Faithless’ MC Maxi Jazz is an enigma – a contradiction, even. The London native is a practising Buddhist yet at the same time his hobby is racing cars. And the sport is also his favourite conversation topic.
“It’s one of those things I think you have to do before you really get it,” Maxi begins. “If you watch the car racing on the TV, how boring can that be? You know, these cars going ‘round and ‘round and ‘round and you can’t even see the drivers’ faces because they’re wearing those great big crash helmets! But it’s one of those sports where you have to know what’s happening and use your imagination. Inside the car you’re flying down the straight, you’re doing maybe 110 miles, your foot is flat to the floor, there’s four other cars around you and you have to brake and turn in exactly the right point, first of all, to get the car around the corner fast enough to keep these guys behind you, but not too fast that you actually fly off. So what you’re doing is you’re driving the car right on the edge of its performance, right on the limit, as fast as the car will go around the corner, that’s how fast you want it to go – so what you’re basically doing is you’re driving on the edge of disaster all the time. It’s such a thrill!”
Maxi’s belief is that such experiences are ultimately self-affirming – it is all part of his personal growth and need to “conquer fear”. And, he explains, these kind of processes have actually helped him succeed as a performer. “When you discover your own greatness it’s because you’ve put away your fear, you’ve conquered your fear, and that’s the thing about it that I love the most – the fact that I have to force myself to be the best that I can be. There isn’t any hiding place. I have to be the best that I can be in order not to make a fool of myself.”
Maxi’s full-time gig – Faithless – are by now a bona fide electronica supergroup, but their success did not happen overnight. The band came together in 1995, recording their compelling debut, Reverence, yet it wasn’t until the influential British DJ Pete Tong rediscovered their epic single ‘Insomnia’ that Faithless began to make waves. ‘Insomnia’ would become one of the catalysts of the current Euro-trance explosion. Faithless consolidated their profile with a legendary live show. Now, it’s 2001 and Faithless are promoting their third album, Outrospective.
Faithless started life as a supergroup of sorts. The three core members were already seasoned figures in the underground dance scene. Rollo Armstrong was a remixer/producer and, recording as Felix, had delivered a club hit in ‘Don’t You Want Me’. The classically-trained Sister Bliss was a DJ/producer with her own record label. And Maxi, an MC, had performed with the Soul Food Cafe Band. The trio never imagined that Faithless would be a long-term project.
The first single from the monumental Outrospective is the rousing ‘We Come 1’ – a stadium rave anthem in the tradition of ‘God Is A DJ’. “When you see it played live, we take it to a different level, I have to say – it really rocks,” Maxi enthuses, sounding upbeat after a succession of comeback gigs in Europe. “It’s an unbelievably powerful tune. It’s a love song for our fans, in a way, and it’s describing what happens when we do gigs. It’s not a question of the band coming onstage, we’re heroes, and the people watching all, and then we go home. It’s very much an experience where the band and the audience become one thing. We come on stage and we give of ourselves and then the audience hopefully become inspired and excited by music they like and then they give us back love – and when you hear people just shouting and screaming and clapping their hands and jumping up and down, that’s the sound of love… That’s what we’d like to see happen in society, too – people forgetting this idea that we’re all different.”
After touring solidly on the back of 1998’s Sunday 8pm Faithless took an extended hiatus. Rollo ventured out with an album under the Dusted monicker. Sister Bliss DJed globally (visiting Australia) and issued a hot single in ‘Sister, Sister’. And Maxi stayed at home in London, hung out with friends, played records about town, and raced sports cars. Faithless also put their name to an eclectic mix-CD in DMC’s acclaimed Back To Mine series. Maxi was meant to rap on it but he was too busy with his cars.
Outrospective picks up where Sunday 8pm left off. If Sunday 8pm was at times melancholy, then with Outrospective there comes a sense of resolution. Rollo’s ethereal sister Dido, now a superstar in her own right, again contributes vocals. Maxi, always an eloquent (if not poetic) man, maintains that Outrospective reflects the band as people rather than as musicians. “I think it captures slightly more humour; a more real Faithless,” he starts. “We were very stressed out as a group of individuals when we made Sunday 8pm. We were having a very hard time, you know. We were having to adjust to a success that we weren’t expecting – and some of the consequences of success are your personal relationships fuck up… When we went to make Sunday 8pm the whole band literally was splitting up, everybody, all of their girlfriends and boyfriends, etcetera.
“We were all depressed at the time. We’d just come off the road and we’re having to deal with re-adjusting to being back at home, having relationships break up, and the pressure of having to have an album ready by date X, if you like. We were very much locked into that touring and recording cycle, which I don’t think is healthy at all. I think we made a really good album, because we’d just been on the road for over two years and it was our first time, so it was still kinda fresh for us. But it really did teach us that before we make the next LP we’re gonna definitely come off the road and live normal lives, nine-to-five lives, because the music that you wanna make has to be about real people and real living rather than the bubble life of a touring musician.” 
Maxi’s favourite track on Outrospective is ‘Muhammad Ali’, a disco romp quite unlike any other Faithless outing to date. It’s a symbolic tribute to the man who became the rapper’s first role model as a child after his much-loved father. As one of few Black children in his neighbourhood, Maxi acquired his sense of cultural pride from Ali. “He represents the beginnings of my self-confidence and I think if Muhammad Ali hadn’t have been alive in the world at the same time as me I would not be the person I am today.”
Outrospective is out through BMG.
