Mike Patton Gets Excited By Being A Peeping Tom

It's been more than five years since eccentric vocalist Mike Patton announced the formation of Peeping Tom — his current genre-defying side project featuring an impressive array of big name collaborators.

After half a decade of waiting, fans were delivered Peeping Tom's self-titled debut LP two weeks ago. Prior to its release, the oft-delayed album gained a myth-like, Chinese Democracy-esque reputation, leaving many people skeptical that the record would ever be released.

Patton cringed at the Axl Rose comparison in an MTV News article.

"I'm not quite that insane, please," he said.

"Give me a little credit, man! It was a learning process for me, making this record. Not having a band in front of you that you can sort of direct, and then press 'record' and say, 'One, two, three, four — let's go.' I mean, it was very different."

Creating the 11 tracks for Peeping Tom was a slow, monotonous process, which is why the record took so long to finish. Patton would compose a song and then mail it to artists who agreed to collaborate on the album, including Kid Koala, Massive Attack, Babel Gilberto, Odd Nosdam, Doseone and Jel of hip-hop collective Anticon, Dale Crover of The Melvins, Dan "The Automator" Nakamura, Rahzel, Cypress Hill's DJ Muggs, Amon Tobin, Dub Trio, DJ Disk and Kool Keith.

"I would send out a track and start working on something else," said Patton. "You don't sit around and wait for the mailman to come, you work on other shit.

"It was really something I worked on over a period of several years that was in the background of my life."

Patton admitted to learning a lot as a songwriter and producer during the creation of the Peeping Tom debut, and will use that knowledge on the follow-up, which he hopes to release sometime next year. He plans on doing more of the collaborations in person and imposing some more stringent deadlines, which were absent when recording the debut LP.

Patton has a lengthy list of possible collaborators that he hopes will appear on the next Peeping Tom release, but won't name them yet. One candidate that he's been openly courting is Bjork. Patton appeared on her Medulla album.

Peeping Tom have announced a string of gigs set to take place next month throughout the U.S. A full-scale tour is expected in the fall. Peeping Tom's touring band features drummer Joe Tomino, bassist Stu Allen, Dub Trio guitarist Dave Holmes, keyboardist Keefus Cianca, back-up vocalist Imani Coppola, DJ Mike Relm, Rahzel and Alap Momin.

Patton and crew recently shot a video for the album's first single, "Mojo," with director Matt McDermitt (Backstreet Boys, Motion City Soundtrack). The star-studded clip features cameos by model Rachel Hunter, Nakamura, Mark Hoppus of Blink-182 and Patton's longtime friend, actor Danny Devito.

Patton's other projects have been put on the back burner, as he's currently focusing on the upcoming Peeping Tom dates. He says the Fantomas are on hold until next year and he's already "way behind" on work with his band, Tomahawk. Patton is also working on another project comprised of just him and Nakamura.

"It's going to be like DMX for white people," he says.

"That's the concept. I think Dan wants me to bark like a dog."