jieyao Pian by Qi Jiguang.

In September 2021, Faith No More was scheduled to play shows. However, the dates were cancelled due to Patton citing mental health reasons.

On September 16, 2025, after teasers on the respective artist's social media, Mike Patton and The Avett Brothers announced their collaborative project 'AVTT/PTTN', which would release on November 14th, 2025 via Thirty Tigers in association with Ramseur Records and Ipepac Recordings. Subsequently they would announce tour dates for 2026 and would appear on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon and CBS Mornings to promote the collaboration.

Other ventures

Film work

In 2005, Patton signed on to compose the soundtrack for the independent movie Pinion, marking his debut scoring an American feature-length film. However, this had been held up in production and may be on the shelf permanently. His other film work includes portraying two major characters in the Steve Balderson film Firecracker.

Patton provided the voices of the monsters in the 2007 film I Am Legend starring Will Smith.

He also worked on the Derrick Scocchera short film "A Perfect Place" for the score/soundtrack, which is longer than the film itself.

In 2009, Patton created the soundtrack to the movie Crank: High Voltage.

In the 2010 film Bunraku Patton voiced The Narrator.

Patton composed the soundtrack to the 2012 film The Place Beyond the Pines.

In 2016, Patton provided the voice to lead character Eddy Table in a short animated film, The Absence of Eddy Table.

In 2017, he scored the Stephen King movie 1922 for Netflix.

Video game work

Patton is an avid video game player, especially with PlayStation consoles. In 2007, he provided the voice of the eponymous force in the video game The Darkness, working alongside Kirk Acevedo, Lauren Ambrose and Dwight Schultz. Patton reprised the role in The Darkness II in 2012.

He also had a role in Valve's 2007 release Portal as the voice of the Anger Sphere in the final confrontation with the insane supercomputer, GLaDOS. He has another role in the Valve title Left 4 Dead, voicing the majority of the infected zombies. He also voiced Nathan "Rad" Spencer, the main character in Capcom's 2009 video game Bionic Commando, a sequel to their classic NES title.

On March 11, 2021, Patton lent his voice to a remake of the 1987 Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles theme song that was released as the trailer for the video game Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Shredder's Revenge.

Artistry

Voice, techniques and style

Throughout his career, Patton has utilized various different genres including, avant-garde, experimental, experimental rock, art pop, contemporary classical, funk metal, and thrash metal. Mike Patton's vocals touch on crooning, falsetto, screaming, opera, death growls, rapping, beatboxing, and scatting, among other techniques. While already a proficient singer, Patton is fond of manipulating his voice with effect pedals and diverse tools. This has been a prominent feature in his project Fantômas and contemporary classical performers. colleague Blake Butler called Patton "a complete and utter musical visionary and a mind-blowing and standard-warping genius." He has knowledge on multiple instruments as well.

Patton has garnered media attention for his wide vocal range, but when asked about his range in a 2019 interview, he said of past articles written about his vocal range: "I think that range thing is all bullshit. I don't think that I have the biggest range. And even if I do, who cares! ... This is not like the Olympics of vocals. [laughs] I could make a record without singing a note, and I'll be happy with it." but he only participates in projects he feels close to. Several writers have likened Patton to Zappa (as well as their bands Mr. Bungle and Mothers of Invention) because of the quantity of their work, wide-ranging influences and recurrent use of humor. On his method of composition for other musicians' pieces and filmmakers, Patton said that the most important quality is to remain flexible and open to any style, as well as to always follow the vision of the author.

Vocal writing and lyrics

Patton bases his vocals on what "the music dictates", whether that is using his voice in a traditional way or as "another [instrument]." His compositions are preceded by the study of the instrumentals, where he analyzes every instrument and their specific parts, Patton is inclined to produce dense overdubs that include numerous vocals or instrumentations in single passages. When asked about the unorthodox use of his voice – drawing on diverse techniques and effects, or eschewing lyrics, Patton remarked: "The voice is an instrument. No rules, just part of the music."

