Issue 108
December 2013
UFC president Dana White recently said the company’s heavy Face The Pain intro music is going nowhere, despite some fans’ objections. Why did a little-known nu metal band write the UFC’s theme anyway?
Whenever the gladiators of ancient Rome strode into the amphitheater they were always preceded by a tumultuous fanfare of horns and drums to let the waiting hordes know battle was about to commence. The wall of sound, said to have shaken the very foundations of the Colosseum, was intended not only to work the 80,000 spectators in to a frenzy, but also the warriors ahead of their life and death struggle.
Fast forward two millennia and it’s easy to see what newly appointed UFC president Dana White had in mind back in 2002, when picking an intro soundtrack for the organization’s pay-per-view events. But what isn’t so easy for many of today’s MMA and music fans to accept is his choice of song, Face The Pain by the New York-based heavy metal band Stemm.
It’s now 11 years since the UFC track was first unleashed on the world at UFC 40: Ortiz vs. Shamrock, and some feel that given the sport has moved on so much since, it’s time for a new theme song. And all the haters out there, and there are a few, thought they’d get their wish when the UFC signed with Fox in 2011.
Yet despite Fox deciding to use its own trademark theme to introduce its UFC broadcasts, Face The Pain can still be heard blasting inside the arena, and out of TVs, before every UFC pay-per-view. And its continued use caused so much debate on fans’ internet forums White felt the need to publicly defend the song recently, stating: “Anyone who doesn’t like it can mute their television.”
It should be no surprise White is adamant about retaining the track – he was instrumental in its genesis. Stemm’s lead vocalist Joe Cafarella explains: “As UFC 40 loomed in late 2002 I received a conference call from Dana asking if we could write a song geared up for the event.
“He requested that the song’s lyrics encapsulate the mentality of fighting. The next day we did a demo of three songs, one of which was Face The Pain, which I wrote the day after speaking to Dana. Less than one week later we were professionally recording the track and we were quickly offered a publishing deal for it.
“The song was aired for the first time at UFC 40 and Dana loved it so much, he requested it to start all UFC fights from that point on. However, we were also told the UFC was taking submissions from other artists, as they began to seriously look for an official theme song to represent the UFC, but that Face The Pain was at the top of the list.
“Six months down the road, I received a call from UFC bosses, who said, ‘Congratulations! Your song is now the official theme tune for the UFC.’ That was 11 years ago and Face The Pain is still synonymous with the Octagon. But one thing many people don’t know is they use approximately 12 other Stemm songs for background music, and to go in and out of commercial breaks.”
And one other thing that not many know is just how fortunate Stemm were to have been picked up by the UFC in the first place. Cafarella recalls how the band’s relationship with the company began. “It was total luck, man,” he explains to FO. “Back in 2002, a friend of mine who played in a rock band on our music scene told me to give him a Stemm promotional package to send out to a friend who worked in the music department of the UFC.
“Apparently, my friend sent the UFC music of his band and it was turned down because it wasn’t heavy and aggressive enough. He sent the UFC producers a Stemm package on our behalf, and two weeks later the UFC music producer rang say to our sound was exactly what they were looking for. That’s how our relationship with the UFC began. It was a ‘right place at the right time’ situation.”
If the new crop of mainstream UFC fans don’t feel as happy about Stemm’s good fortune it seems they’ll have to get familiar with their TV remote’s mute button.
STEMM TRACKS USED BY THE UFC
Slippin’
Perfect
Down
Out of Context
Noize
Please
Intermission
Realize
Part of Each
Bum-Rushed
Burn
All from the
2000 album
Dead to Me.
Till I Die
Holding On
13 Years
Monster
On the Surface
All from the
2005 album Songs
for the Incurable Heart.
FOX: ‘WE DON’T HATE METAL!’
Despite Dana White’s personal opinions it is impossible to know for certain if Face The Pain, and perhaps heavy metal music in general, will continue to feature at UFC events as the seven-year deal with Fox continues to evolve. While using metal on pay-per-view has worked well with hardcore fans, it’s feared mainstream audiences, perhaps tuning for the first time, might not be so appreciative.
However, Fox Sports Media Group manager Eddie Motl allays those concerns when speaking to FO. “First up, Fox doesn’t hate metal music. The theme music you hear during UFC on Fox events is synonymous with the Fox Sports brand.
“Our hope is that this music gives the competition we’re covering a big-event feel, as this is the same theme music played during our coverage of MLB’s World Series, Nascar’s Daytona 500 and the NFL’s Super Bowl.
“The choice of our theme music has nothing to do with trying to please mainstream fans, rather it is just closely associated with our brand. You’ll notice we don’t shy away from playing metal or any type of music for fighter profiles and extended features in our pre-fight show.
“Additionally, when combatants are walking into the Octagon, we allow our audience at home to hear the song that the fighter has chosen as his or her entry music, with the goal being that the viewer at home feels like he or she is in the arena.”
But top UFC middleweight contender Tim Kennedy isn’t so sure that a music genre which so readily complemented the aggressive nature of the sport in the past still has a future, especially now the UFC has in some ways been watered down. He said: “I get nostalgia and why it’s important, yet I also think that metal/rock-sounding music is kind of dated.
“We are a growing sport and have to keep growing with the fan base we’re acquiring. I used to love kneeing and kicking downed opponents in the head and I miss doing it. But I understand it’s necessary to have a more mainstream appeal.”
