Omaha's apocalyptic electro quintet The Faint were responsible for one of Joy's favourite albums of the past year. Sythn meister Jacob Thiele took time out to talk to us about quitting cigarettes, nearly working with The Chemical Brothers, and those ever present 80s comparisons.

"We roughly formed a while ago, or Clark, Todd and Joel did anyway. Dapose and I, joined later on. Clark and Todd are brothers and Joel was a friend from their skateboarding days. Dapose, Clark and I went to the same high school but didn't hang out much then. We all knew each other from being part of the local scene."

And the local scene has been an important inspiration for the band ever since,
"Our friends in Omaha who also make music are our biggest inspiration. Seeing somebody's vision actualised is very inspiring. Matthew Barney's Cremaster films, for example. Seeing so many brilliant ideas and unique visuals come together in such a fascinating way is hugely inspiring."

"We want everything we do to be considered part of what our band is. The way we look, the videos on stage, the artwork and layout of our albums, the designs on our shirts and stickers and all that. The music always comes first though."

The Faint released their first album 'Media' back in 1998, but it was 'Danse Macabre' that truly thrust them into the spotlight,
"Danse Macabre was a difficult title to decide on, since it's already been used by Saint-Saens and some others, but it's meaning "the danse of the dead" seemed to encompass what we were going through at the time. We were wondering if we could make a career of our artistry, or if we would resort to the danse macabre. I guess we could have just called it "the danse of the dead", but danse macabre has such a nice ring to it. And danse spelled with a "c" just seems wrong."

"When we did 'Danse Macabre' I remember I had quit smoking and after two or three weeks of it, I stormed out of the studio to the liquor store across the street for some cigs and some beer. Somebody asked once if we'd rather never again set a foot on stage or set a foot in the studio and I answered that we'd rather never set a foot in the studio. playing shows is pretty much always a blast, even if things are going terribly wrong."

"I'm not totally conscious of it's reception. I only read so many reviews and whatnot. I read some that I disagreed with, and some that I thought were spot on. I get a little irked when people write us off as Duran Duran or Depeche Mode clones, but that stuff happens to everybody these days, and I'd definitely rather be compared to those bands than some others. Being associated with Electroclash was also frustrating, but I think that blew over, right? Sometimes reading reviews helps you realize some of your weaknesses that may not have been apparent. I don't think I would have realized how many people think that we're really dark and overly serious, because we don't feel that way ourselves."