Former bandmate William Winant singled out Patton's immediacy to concretize musical ideas he has in his head. – "the music tells the story", he says. As soon as he creates the melodies, he generally seeks words that sound the most similar to what he heard in his head. Regardless of the extent to which Patton's statements on his lyrics are accurate, to Cammila Albertson at AllMusic his self-deprecating attitude is "self-aware" and, at least partly, a reaction to the self-importance of people in the music industry, manifested more clearly in his parody of rock and rap clichés in the lyrics of "Mojo" by Peeping Tom. In a 1993 Faith No More interview, Patton elaborated:

For over 30 years, Patton and Red Hot Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis have been involved in an ongoing feud. Prior to that feud, Faith No More (then fronted by Chuck Mosley) and the Red Hot Chili Peppers had toured together. However, things turned ugly between the two bands in 1989 when Kiedis accused Mosley's replacement, Patton, of imitating his style on stage and in their music video for their biggest hit, "Epic". The two took shots at each other in the media throughout 1990. Mr. Bungle's guitarist, Trey Spruance, added that the manager of the Chili Peppers apologized and blamed Kiedis for the removals. In retaliation, Mr. Bungle parodied the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Pontiac, Michigan, on Halloween of 1999. Kiedis responded by having them removed from the 2000 Big Day Out festival in Australia and New Zealand. Kiedis said of the festival shows, "I would not have given two fucks if they played there with us. But after I heard about [the] Halloween show where they mocked us, fuck him and fuck the whole band." Mr. Bungle ceased being active a year after the controversy with Kiedis. Patton continued to mock Kiedis in the media with his new band Fantômas, calling him a "noodle dick" in a 2001 television interview. Despite the ongoing animosity towards one another, Patton during a 2010 interview expressed his desire to move past the feud, claiming he and Kiedis would have a warm embrace if the two were ever to meet in person. Despite this, Kiedis and the band would exhibit another possible gesture aimed at Patton during a concert in 2014 when the band jokingly teased the Faith No More song "We Care a Lot" during a performance at Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Several publications, such as Complex and Phoenix New Times, have since listed the Kiedis–Patton feud as being one of the best beefs in the history of rock. and "absurd".

Personal life

thumb|Patton performing with Faith No More at the 2010 [[Soundwave (Australian music festival)|Soundwave Festival in Perth, Australia]]

Relationships

Patton married Cristina Zuccatosta, an Italian artist, in 1994. He has no children. Patton has also been known to be friends with System of a Down frontman Serj Tankian. One of Patton's friends is actor Danny DeVito, who continually goes to concerts by Patton. They met after DeVito and his son attended a Fantômas show at the 2005 Coachella Festival.

Health

During his third concert with Faith No More, Patton's right hand was permanently numbed after he fell down on a broken bottle that severed his tendons and nerves. The next day, he spent five and half hours in reconstructive microsurgery.

In 2022, Patton disclosed that he was diagnosed as suffering from agoraphobia, which resulted in the cancellation of Faith No More and Mr. Bungle performances in 2021.

Interests and hobbies

Patton owns a massive record collection and, as of 2005, he regularly traveled to Japan with John Zorn to buy albums. Patton's favorite moment during a promotional cycle in 1995 was to spend $20,000 on a jazz record binge with his bandmate Bordin in Paris.

Patton is a foodie. and he has given thematic interviews about food. Meeting up with friends over a meal is his main social activity besides music. He has several favorite restaurants in San Francisco that he visits regularly.

Since childhood, Patton has been an avid fan of basketball team Los Angeles Lakers. He is also a baseball fan, which in the past he considered "a guilty pleasure." Patton supports the Italy national football team.

In between tours, Patton practiced swimming and weight training.

Other

Patton's numerous projects and constant touring have led him to be widely identified as a "workaholic". Patton, who is addicted to coffee, has kept around three projects going on simultaneously throughout the years. These events tied him closely to Italian culture and its popular music of the mid-20th century. Patton was also conversational in Spanish until the 1990s; he still understands the language. In addition, he spoke Portuguese slang.

Legacy

A list published by Consequence of Sound based on vocal range acknowledged Mike Patton as "the greatest singer of all time" in popular music. Before the disbandment of Faith No More in 1998, Patton was already highly respected by colleagues and listeners, and this continued with his multiple experimental releases that ensued it. Nonetheless, Patton downplays his prominence with light-hearted self-deprecation, and was very critical of his earlier work. While Patton finished his second record with Faith No More—Angel Dust of 1992 —Warner Bros warned them that it would be a "commercial suicide" due to the significant stylistic departure that they began venturing on, yet, eventually, in 2003 Kerrang! magazine described it as the most influential album of the past two decades. He has been less than enthusiastic about being linked to such bands, stating in a 2002 interview that "Nu-metal makes my stomach turn". A reviewer at The Quietus opined that, notwithstanding Faith No More's far-reaching legacy, the most valuable contribution of Patton has been using his platform "to become one of the most potent driving forces in avant-garde and alternative music", through his diverse projects and collaborations, and the experimental artists he has signed to Ipecac Recordings.

