Milking Their Music For All It’s Worth
Last modified: 22:22:55 CET on 08 Nov, 2010 |
03rd November 1989, BAM (USA)
thanks to Serhiy Kovalenko, for typing it out
click the thumbnail for scans
"I really like our song 'Magic Johnson," says Flea, the bleached blond mainstay of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He is sitting in an office at EMI Records, ruminating about the songs off his band's fourth and latest release, Mother's Milk. "I think that's mostly because it's so great to have a song about Magic Johnson and everything he stands for. He's such an influence to me. He's just so cool—when he's backed up against a wall, he can pull off a crazy move and be on top of things again. That's what it's all about—to be able to pull off that kind of thing."
Flea, dressed in jeans, an artistic array of tattoos, and a Laker's baseball cap, could as easily be discussing the Red Hot Chili Peppers as Johnson. After a year that might have caused the members of a lesser band to search for gainful employment at Taco Bell, the Chili Peppers have managed to re¬group, and come back stronger than ever.
It was only a little over a year ago that an integral Pepper, guitarist Hillel Slovak, died of a drug overdose at the age of 25. Though Slovak had been in and out of the band, his position in the Peppers was far more than that of a mere axe player. His death shook the head Chilis — Flea and partner An¬thony Kiedis — to the core. (Mother's Milk is dedicated to Slovak; his art¬work decorates the inner sleeve.)
"[His death is] the most awful thing that has ever happened to me," says Flea, his pain mixed with anger. "I was extremely close to him. He's the one who taught me how to play the bass. He asked me to start playing the bass. I had been through a million different things with him. The saddest thing is that I just miss him. I miss him very much and wish... When he died my wife hadn't had our daughter yet. I really wish he could have seen her. I wish that he could see all the things that I'm doing. I hope that he would be proud of me for what I am doing."
"When Hillel died," adds Anthony cautiously, "the biggest loss was the loss of a friend, rather than the loss of a guitar player. Even though I consider Hillel one of the greatest guitar players ever. He was a unique and original stylist. But his death was more like losing a part of my heart. I'll always miss him more as a friend than a guitar player. There's only one friend, but there are lots of different guitar players."
Indeed. After mourning Hillel, An¬thony and Flea decided they needed to start looking at a bunch of new players and get on with it. But it wasn't all that easy. The Chili Peppers,after all, aren't exactly a Top 40 anybody-can-play-the-chords band. Attitude is crucial.
Says Anthony, "When Hillel died, Flea and I had every intention of con¬tinuing the Red Hot Chili Peppers. That symbolized our lives, and we thought it would be best to continue living, and not dwell on death. We set out to find new guys. That wasn't easy, because the Red Hot Chili Peppers are really based on good friendship and a deep understanding of each other. What we originally set out to do was to be complete and utter perpetrators of hardcore, bone-crunching mayhem sex thugs from heaven. To try and describe that to another musician and have it mean something is nearly im¬possible unless you've grown up with that person."
In the Chili Pepper's new guitarist, John Frusciante, Flea and Kiedis have come pretty close. A born-and-bred Californian, he was also a longtime Chill Pepper fan.
"John Frusciante grew up listening to us. We had tried a few different musicians before we got John" recalls Flea. "And they were truly great musicians. They were all amazing players, but it didn't work out with them. They could play, but a band is also like a marriage,and the marriage part didn't work out It's like some girl could be beautiful, and a great fuck and you like her, but you just can't live with her. It was a little like that. Then we got John. He's eight years younger than we are, but he's incredibly mature musically. At an incredibly early age he was listening to the music that we were into. He knows a hell of a lot more about music than I do, as far as that goes. He just has a very open mind, and a wide range of tastes, and is extremely talented. He's put in a hell of a lot of time with his guitar."
Also new to the band is drummer Chad Smith. Though the Peppers have had somewhat of a rotating door of percussionists during their five-year history, it seems as if Smith may keep the drum stool for a while.
"We auditioned something like 30 drummers for the job," Flea groans at the memory. "Then we found Chad Smith. He's such an intense drummer. But when we found him, he didn't look like he could be in the Red Hot Chili Peppers. He has this, this hair, and he wears bandanas and cut-off Metallica T-shirts. He looks like he could be in some heavy metal band playing at the Troubadour. But he's a great drummer and has a great gut instinct. He hits the drums so hard!"
With half the band new, the Chili Peppers could easily sound completely different, had Flea and Anthony chosen to go in that direction. But once they decided upon remaining the Red Hot Chili Peppers, it became their job to keep the sound as close to the original spirit as possible, despite the new influences the new band members brought in. Obviously it helped that Frusciante (co-writer of "Mother's Milk") practically learned how to play guitar by listening to the Chili Peppers, and he does sound more than a tad like Slovak. Instead of being a problem, that helps bridge the gap between the old and new players. The record and stage show present a cohesive band edging into a new era.
