Sister Bliss on the Resurrection of Faithless
It’s been 20 years since an eight-piece band created an eclectic dance mixtape that would go on to change the music world—paving the way for so many electronic acts to come, as well as changing the minds in the rock world before it. And it’s been four years since that same band, Faithless, threw in the towel and said goodbye to the stage. But as luck would have it, member Sister Bliss had a eureka moment in a bar last year and remembered that their 20-year was just around the corner.
The result became not only the resurrection of the veteran UK band, but also 2.0, a two-disc release of their classic hits, accompanied by remixes from friends as varied as Tiësto, Above & Beyond, Booka Shade and Autograf. A bit more than a birthday party, 2.0 is also a revitalization of the band and a way to put the band in a current context for the younger generation, who may not know who they are apart from tip-offs from older family members.
We sat down with Sister Bliss to discuss Faithless’ resurrection, how electronic music has developed since their genesis, the continuing difficulties women face as electronic music artists, and of course, the fact that some of the best ideas come from behind a pint of beer.
Here, we thought Faithless was a done deal in April of 2011! What inspired the change of heart?
2.0 was made to celebrate and commemorate our 20 years. We released some of our classics, as well as refreshed our greatest hits, to introduce the generation that was perhaps not even born when we started. That was how the conversation started, and then we thought it would be great to do some shows to support it. From there, it turned into, “Hey, some festivals could be fun!” We don’t know what it means for the future, but we’ve been so well received, and it’s been so much fun. There’s been so much love out there, and it just feels really revitalized and fresh.
It will be interesting to see if we go on through next year, but it’s really Maxi’s [Faithless’ lead vocalist] decision. We’ll have to watch this space, really. But it literally occurred to me about a year and a half ago: I was in a bar, and I thought, “Oh my god. It will have been 20 years since we released our first track next year!” And it’s been 10 years since our greatest hits packages. But to that newer generation who may have heard of us through older family members, it struck me as a good idea to put it all in a current context with current artists to put their take on our music.
I’ve been a DJ as well for 25 years now, which shows my age, but I’ve obviously been surrounded by so many other DJs the entire time. So as a result, we worked with people like Tiësto, who’ve been on board with Faithless since way back in the day; but we also had artists like Autograf, who are up-and-coming and influenced by us. To me, 2.0 is a play on 20. It’s also about looking into the future, but it’s also a look into the past. To me, that’s what dance music is; it’s a futuristic medium. It’s also a reboot.
The dance album did not exist as such when you first put out your music, but now the case is quite different; yet here Faithless still is. How has your place in the electronic music landscape evolved over the past 20 years?
I don’t know how many dance music artists really do create albums at this point, especially with concepts that stay from beginning to end. It’s more about DJ compilations, really. I think there are really just a very few electronic artists who sell albums the way we did when we started. David Guetta may be an exception to that, but he’s a singled-out artist. We’ve moved to an era where people have a very limited amount of time, with the internet and the ADD culture we live in. Even I don’t have time to sit down and listen to an album! There’s always something vying for my attention.
Faithless was lucky, in that we were able to sell our albums in a time when that happened. And now the artists will have these 20 years to look back on. Now we can do the headline sets, because our music has stood the test of time. Our tracks still live in clubs every night around the world. In a way, too, this was a way of curating our own remixes, rather than listening to all the club bootlegs you hear! It’s interesting to see how many bands will live past their first or second albums. Apart from Disclosure, I can’t really think of a band that’s been able to make a dent, and I’m speaking about touching the charts and really making sales, with selling albums with new artists. Of course, they’re still pop as well.
“Music with a message stands the test of time.”
We couldn’t make our albums pointed at the radio when we started, because you just didn’t hear electronic music on the radio. In a way, the environment is more friendly now, but so few people buy those albums. I mean, LCD Soundsystem’s last album only sold 12,000 albums in the UK. That’s what you’re up against. It’s a singles world we’re living in.
Faithless is an eight-piece live band. That was kind of a game-changer in the live world. The beauty of that is that it’s very versatile. We weren’t just confined to the dance tent, but we were able to be there with the raw rock acts, too. In the ‘90s, it just wasn’t popular for dance acts to be on the mainstage in a festival. If we came in after, say, Limp Bizkit or Metallica, a DJ wouldn’t typically be able to keep the dial up to 11 like that. Having played at everything from jazz festivals next to Ray Charles and then heavy metal fests with the likes of Tool, we can rock it up with the big boys.
It goes to show that dance music is not just some poor cousin to rock music—it’s a mainstage event. Of course, today the festival scene is thriving with dance events and people that have live appeal. deadmau5 and Skrillex, what have you, have their own way of putting on a show that is at least hopefully more entertaining as a band. They know that, fundamentally, a guy just standing up there pressing a button isn’t fundamentally interesting.
You have collaborated with quite a variety of talent in 2.0, running the gamut from Armin van Buuren to Booka Shade, and even Four Tet popped up on your Twitter feed. What about Faithless speaks to such a wide breadth of electronic music artists?
