Review of John’s The Heart Is A Drum Machine extra interview & some stills
By now, I am sure that many of you have the DVD of The Heart Is A Drum Machine in your hands. However, knowing that some people have not obtained it yet, cannot obtain it or, perhaps, relied on the footage illegally uploaded that’s now been removed (tut-tut!), here is a little treat for you all.
If you missed it, some weeks ago, there was an exclusive video preview of John’s interview, kindly provided to this website by Sneak Attack Media, the company that promotes this wonderful film around the world. Today, you’re getting a bunch of stills and, more importantly, a really good review!
If you enjoy it all and if you can manage it/afford it, do purchase the DVD and support its makers; as films like this are certainly going to enrich one’s life and knowledge more than blockbusters full of cars in flames and sighing boobjob’d uh…ladies.
Here is a slideshow of stills. Click on this preview image to have a look at all 16 of them!
Our friend Petra Kalkstein was so kind to write a very insightful very loving and very beautiful synopsis of the bonus interview with John, which is whooping 45 minutes long. You can read it here, but be aware that it’s a spoiler of what you’re about to see if you have not seen it yet.
Synopsis of the bonus interview with John on “The Heart Is A Drum Machine” DVD
After (or before?) you have enjoyed the documentary about music that is “The Heart Is A Drum Machine”, you are able to watch an unedited 45 minutes long interview with John Frusciante, that took place on July 16, 2008 and can be found in the bonus part of the DVD. John is well known for his long answers in interviews, that often wander from the subject, but still captivate the listener, and this interview is no exception. Because of the unedited form, he often deals with one subject for some minutes, and tries to sum it up afterwards, but already inserts new ideas. Throughout the entire interview, the renowned musician proves to be insightful, but also to be funny at times, e.g. when he can’t think of Pythagoras’ name. Whether you are a die-hard Frusciante fan or accidentally stumble across the bonus material of the DVD, I’m sure you’ll enjoy at least some of the thoughts he is sharing, and be prepared to not only learn about his view of music, but his view of life in general.
“Music is an ineffable thing, that I don’t think words can really do any good to, to give us any true understanding”
This is one of his first statements, nevertheless in the following he is able to describe his understanding of the origins of music: Music, yet everything that humans create is nature expressing itself. He believes that “the creative force of the universe” has provided us with a physical reality and the laws of nature and we are learning to interact with them by learning how to play an instrument e.g. and in this way we are able to connect with the intelligence behind it and bring out music. To his believe the piece of music was already there, only waiting to be invented or discovered, emphasizing his point of view by saying “the idea of somebody considering themselves responsible for a piece of music is ridiculous”.
He rants against the “star-making machine of Hollywood”, that perpetuated the lie that “the image is the thing”. According to John neither the physical image nor the name of the person is responsible for the creation, but their imagination. And whatever good or bad things happened to them during their lives helped them to create perfect music, as he illustrates by the examples of Jimi Hendrix and Beethoven. He tries to convince us that the image presented by the media is meaningless, it’s not important that “Jimi Hendrix looked the way he looked or danced the way he danced”, “the only real picture of him is his music”.
John then refers to the time when he joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers, admitting he was “under a tremendous amount of pressure”, as he was expected to be good on command. He kind of gives an explanation for leaving the band back in 1992: “I ended up just having this real distinct feeling that the image wasn’t the thing (…) and that by being a part of the world that I was in at that time, I was disrupting the flow of creativity (…) and so I ended up going far in the other direction.”
Shortly after, he gives insight into the daily routine of a musician and may surprise some of his fans by stating, “I like recording more than performing”. He likes recording by himself, because he then is “alone with the force of music”, but admits that he also enjoys some aspects of performing live, for example the energy transference between the performer and the audience and vice-versa. He has stopped worrying about how to entertain people, because he has realized “the important transference is in what you’re feeling inside to the audience, and they will respond with enthusiasm if what you’re feeling is strong enough”. He actually seems to like the feeling during performing in front of an audience, comparing it to “human energy bouncing off one another the same way it does when people have sex or whatever”.
Have you ever admired the magical moments happening between John and Flea in a Chili Peppers’ performance? John indicates how these work and describes himself during playing as “lingering between being right in the moment or foreseeing things before they happen”. He will imagine a rhythm that he will hit on the guitar and somehow “Flea will have been hearing the same thing and will hit it at the same time, it’s like something is offering us these things”. He also suggests picturing a musical feeling as for meditation, another proposal is to imagine the smell or rather the taste of chocolate.
