Faithless are an English

band Band or BAND may refer to: Places *Bánd, a village in Hungary *Band, Iran, a village in Urmia County, West Azerbaijan Province, Iran * Band, Mureș, a commune in Romania *Band-e Majid Khan, a village in Bukan County, West Azerbaijan Province, I ...

that formed in 1995, with its core members being

Rollo Rollo ( nrf, Rou, ''Rolloun''; non, Hrólfr; french: Rollon; died between 928 and 933) was a Viking who became the first ruler of Normandy, today a region in northern France. He emerged as the outstanding warrior among the Norsemen who had se ...

, Sister Bliss and

Maxi Jazz Maxwell Fraser (14 June 1957 – 23 December 2022), better known by his stage name Maxi Jazz, was a British musician, rapper, singer, songwriter and DJ. He was the lead vocalist of British electronic band Faithless from 1995 to 2011 and 2015 ...

. Their first album, '' Reverence'', was released in 1996 and their most recent, ''

All Blessed ''All Blessed'' is the seventh studio album by dance music act Faithless. It was released on 23 October 2020. It is their first studio album in 10 years, succeeding 2010's '' The Dance''. It is also their first album which doesn't feature lead ...

'', in 2020. They have sold millions of physical records, and their catalogue was uploaded to streaming sites in 2018. They average almost 3 million streams a month.https://open.spotify.com/artist/5T4UKHhr4HGIC0VzdZQtAE Faithless' records have charted at #1 in numerous countries and they were voted the 4th greatest dance band of all time by ''

Mixmag ''Mixmag'' is a British electronic dance and clubbing magazine published in London. Launched in 1983 as a print magazine, it has branched into dance events, including festivals and club nights. History The first issue of ''Mixmag'' was prin ...

''. Their musical style is often political. ''All Blessed'' uses award-winning photo-journalist

Yannis Behrakis Yannis Behrakis ( el, Γιάννης Μπεχράκης; 29 August 1960 – 2 March 2019) was a Greek photojournalist and a Senior editor with Reuters. Biography Yannis Behrakis was born in 1960 in Athens, Greece. He studied photography in the ...

' picture of refugees on the front, focusing on immigration as its core theme. Faithless have headlined numerous major festivals in Europe and beyond, including

Glastonbury Glastonbury (, ) is a town and civil parish in Somerset, England, situated at a dry point on the low-lying Somerset Levels, south of Bristol. The town, which is in the Mendip district, had a population of 8,932 in the 2011 census. Glastonbur ...

. Their lyrics have been quoted in both the

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and the

Houses of Parliament The Palace of Westminster serves as the meeting place for both the House of Commons and the House of Lords, the two houses of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Informally known as the Houses of Parliament, the Palace lies on the north ban ...

Musical career

Faithless' first album ''Reverence'' was conceived as a mixtape which covers many genres, encapsulating house, hip-hop, folk and classical music. The album was released on Rollo's label, Cheeky Records. Their first show at Camden’s Jazz cafe to showcase ''Reverence'' was a sell-out, and a global tour ensued as the record went up the charts all over Europe. The singles "

Insomnia Insomnia, also known as sleeplessness, is a sleep disorder in which people have trouble sleeping. They may have difficulty falling asleep, or staying asleep as long as desired. Insomnia is typically followed by daytime sleepiness, low energy, ...

" and "

Salva Mea "Salva Mea" (faux Latin for "save me") is a song by British electronic band Faithless, written by members Rollo, Sister Bliss, and Maxi Jazz. The female vocals on all versions are performed by Rollo's sister Dido. "Salva Mea" was released in ...

" each selling over a million copies, and album going either platinum or gold in every European territory. The second studio album, Mercury-nominated ''

Sunday 8PM ''Sunday 8PM'' is Faithless' second album, released on 28 September 1998. The album contains the hit singles "Bring My Family Back", "Take the Long Way Home", and "God Is a DJ". The album reached number 10 on the UK Albums Chart. In 1999, ''Sund ...

'', contained the global hit " God Is a DJ" and established Faithless as a major touring force in 1998. Emotive videos were directed by featured vocalist

Jamie Catto James David Catto (born 14 August 1968 in London, England) is a British musician, video director, photographer, and script editor. He was a founding member of Faithless, before leaving in 1999 to form 1 Giant Leap. Career Faithless Educated a ...

, featuring the band’s transcendent live shows, and helped bring Faithless’ live prowess to the attention of music fans. They were nominated for Best British Dance Act at the

Brit Awards The BRIT Awards (often simply called the BRITs) are the British Phonographic Industry's annual popular music awards. The name was originally a shortened form of "British", "Britain", or "Britannia" (in the early days the awards were sponsored ...

in 1999. In 2001, their third album ''

Outrospective ''Outrospective'' is the third album by Faithless, released on 18 June 2001. It is the follow-up to ''Sunday 8PM'' and the predecessor to '' No Roots''. The single "We Come 1" had the most success, charting at number 3 on the UK Singles Chart, ...

