GROWING CONFIDENCE
LA-based Health returns with heavier sound with ‘Rat Wars,’ sets show at Sunshine Theater
It’s almost time to head out for a tour. You know how John Famiglietti knows this? “My living room is filled with merchandise for the tour,” Famiglietti says with a laugh. “It looks chaotic, but there’s a science to it all. It’s going to be a great tour once we head on the road.”
Famiglietti is a member of the industrial rock band Health. He is joined in the band with Jake Duzsik and Benjamin Jared Miller.
Health released its latest album, “Rat Wars,” in late 2023. The band is heading out on tour and it will make a stop at Sunshine Theater on Tuesday, March 5.
Written during the most emotionally trying period of the band’s life, the album builds on their chaotic yet reinvigorating pandemic years.
In that time, Health cut dozens of tracks with heroes and inheritors like Nine Inch Nails, Lamb of God, 100 Gecs, Poppy, and Pertubator on the album “DISCO4.”
Born in the heady grime of downtown L.A.’s noise scene, the trio set out to be divisive as they sliced bare fragments of songs out of backfiring guitar pedals.
By 2009’s “Get Color,” everyone knew the band was something different.
They played major global festivals like Coachella and Primavera Sound, and after a brief detour to score the groundbreaking Rockstar Games title “Max Payne 3,” they returned in 2015 with the long-awaited “Death Magic.”
Famiglietti says the band is pleased with the reaction “Rat Wars” has received since it was released.
The tour is going to lean heavily on “Rat Wars.”
“We’re playing almost 70% of the new album,” he says. “We’re also sprinkling in something from every album. We’re also doing the Deftones cover ‘Be Quiet And Drive (Far Away),’ which everyone is loving right now.”
Health began nearly 20 years ago in Los Angeles.
Over the course of that time, Famiglietti says the band has learned a few things to keep everything running smoothly.
“We like to take big breaks in between tours and albums,” he says. “We have off about four months and just to have that time is really good for our mental health. It keeps us doing the best we can possibly do.”
With nearly two decades of material, Famiglietti says there’s not a set process for picking which songs the band will play on tour.
“There’s a confidence that has grown within us as we’ve done music for so long,” he says. “We know what sounds good and what doesn’t. Many of the insecurities that we had when we were young are gone now. Creating music is the job, and the tour is the time that we get to play. Traveling the country and world is something that’s been amazing to do.”
Famiglietti admits the biggest struggle for the band is its online presence.
“Social media is so saturated, it’s difficult to stand out,” he says. “When we post something it has to have intent. That’s one of the speed bumps in this industry.”