Faithless talk honouring Maxi Jazz and the future: “It’s been emotional and a gift”

Faithless spoken to NME about new single ‘I’m Not Alone’ – a tribute to late singer Maxi Jazz – as well as being in a “hugely creative mode” for their next album, ‘Champion Sound’.

After announcing new album ‘Champion Sound’ with the lead single ‘Find A Way‘, the recently-released new track marks the dance pioneers’ first new music since 2020’s ‘All Blessed’ and their first release since the passing of frontman Maxi Jazz back in December 2022.

‘I’m Not Alone (Rest Well Maxwell)’ features one of Jazz’s closest friends, Leeds-based artist LSK, who has featured on all of Faithless’ albums and toured with the band.

“We wanted to create a track that hit the sweet spot in the rave, between melancholic and euphoric,” said band member Rollo. “The result was ‘I’m Not Alone (Rest Well Maxwell)’, a tribute to some of the greats who have passed, including Maxi himself”.

Talking about the band’s recent live dates – which included stops across Europe, one at Glastonbury, an acclaimed Wilderness set, and a headline show at London’s Roundhouse on what would have been Jazz’s birthday, Sister Bliss said: “It’s been emotional and a gift. It’s been a mixture of feeling really sad and really grateful, and wishing Maxi was enjoying it as well.”

Bliss described being on stage without him as “like going out there and just pulling your pants down.

“It’s a very vulnerable experience because Maxi was so iconic and so powerful and so compelling and charismatic as a frontman,” she said. “You couldn’t not get involved when he’s there being the remaster of it all, and bringing that extra dimension – that philosophical, anarcho-Buddhist-punk vibe – to the live shows.”

Recalling shows when Jazz was alive, Bliss said “fans would regularly come up to us afterwards and say ‘I felt Maxi was talking to me personally’.”

“For me, that’s a huge lack,” she continued, “because it’s not something you can just replace with a video.”

She added that the crowds at recent shows have been “amazing” and that “a friend said she had never seen so many grown men cry.

“I have to take that as a compliment because there wasn’t really a place for people to pay tribute to Maxi and everything that he meant to them and our music and how it soundtracked people’s lives,” said Bliss.

She said that, through footage from over the years and animations that show on-screen during the show, Jazz’s presence is still felt on stage.

“He starts off almost like a little flicker and then becomes more and more embodied as we move through the music,” she revealed. “It’s as good as you can get, I think, without going down the hologram route, which I still find creepy. The idea was to integrate him with the band so it’s as if he’s there, and there’s also the idea that his spirit holds the whole show.”

Admitted that “it took ages to really drill down and think about what we wanted to do and what we wanted to say at this stage,” Bliss revealed how the dance outfit decided that the message was: “‘We’re back out in the world, so let’s spread the word’.”

“You have to take these things kind of slowly,” she went on. “There’s definitely a battle out there. You’ve got to win people over – you can’t just walk back after eight years of not playing live and assume that people are going to love what you do.”

She continued: “It’s important to respect the people that come to your shows and pay good money to see them. You’ve got to deliver something pretty amazing.”

With the band having just announced a November UK tour – including a homecoming Brixton date – Bliss added that she “couldn’t be more happy with how loving, open-hearted and accepting the audiences have been.

“They’ve just gone for the ride, which the show is, with or without Maxi.”

Bliss also told NME about Faithless’ next album, which she and the band are still working on. “We are in a hugely creative mode at the moment,” she said. “I was so excited the other day when we got a vocal from one of our collaborators that I actually felt sick.

“I felt that it was one of the keys that will unlock the album… not that anyone gives a shit about albums anymore, but we do, and maybe our fans do.”

The dance pioneer said that making the new record has “been a platform for bringing new people into Faithless in a collective and collaborative way”.

She added that finding the title has helped a message to emerge: “I felt that ‘Champion Sound’ really described what we were doing. It’s got the roughness, the DIY-ness, the sense of collaboration and it’s grounded in that history of sound-system energy.

“So, for me, it spans all the kinds of music that we love. It’s got that reggae energy, but it’s rave-y as well. It’s very, very groovy.”

Talking about “classic house” lead single ‘Find Your Way’, she explained how it’s about “finding yourself in these really polarising times.”

“On one hand, it’s about lovers who can’t communicate, but on the other it’s actually about communities who can’t communicate,” said Bliss. “Why are our galaxies so far apart when, actually, we beat with the same heart? Can we find a way, personally, and as a society?”

Elaborating on the recent anti-fascist counter-protests in the UK, she said: “What has happened has blown my mind and I do feel really moved by it, but also in a state of disbelief as to how people can be so retrograde and basic as to base their opinion on another person’s pigment in their skin?

“Being in a multi-racial band, as we always have been, it’s just second nature and appreciating that racism is just under the surface. There’s always going to be that conscious political strand in our music, for sure.”

She added that working with poets and spoken-word artists “who have that lyrical agenda and consciousness” has been key to maintaining this following Jazz’s death.

“That is a real passing the baton from Maxi, which is what he wanted to do,” she said. “He wanted to slow down on Faithless, probably because he wasn’t very well. So I feel that we’ve been blessed enough to find artists to collaborate with who are worthy of that baton.”

Bliss also noted the recent “huge resurgence” of ’90s house music, adding that “it’s cool and kind of sweet that this generation is experiencing it in this new age”.

“I’m liking the movement of trying to get the phones away,” she went on. “I think, because the footage of us raving in the early ’90s and late ’80s is so vibey and exciting and free, people want to taste that.”

Looking back on Faithless’ gigs in the early days, she said “we didn’t have phones back then, so you would get this proper involvement and immersion – you’re not just filming each other because you want to show that you were there.

“That’s what I find a bit frustrating. I watch a lot of footage of these gigs and it is kids holding up phones. It’s like ‘get lost in the music, get involved in the story’.”

She continued: “For better or worse, there has always been a narrative in Faithless – we’re always trying to tell a story, about the history of the music that we love, where we come from… going on a rollercoaster ride.”

Asked what she thinks Jazz would think looking down on the band now, Bliss said: “Maxi used to shout, ‘Kill ’em twice’ – which means ‘knock ‘em out with the music’ – at the start of our shows, and I hope that that’s what he’s yelling down from the next life, whatever’s going on up there.”

‘Champion Sound’ will be released later in 2024. Faithless embark on a UK and European tour in November. Visit here for tickets and more information.

The post Faithless talk honouring Maxi Jazz and the future: “It’s been emotional and a gift” appeared first on NME.