'I WISH MAXI WAS ALIVE TO SEE THE LOVE IN THE ROOM'

As rave behemoths Faithless return with a ground-breaking album and huge show at Alexandra Palace, Sister Bliss talks to Mark Beaumont about the legacy of the band's late, beloved frontman Maxi Jazz

-  Sister Bliss

The voice floats out of the ether, shrouded in angelic arias and celestial electronics: “When time come beneath the fearsome sun, my daughter, my son, be as completely you as you can be, forever free.” It’s the voice of Maxi Jazz, the iconic frontman of London dance phenomenon Faithless, who died in 2022, aged 65, after a long illness. A stoic yet powerful voice, one which gave rave music depth, meaning and political impact on historic tracks such as Insomnia and Mass Destruction, now delivering what his bandmate Sister Bliss calls “his little last statement of intent to the world” as introduction to the band’s latest release Forever Free. If God is a DJ, you sense, he’s got a legendary new MC.

“It’s just a little nugget of wisdom among many,” Bliss says from her north London home, explaining how the sample of Jazz's lyric was repurposed from a recording of a poem about a mango tree at his mother's home in Jamaica. “Maxi, he’s now free. He's free of illness. He’s free of pain. He’s also forever around in our music — anytime you want to click on your phone or your Spotify, there he is.”

Losing such a pivotal figure has obviously been a major struggle for this beloved, 20 million-selling act, now comprising just Bliss and studio fulcrum Rollo. Jazz was too ill to contribute to their 2020 comeback album All Blessed, and until 2024 they hadn't played live for eight years. “Rollo and I sat and went, yeah, we've had a bloody good run,” Bliss says. “We still want to make albums, but live, how can we be in a band without Maxi? And then to do a 360 was a big deal.” Careful to treat Jazz's memory with love and respect, the show Faithless put together with Jean-Michel Jarre designer Jvan Morandi — coming to the Kaleidoscope Festival at Alexandra Palace next week — includes video and animation of their erstwhile singer, still collaborating with his band from the next world.