4 days ago
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Mike Patton has made a career out of swerving expectations, so teaming up with The Avett Brothers for the newly released AVTT/PTTN album feels both unlikely and perfectly on brand. When the legendary Faith No More and Mr. Bungle frontman catches up with Kyle Meredith ahead of the 2026 tour — which kicks off in Louisville (get tickets for all dates here!) — he unpacks how the collaboration came together, why it never felt like a “side project,” and how a record born out of remote exchanges turned into something deeply personal. Listen to the episode above or wherever you get your podcasts.
Patton admits the whole thing started as a leap of faith — the trio hadn’t even met in person before recording. “This record is us getting to know each other,” he says, describing a kind of telepathic trust that formed almost instantly. After a few songs were traded back and forth, there was what he calls a “virtual head nod” moment: “Oh, we got something here. And it’s maybe not what we thought. It’s a third personality. It’s a third animal.”
For Patton, the challenge wasn’t genre, it was figuring out where to fit alongside brothers who “harmonize like angels” and share blood as well as musical instincts. “Where the hell do I fit in?” he laughs. The answer, it turns out, was to add when necessary and “know when to button my lip.” Lyrically, much of the record came from Scott Avett, but Patton says the words hit him with eerie precision. “At that particular juncture in my life, his lyrics were almost as if I’d written them,” he explains. As for the tour, expect all of the AVTT/PTTN material, plenty of Avett Brothers staples, selections from Patton’s sprawling catalog, and even “a bunch of really interesting covers.”
He also notes that AVTT/PTTN isn’t a “side project” (“everything that I’ve done was of equal importance to me, they just weren’t viewed that way”), while commenting on whether the last Faith No More tour felt like “closure:” “I didn’t really think so at the time, but, yeah, maybe. And I think that we all kind of felt it, but it was unspoken… I don’t see it as a sad thing. I see it as being present and being able to really appreciate it while it’s happening.”
Listen to Mike Patton talk about the AVTT/PTTN album, tour, and more in the new episode above or by watching the video below. Keep up on all the latest episodes by following Kyle Meredith With… on your favorite podcast platform; plus, check out all the series on the Consequence Podcast Network.
English (US) · 