In addition to his legacies with Faith No More, Mr. Bungle and Fantômas, numerous artists cite Mike Patton directly as an inspiration. Prominent singers such as Chino Moreno (Deftones), Brandon Boyd (Incubus), Ville Valo (HIM), Jacoby Shaddix (Papa Roach), Greg Puciato (The Dillinger Escape Plan), Jesse Leach (Killswitch Engage), Ivan Moody (Five Finger Death Punch), Justin Pierre (Motion City Soundtrack), Daryl Palumbo (Glassjaw), Howard Jones (Killswitch Engage), Claudio Sanchez (Coheed and Cambria), Tommy Rogers (Between the Buried and Me), Daniel Gildenlöw (Pain of Salvation), Doug Robb (Hoobastank), Tommy Vext (Divine Heresy), Hernan Hermida (Suicide Silence), Dimitri Minakakis (The Dillinger Escape Plan), Mike Vennart (Oceansize), Spencer Sotelo (Periphery), CJ McMahon (Thy Art Is Murder) and Kin Etik (Twelve Foot Ninja) have all cited Patton as their primary influence.

Devin Townsend proclaimed in 2011: "Angel Dust into Mr. Bungle changed every singer in heavy music. Patton is a living treasure." Artistically, he has been named the biggest influence for Slipknot, Mushroomhead and Igorrr, and a major one on Josh Homme (Queens of the Stone Age), Serj Tankian (System of a Down) and The Avett Brothers.

Discography

Studio albums

  • Adult Themes for Voice (1996)
  • Pranzo Oltranzista (1997)
  • Mondo Cane (2010)

Selected filmography

  • 1990 – You Fat Bastards: Live at the Brixton Academy, London by Faith No More (VHS)
  • 1993 – Video Macumba – Short film compiled by Mike Patton containing abstract and extreme footage
  • 1993 – Video Croissant by Faith No More (VHS) Released in 1993 it features some of the band's music videos up to that date.
  • 1998 – Who Cares a Lot? The Greatest Videos by Faith No More (VHS)
  • 2002 – A Bookshelf on Top of the Sky: 12 Stories About John Zorn
  • 2005 – Firecracker – Frank/David
  • 2006 – Double Feature: Live at the Brixton Academy, London (You Fat Bastards) / Who Cares a Lot? The Greatest Videos by Faith No More (DVD)
  • 2007 – Kaada/Patton Live – Live performance DVD
  • 2007 – I Am Legend – Creature Vocals (voice) (credited as Michael A. Patton)
  • 2008 – A Perfect Place – Short film soundtrack by Patton (Released with film as CD/DVD special edition)
  • 2008 – Live from London 2006 – Live DVD release of a performance by the Fantômas/Melvins Big Band in London on May 1, 2006
  • 2008 – Metalocalypse – Patton voices the character of reformed rocker Rikki Kixx on episodes "Snakes n Barrels II" part one and part two. This special 2 part, half-hour presentation aired on Adult Swim August 24, 2008.
  • 2009 – Crank: High Voltage – Film Score
  • 2010 – The Solitude of Prime Numbers – Film Score
  • 2010 – Bunraku – Narrator
  • 2012 – The Place Beyond the Pines – Film Score
  • 2016 – The Absence of Eddy Table – Voice of Eddy Table
  • 2017 – 1922 – Film Score

Video game voice work

  • 2007 – The Darkness – Voice of The Darkness (Starbreeze Studios)
  • 2007 – Portal – Voice of the Anger Core (Valve)
  • 2008 – Left 4 Dead – Infected voices, Smoker, Hunter (Valve)
  • 2009 – Bionic Commando – Voice of Nathan Spencer – the Bionic Commando (Capcom)
  • 2009 – Left 4 Dead 2 – Infected voices, Smoker, Hunter (Valve)
  • 2012 – The Darkness II – Voice of The Darkness (Digital Extremes)
  • 2016 – Edge of Twilight – Return to Glory – Vocals for Lithern and Creatures (FUZZYEYES)

Notes

References

Sources cited

<small>(Alternative link)</small>

  • Ipecac Recordings
  • Faith No More official website
  • Mr. Bungle official website

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