HEALTH: 'This is the first time we knew who we were writing music for'
EXCLUSIVE: HEALTH's mastermind John Famiglietti speaks about working around "the suits" and their expectations to bring Rat Wars to life, and how fulfilling the experience has been.
HEALTH have always been somewhat of an outlier in the music scene. Their sound can be described anywhere from goth metal to the perfect soundtrack for the video Cyberpunk 2077.
The American band's uniqueness, individuality, nuance - whatever you want to call it - has long been a point of pride for their fans (and, likely, them as well). But it no doubt brings problems with where they ought to market their music.
John Famiglietti, one-third of HEALTH, exclusively spoke to Express.co.uk about bringing Rat Wars to life despite this marketing setback - and how - shocking absolutely no one - Rat Wars has become one of their most popular records to date.
"The reaction has been pretty overwhelming," John smiled from his bedroom. "So we've been very, very happy with it. And we feel pretty confident it's our best record and definitely our best response."
Coated in dense and macabre synths, heavy guitar, ear-shattering drums and a vocal wail, Rat Wars is somehow more distinctive and idiosyncratic than HEALTH's previous entries. And despite this, however, the fans are passionate. That is plain to see in their recently released tour diary (which you can watch HERE, or below in the article).
Surely, though, considering how dense HEALTH's music is, they must have a fight on their hands when they go to their label with new music?
Referring to them as the "suits", John reasoned: "So the suits you know, they're very, they have a lot of suggestions, they have a lot of ideas but they're also very... if we are passionate enough, and make the case, they're like 'Alright!'
"It's never been an issue ... sometimes we'll do some stuff that we didn't originally plan on doing, but like in terms of the record, there's no interference of the record. We're making the record we want we want to make."
After HEALTH have got past their bosses, and made the record, they next need to make sure it's something their fans actually... want.
While John offhandedly called this an "issue", he confessed the band have become a lot more comfortable with the situation.
John pointed out: "The funny thing is for us is, for the majority of our career, we've had this issue where it's like... we're very passionate about this music, we have all these ideas and it's all these big concepts we're trying to achieve. And we have these real talks where we're like: 'Who is this music really for?'
"You know, we are always mismatched in scenes, never really had a genre, and this is the first time - this album - we know who we're making it for. We're making it for our fans directly. For our fans, and giving them what they want. We know what they're gonna love."
John described the creation of Rat Wars as a place of "strength and confidence" rather than the panic they endured during previous albums. During those recording sessions, he admitted, they were asking: "Are we done? Or is this terrible? Or is no one going to like this? Is no one going to f*****g care?"
"This one," he went on. "Is just really made from a real position where it's like: they're gonna love this, and we're really making it for our fans, and knowing who our fans are. We have we have such a defined fan base now. That's totally different than before."
HEALTH - Rat Wars is out now. Listen for free on Amazon Music using the link below.
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