Hi, everyone! This weekend, I had the pleasure of speaking with John Famiglietti, bassist of the LA-based noise rock group HEALTH. The band was founded in 2005, but first gained widespread popularity through the remix of their song “Crimewave” by Canadian electronic duo Crystal Castles. I actually really like that song, and never knew it was theirs to begin with. In 2012, they crafted the soundtrack for the Rockstar game Max Payne 3, and they have had songs featured in Grand Theft Auto Online. In more recent years, HEALTH has worked on tracks with rising stars such as Soccer Mommy and JPEGMAFIA. I really like their overall sound, and hearing about their music career made me really interested to reach out to them. Despite being on tour to promote their recent release, Vol 4 :: Slaves of Fear, I was fortunate that John made some time for an interview.
bazzreviews: Which artists or albums had an influence on you starting a music career?
John Famiglietti: I think a lot us like a lot of the albums on Rolling Stone’s 500 Greatest Albums list. For me, personally, bands like the Dead Kennedys and the Locusts were pretty big. I was also really into the experimental noise rock scene from New York City, and I knew that was the kind of band I wanted to be in.
br: How did you meet the other members of the band?
J.F.: I met Jake [Duszik] (lead singer) when I was working at a Guitar Center in Hollywood, he and Jupiter [Keyes] (former guitarist) were friends at the time. They wanted to start a band, but didn’t know what kind of band. I gave them some ideas, then we went out and found BJ [Miller] (drummer) through Craigslist.
br: I learned that the song “Crimewave” was originally your song and was a remix by Crystal Castles. How did that help you guys with getting you career started?
J.F.: It was pretty instrumental. We had no profile at the time, and we met Crystal Castles online before they blew up. When they did the remix of us, it was released as a single in the UK as a split seven-inch with us. That song got them blowing up in the UK, and in this weird, abstract way, we were connected to this band. The funny thing is, we’re basically a f-----g whacko, atonal noise rock band from LA. Once we put out our first album, we had all this press and blog scene getting interested in us. With that song, we got so much undeserved attention for s--t and got some other great remixes from cool producers. We got a little back-door entrance to a lot of the trends that were going on at the time.
br: Going back to what you said a second ago, you guys have had your songs remixed by producers like Purity Ring and Boyz Noise. What perspective do you guys get when you hear other producers remix your music?
J.F.: It’s hard to answer. Because we had that incredible luck with Crystal Castles, a lot of people wanted to start remixing us. That was a big part of our early years. We were doing much more abstract music, and people would just remix the songs into very melodic dance tracks. Our newer material is more electronic, so it’s less of a jump.
br: Can you describe how you typically make a song?
J.F.: We don’t really have a set formula. It’s been changing recently, as we now work entirely on computers. In the early days, s--t was written on a piece of paper. It was only words and no music.
br: What’s more important to you guys- lyricism or production value and instrumentation?
J.F.: I think instrumentation will always win because it’s sort of a fact where good music with bad lyrics will make you interested, but good lyrics and s--t-ass music behind it will be a lot harder to discover. There’s a ton of bands we like where the lyrics aren’t great, but we still love their music.
br: I also saw that you guys created the in-game soundtrack for Max Payne 3, what was that like?
J.F.: It was a pretty awesome experience. It was a long process, but very fulfilling overall. We had never done anything like it before, we only had about twenty songs to our name at the time. We made a lot of music in that span, and the game was really great, too.
br: You guys have released some singles with artists like Soccer Mommy and JPEGMAFIA, how did you guys get those opportunities?
J.F.: We were very surprised to hear that they were down. I think the reasons that a lot of young artists like JPEGMAFIA were interested because of stuff like Max Payne 3. He played the game, he liked the soundtrack, and was open to working with us. It’s really awesome.
br: Which other artists would you guys want to collaborate with in the future?
J.F.: There’s so many, I have a shortlist. Our fans have constantly been asking us to collab with certain artists, and we’ll work on some soon.
br: I know you guys just released an album in January, but do you have any other projects in the work?
J.F.: Not really. There is technically something, but I can’t say what it is. At the moment, we’re just going to do some collaborative songs and that’s it.
br: What music goals do you guys have for the future?
J.F.: We just want to stay in the game, it’s pretty crazy we’re still here today making music.
Thanks again to John for giving me a few minutes to chat about his music career! I want to urge all of you to check out HEALTH's expansive discography, they've put out a lot of amazing stuff over the years. Thanks to all my readers, too! I hope you guys continue reading some more content I put out in the future!
To check out some of HEALTH's music, go to https://soundcloud.com/healthnoise
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