'' was the first to be released on major label Sony BMG and captured the dreamy synergy between sadness and mad delirium giving rise to hit singles " We Come 1" and a tribute to Muhammad Ali. In 2002, they performed on the

Pyramid stage Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

, with another nomination for best British Dance Act at The Brit Awards in the same year. They won Best Dance and Best Live Act at the

TMF Awards The TMF Awards were an annual television awards show broadcast live on TMF (The Music Factory). The first Dutch TMF Awards were held in 1995, as a brand extension to the recently launched local Dutch music channel TMF. The show was very small an ...

in the

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in 2001. In 2004, their fourth album '' No Roots'' debuted at number 1 in the UK, conceived as a conceptual continuous piece of music in one key, with strong lyrical gravitas it featured vocals from

Dido Dido ( ; , ), also known as Elissa ( , ), was the legendary founder and first queen of the Phoenician city-state of Carthage (located in modern Tunisia), in 814 BC. In most accounts, she was the queen of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre (t ...

, new collaborator L.S.K, and the late

Nina Simone Eunice Kathleen Waymon (February 21, 1933 – April 21, 2003), known professionally as Nina Simone (), was an American singer, songwriter, pianist, and civil rights activist. Her music spanned styles including classical, folk, gospel, blu ...

. Dave Grohl of

Nirvana ( , , ; sa, निर्वाण} ''nirvāṇa'' ; Pali: ''nibbāna''; Prakrit: ''ṇivvāṇa''; literally, "blown out", as in an oil lampRichard Gombrich, ''Theravada Buddhism: A Social History from Ancient Benāres to Modern Colombo.' ...

and Foo Fighters cited Faithless’ hit protest song "Mass Destruction" as the song he most wished he had written during an interview with ''Q'' magazine, and the lyrics were quoted in the

. A powerful video directed by award-winning directing team Dom & Nick alluded to abuses of power during the

Iraq War {{Infobox military conflict , conflict = Iraq War {{Nobold, {{lang, ar, حرب العراق (Arabic) {{Nobold, {{lang, ku, شەڕی عێراق ( Kurdish) , partof = the Iraq conflict and the War on terror , image ...

to chilling effect, tracing the connection from childhood bullying to terrorism and genocide. Encouraged by their label, Faithless released a Greatest Hits album, Forever Faithless. The greatest hits album went four times platinum and was the best-selling dance album of 2005. A huge global tour followed the success of the album. Their fifth album,

To All New Arrivals ''To All New Arrivals'' is the 5th studio album by dance music act Faithless. The album was created after the positive response to the Faithless Greatest Hits tour, originally described as their "final tour". The album was released on 27 Novem ...

, inspired by the birth of Sister Bliss’ son, and

’s young family born into uncertain futures was released in 2006, exploring themes of global poverty, immigration, conflict and belonging, through the concept of "new arrivals". The first single "Bombs", with its anti-war message and video directed by award-winning director

Howard Greenhalgh Howard Douglas Greenhalgh (born 19 February 1963) is a British director of music videos and advertising. Biography Greenhalgh was born in Halifax, West Riding of Yorkshire and studied at the Royal College of Art, setting up the firm Why No ...

, was not playlisted on daytime MTV or

BBC Radio 1 BBC Radio 1 is a British national radio station owned and operated by the BBC. It specialises in modern popular music and current chart hits throughout the day. The station provides alternative genres at night, including electronica, dance, ...

. The album also featured collaborations with Cat Power and Robert Smith of

The Cure The Cure are an English rock band formed in 1978 in Crawley, West Sussex. Throughout numerous lineup changes since the band's formation, guitarist, lead vocalist, and songwriter Robert Smith has remained the only constant member. The band's ...

, and the band headlined Coachella Valley Festival in 2007. Faithless - The Dance Never Ends at Budapest 02

Their sixth album The Dance was released on 16 May 2010, after a four-year recording break for the band, on their own label "Nate’s Tunes" - and was 2nd in the UK album charts behind

The Rolling Stones The Rolling Stones are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1962. Active for six decades, they are one of the most popular and enduring bands of the album era, rock era. In the early 1960s, the Rolling Stones pioneered the g ...

