The video for Insomnia has been streamed more than 200 million times on Spotify, where Faithless have over 3.5M monthly listeners, so it’s safe to say that for thirty years Faithless has been synonymous with rave culture.
Formed in 1995 by DJ/producer and keyboardist Sister Bliss, lead vocalist Maxi Jazz, and DJ/producer Rollo Armstrong, in 2005 their multi-platinum selling Greatest Hits album was the best-selling dance album of the year, and in the 2010s they played the Pyramid Stage at Glastonbury; one of four performances there in total, the most recent being last year. They released the album All Blessed in 2020, which charted in the Top 3 in the UK and across Europe. Following the sad death of the legendary Maxi in 2022, Faithless returned to the live arena in 2024 with the Champion Sound Tour, and on Saturday 23 August they will be in Kingham, bringing their genre-defining ‘transcendental’ live experience to Big Feastival.
I had the pleasure of talking with Sister Bliss (aka Ayalah Deborah Bentovim) about how Faithless make music, honouring Maxi’s legacy, and thriving through three decades in the music industry.
Faithless have a lot of history with Big Feastival, right?
We actually did a very early Feastival, before it had become the major player that it is in the calendar. I lose my shit in the Cheese Hub. It’s so fun, like a mega rave in there. I love that even though Alex James is like indie royalty, he's very open to the fact that dance music does galvanize and bring people together.
I was DJing a Faithless set at Big Feastival a couple of years ago, and it was off the hook. I could see there's still a huge enthusiasm for Faithless, and it's been a real Odyssey to come from deciding not to play live again to putting the band back together last year and also deciding what that would look like without Maxi. How we can do something that's really beautiful and respectful to him.
You’re headlining on Saturday night. What can we expect from the performance?
The show is very much a celebration. It's a love letter to dance music and also to Maxi and his contribution to our amazing musical canon. There’s music across the board, from all of our albums. And part of the show is [our] album All Blessed, which was our first album without Maxi. It just lived on streaming, literally, because when we released it there were no gigs, no raves, no festivals. That music never got an airing in the live arena. So it's been exciting, because that music has lived in my head since 2020 and it's the first time people will have seen it live.
Our visual show is about the very early years of rave. It's a particular and quite British experience, and we locate ourselves in it very comprehensively. It's been designed – not in an uber-slick way – but people will see themselves on the screen. I feel that's one of the most powerful things: if your experience is reflected, you feel seen. Lots of artists go up on stage, singing about their own inner world and turmoil: love affairs and broken hearts or creating a persona that's somehow a little bit removed. Maxi’s contributions on record as well as in person, were trying to distil all the shit things that had happened and give people a little piece of wisdom; something nourishing that might just lodge in them and they might not even notice because the riffs are really loud, or the drum is making their hair stand up on the back of their necks. [But} you never know what people are taking away from a show. Instead of shit, like processed E numbers,or non-food, you can give people something really nourishing.
It's not the same as it was before: we have new singers – Nathan Ball and Amelia Fox – who've injected a lovely, fresh vibe into the proceedings, but, like all of our sets, it's weaving together the classics and the new music into one kind of musical flow. It’s been a real labour of love.
Apologies if this sounds trite, but for want of a better word, has putting it all together been healing?
It's so full on, I haven't even taken the time to process. Knowing how much people loved Maxi but are loving the experience they're having in the moment – how can that not be edifying? I'd have to have a heart of stone not to be moved by that.
We don't take this for granted. I'm so grateful that the show has some validity. I think it is really strong, I think it's really beautiful. We use visuals that echo that sense of innocence and freedom. And we have a vocal from Maxi, the only posthumous Maxi vocal, and it's one of his nuggets of wisdom from a poem. It's about being forever free – which Maxi now is, he's free from pain. There's a little line in it; ‘be as completely you as you can be’. You can see people transfixed when they hear that.
Were you classically trained?
Well, I had music lessons, and I went to Royal College of Music on a Saturday, but as soon as I got there I knew I wasn’t dedicated. I love [classical music], and I thrive on it. I've rediscovered opera, which used to bore me to tears when I was young, but the music is just amazing.
Faithless were on our own label, and there was no one telling us what to do: no one saying you can't have a piece of opera sitting next to a folk song by your sister [Rollo is the brother of singer, Dido] and then a big dance anthem.
I was obsessed with synthesizers and the sound of music coming from another world. And I think hopefully, for better or worse, Faithless still has a little bit of otherness. It's really warm and embracing but also, Insomnia – which obviously is our biggest, most enduring hit – is quite glacial and removed. There's something cold and glassy about it. Rollo, who I have been working with for 30 years, sees music as colours, as well. He'll have a vision of what he's seeing when I make music and send it to him: ‘glacial’, ‘rainy’ – or ‘rained on’, are some of his favourite expressions.
Did you imagine that Faithless would still be headliners 30 years on?
I don't think I even imagined what being older looked like, let alone having a child, let alone being postmenopausal, let alone being a woman in the industry. All I can say is, the band are vital. There is a vitality, and because Maxi is not here, there's an awareness that you make this time count. For me, it's always to make a show the best it can be – and there must be a reason that we are still headlining festivals. There is a sense of ownership and maybe a little bit of tribalism around dance music. I think once you're a raver, you're always a raver in your heart.
When I'm lost in music everything melts away; age, gender …which is why I still do it. I feel like I've always been carrying a flag for dance music, not just as a woman, but as someone who is in love with the genre. It's tied to technology. It always felt like the music of the future.
We can't wait to do Big Feastival. We've watched it grow and blossom, and it's really lovely to be invited back: scoffing loads of great food and listening to all the other great music. I'll have to be dragged out the Cheese Hub at 3am by my tour manager going, ‘Blissy, you've got another show to go to’.
Big Feastival will take place from 22-24 August on Alex James’ farm in the Cotswolds. For tickets and further information visit bigfeastival.com
Faithless’ new album, the four part ‘sonic journey’ Champion Sound, will be released on vinyl on 5 September. Pre-order now at faithless.co.uk.