First of all, Four Tet was just my next-door neighbor for a few years! He didn’t do a remix for us, but he’s a gifted artist and a mate, for sure. It’s because we never pigeonholed ourselves. Faithless has always gone across the boards, genre-wise, from ambient to drum & bass, to house and hip-hop, and beyond. We never confined ourselves, and I think that’s what allowed us to stand the test of time—we’re not just one thing. Therefore, the remixes were more open. We thought very carefully about who we would match with each track, and of course not every track was a club track that we chose for people to remix. As a result, you get that breadth in them, too, from a sort of futuristic R&B, to more standard EDM bangers, to tech house, to dirty disco house, and all the way back again.
It’s also a reflection of what Faithless’ career has been like. Our tastes are very wide. Our first-ever album was like a mixtape you would have made as a friend, with all sorts of different music, tied together with a narrative about London. It also ended up being about Maxi’s Buddhist philosophy. Lyrics are also important to me. I believe in dumbing down the music to an extent, because different things appeal to different people. But the people that get into Faithless, they can really get into the intensity and the drama of the music. Then one day, the lyrics do sink in—and I think that’s what makes the music more compelling… Music with a message stands the test of time.
You have been a role model female DJ for two decades now, yet it’s still very much a boys’ club. What opportunities do you see for female DJs today?
Each woman will have her own narrative for that. Nowadays, you see more women out there doing it, and it encourages other women to do it, too. That helps, but we still live in a patriarchy; what can I say?
As you know, there’s been a big debate in one of the big DJ magazines with sexist comments, and how few women are in the top 100 DJ list, and how few women get booked for festivals. Having said that, you have to be passionate and dedicated, and you have much more competition now than you did then. I think that women are discouraged from technological professions, generally speaking, from a very young age. It starts in school.
I remember there was one girl in my school who pursued her studies in tech… She was one of my cleverest friends, but she felt forced to drop out because the teacher was sexist, the other boys in the class were a nightmare, and she just gave up. I would hope things have changed since then, on an education level; of course, that was the late ‘80s! But I think that if women see other women making culture in dance music, or help also behind the scenes, in top positions in managing and event promotions, it helps.
There are women up there already, like Amy Thompson, who manages Swedish House Mafia and my friend Caroline, who manages David Guetta… they’re game-changers. But there are so few women in those top positions. It’s tough, and they have to make so many sacrifices to do that kind of work, and the same is true of female DJs. But then you have the small groups of people who control the festivals, and they’re mostly guys.
I think women see other women out there now, and it’s changing, especially with production and DJing. If you can work a cooker and a washing machine, you can work a pair of decks, pretty much. It’s pretty patronizing to think we cannot. It’s ridiculous to think we can do all these domestic things, and not to worry our pretty little heads and mind ourselves with a mixer, and putting two records together—that’s man’s work. But we have to learn everything you do, using a washing machine included.
I came into this journey as a musician, and I had this innate feeling that I knew how to DJ. I was there when house music was born, and I’m a trainspotter. I feel I have this encyclopedic knowledge of house music and all these early, crazy raves I went to—that’s what started my journey. But I just innately knew I could do it. I was, of course, rubbish when I started, but I spent hours practicing. I lived in a house with six other people and was a student at the time, and they were always banging my wall, telling me to keep the racket down. But if you want to be good at something, you have to practice, like anything else. Ladies, if you dig your music and want everybody to hear it incredibly loud, go for it! Nothing is stopping you.
What are obstacles you had to overcome in your own career as a woman, especially in the beginning?
Like most things, the barriers are invisible. It’s the attitudes, really. People would think that I couldn’t really mix because I was a girl, but then they’d hear me and think differently. But then the bookings would speak for themselves, and I would get re-booked. And I would be making tapes, because that’s what you did at the time, and they spoke on my behalf, too.
I started making records because DJing was so precarious. I was already a musician, and I taught myself how to use Cubase, which was a computer program, and just started to make my own demos. That’s how I met Rollo, who was playing with Faithless, and that’s how it happened. He had just made a seminal record called “Don’t You Want Me” (Felix), and it sold 2.5 million copies, and I just walked into his studio and told him everything he was doing wrong. He thought, “Oh my god! Who is this girl?” and that’s how we started working together. And here I am now.
You had your own record label for a minute in the mid-‘90s, then stopped and brought it back when Faithless went on pause. How’s Junkdog been going?
It’s been going really well, and I’ve really been enjoying putting out music. It’s very expensive having a label, and I really need a hit record, to be honest. I really like this artist Cassini; Rollo and I both think it’s great. The real question is, is it viable? Right now, the business side doesn’t correlate with the spending. I have big plans around it, but perhaps I need more of a team around the label, or I’m going to have to just not do it and concentrate on Faithless and see what else happens in the new year. We need to make our place in the market feel more secure. There’s just so much music out there, so I need to have a think about what we really are trying to achieve.
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