. Faithless again graced the

Pyramid Stage Glastonbury Festival (formally Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts and known colloquially as Glasto) is a five-day festival of contemporary performing arts that takes place in Pilton, Somerset, England. In addition to contemp ...

in 2010 celebrating sold-out arena and stadium tours across Europe. In that year alone they played to over 1 million people and sold over 400,000 records. Faithless performed at

Brixton Academy Brixton Academy (originally known as the Astoria Variety Cinema, previously known as Carling Academy Brixton, currently named O2 Academy Brixton as part of a sponsorship deal with the O2 brand) is a mid-sized concert venue located in South Wes ...

on 7 and 8 April 2011 and was transmitted live via satellite to cinemas across

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

. In 2015, Faithless released a remix album under the banner of Faithless 2.0. The studio album featured contributions from the biggest names in electronic music including

Avicii Tim Bergling (; 8 September 1989 – 20 April 2018), known professionally as Avicii (, ), was a Swedish DJ, remixer and music producer. At the age of 16, Bergling began posting his remixes on electronic music forums, which led to his first re ...

, Tiësto, Armin van Buuren, Claptone and Bookashade. The album contained tracks from their 25-year career, encompassing seventeen top 40 singles, six Top 10 albums and they embarked on a tour to celebrate the album released. In 2015 and 2016, the band played a series of live dates under the Faithless 2.0 banner, featuring Maxi Jazz and a full live band. Jazz left the group for the final time in 2016. After a seven-year recording hiatus, the seventh Faithless studio album

was released in August 2020. The release came in the middle of the

Covid-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identi ...

, with the themes of the album weaving around immigration, identity, empathy and lack of it. The first track that was officially released from the album came on the same weekend as the album release, Synthesizer, a love letter to electronic music. The album features vocals from newcomers Nathan Ball and spoken word artist & poet Suli Breaks, along with the Young Poet Laureate,

Caleb Femi Caleb Femi (born 1990) is a British-Nigerian author, film-maker, photographer, and former young people's laureate for London. His debut poetry collection, ''Poor'', was awarded a Forward Prize for Poetry. Early life Femi was born in 1990 in K ...

. Other notable appearances on the album include legend and Soul II Soul founder, Jazzie B, Gaika, and Damien Jurado. Rollo said of the album, "We want to give them something else – something that could breathe." It continued their top 3 chart success in the UK and Europe. On 23 December 2022, Maxi Jazz died "peacefully in his sleep" at his home in London, England at the age of 65.

Other work

In between album releases Faithless also released highly respected compilation albums revealing more of their personality and influence including the long running Back to Mine sessions as well as NME in Association with War Child Presents 1 Love, The Bedroom Sessions and the Renaissance 3D music project, in conjunction with the iconic Renaissance nightclub. As well as their own studio albums, all three members have actively engaged in other people's work as solo artists. Sister Bliss is a prominent dance DJ and has for a long time toured the circuit on her own, and has also scored numerous TV, film and theatre productions, along with presenting an award-winning Bauer Media show on

Scala Radio Scala Radio is a classical music digital radio station in the United Kingdom, owned and operated by Bauer Radio since its launch in March 2019. The station broadcasts nationally on DAB via the Sound Digital multiplex and online through websites ...

joining the dots between classical and electronic music. Sister Bliss’ hugely successful weekly radio show and podcast ‘Sister Bliss in Session’, is syndicated to over 100 stations & 43 countries worldwide, and has around 10 million listeners per month and 60,000 podcast downloads per month.

and Sister Bliss released a new collaborative record with

in 2019 under the moniker ‘R PLUS’ - ‘The Last Summer’, and second R PLUS album ''WeDisappear'' followed in 2022.

also collaborated with Faithless founding member Jamie Catto on his project 1 Giant Leap and released an album with his band Maxi Jazz and the E Type Boys. Finally, Rollo founded the label Cheeky Records and has produced the music of other artists, most notably his sister Dido's albums, as well as using various monikers to create popular dance music under the names Rollo Goes ... (Camping, Mystic and Spiritual), Felix, Our Tribe (with

Rob Dougan Robert Don Hunter Dougan () is an Australian composer, known for his genre-blending music. Mixing elements of orchestral music, trip hop, and bluesy vocals, his work is tangentially relatable to electronic music. He is known primarily for his ...

), and Dusted.

Band members

Current members * Sister Bliss – keyboards, synthesizers, piano, production, arrangement, mixer, composer, programmer (1995–2011; 2015–present) *

– keyboards, drum machine, guitar, bass, production, arrangement, mixer, composer, programmer (1995–2011; 2015–present) Former members *

– lead vocals, guitar, programmer, production (1995–2011; 2015–2016, died 2022) *

- lead and backing vocals, guitar (1995-1999)

Discography

*'' Reverence'' (1996) *''

'' (1998) *''

'' (2001) *'' No Roots'' (2004) *''

Everything Will Be Alright Tomorrow ''Everything Will Be Alright Tomorrow'' is a remix album released in August 2004 by the British electronica band Faithless. The group has released remix discs in follow-up to their prior three studio albums ('' Irreverence'' for '' Reverence'', ...

'' (2004) *'' Forever Faithless'' (2005) *''

'' (2006) *'' The Dance'' (2010) *'' Faithless 2.0'' (2015) *''

'' (2020)

References

External links