“A child has this relationship to the creative force …”
Frusciante also encourages musicians to not judge themselves too hard because of making a mistake while performing or to be intimidated by renowned guitarists, but rather to believe that “the force of creativity, nature is not working against you” and “you have to be open to whatever is gonna come through you” and to be “all right with it (…) because it’s just the universe expressing itself” and “you just have to be there for it”. The latter implies a love for music and practicing, and John points out the importance of practicing by mentioning several personal examples. Thus he was “able to form a musical thought in my head and be able to bring it out into physical reality through my instrument”. He later characterizes the consistent reality we are placed in as a gift, because it allows you to “practice something and grow familiar with the laws of music and the laws of nature and gradually be able to create something”, where dreams in contrast would not allow this consistency, but put you in situations that have nothing to do with your own will.
“Music is sound being organized by human thought, human intelligence” is an interesting definition of music that John has heard and that he provides in the interview. He then gives detailed examples how a sound turns from one thing into another and that we can explain what is happening, but not why it is happening. The described process is in his opinion “the equivalent of the idea of reincarnation, of one person becoming something else”. From this idea he is weaving to more philosophical insights: “Nature works in circles, nature works in cycles” and “if you ignore those cycles, if you just sit around and do nothing all the time or if you don’t follow the interests inside you that compel you to do things, your life will gradually just lose meaning ’til you’re old.” He encourages the viewer to explore the world instead, by “consistently reading, practicing an instrument or studying the laws of science”, because they then will grow in a way that’s inward and “it will create fulfillment inside you” and “gradually enrich what you are on the inside”.
Going back from a look on life to music again, he is sure that “the more a musician becomes concerned with what it is when it leaves their immediate sphere, the less contact you have with what’s going on inside you”. He stresses that it is important to listen to what “your imagination dictates”. This is also the reason for him being a person who often changes, “shifting from liking one kind of music to liking another kind of music”, but he feels very natural about it and tries to avoid putting a fixed idea about something. So it only depends on his mood or the time in his life, which guitarist is more relevant to him: “I can’t see someone like Bernard Sumner from Joy Division as being any less than what Jimi Hendrix was, in my eyes they’re the same thing.”
“That’s the nature of the mind, it jumps from one thought to the other, we have no control over that – I could go on into that …”
Therefore he challenges us to explore what we like, what’s good for us and don’t let us be influenced by the opinions of others: “Sometimes you have to clear your head a little bit” and “listen to your subconsciousness”. Accordingly he confesses that he did not dare to like Depeche Mode and Duran Duran in his teenage years, because he did not like the kids he associated their music with. “I did like the sound of it, but (…) there was no way (…) that I was even gonna admit to myself that I liked it, because I was concerned about the outer appearance of what that would mean if I liked it.” For the grown-up Frusciante this is “a silly way to think”, but “I remember recording a Depeche Mode song on the radio and then, when I realized it was them, I stopped recording it.” So once again, he asks the viewer to be open-minded, “because everything you like, you like it for a reason”. “There is an incredible amount of great music”, “it’s important to look for things”, “nature wants you to eat its beautiful fruits (…) and nature wants you to listen to the music that it’s resulted in”.
In the last part of the interview, John even has a story for the cat-fanciers upon his sleeve. According to a psychic he talked to, his cats enjoy the noise that he makes, but they do not have the same perception of time that humans have. Since music is connected to time, he is wondering why the animals still would appreciate the music. “We perceive time in the way that we perceive it because of the setup of our brains (…), it’s totally possible for other species to be experiencing everything at a completely different rate.” “I figure the cats are probably hearing time speeding up and slowing down (…) and what we hear as being musical organization and a coherent train of thought, just doesn’t sound like a coherent train of thought to them.” So his explanation why they still respond to the music is, that “cats feel the feeling that you’re feeling when you’re listening to music”.
This issue of being able to empathize brings him back to live music and what he considers to be one of the most beautiful things about it: “The people all came there, because (…) the music generates the feelings in them that the music dictates”, “the power of music has joined all their consciousnesses into one thing, they’re literally functioning as one organism” and this “unites people”. In contrast to being alone in everyday life, this situation enables you “to feel that what in you is in everybody around you” and this “is your ability to experience the real truth of what’s really going on, that it’s all one thing.”
