Laughing All The Way
Last modified: 23:10:46 CET on 08 Nov, 2010 |
February 1991, Guitar (UK)
Thanks to Naomi, for typing it out
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The Red Hot Chili Peppers are blazing a trail through the rock world with their crazy stage antics and their and their manic musical forays into styles as diverse as rap, funk, punk, and heavy metal. It's all tossed together into the spicy stew of their fifth album, Mother's Milk, the band's first release since the tragic death of founding guitarist Hillel Slovak. While the success of the Lp launched the popular L.A. band onto the national stage in a big way, it also posed the challenged of integrating young guitarist John Frusciante and drummer Chad Smith into the mix. But all indications are that the newcomers are now confirmed Chilis, sworn to the brotherhood of musical craziness, and expressing their individual styles in the service of the distinctive Red Hot sound, born from the punk rock roots of bands such as the Germs and Black Flag.
As hard-hitting as the album is, it only hints at the power and dynamics brimming from the Chili's impressive live shows (while bassist Flea has been arrested for leaping offstage and propositioning women in the audience, he insists he's being railroaded by right-wingers). Beneath the antic showmanship there's a deep spiritual underpinning that defines the life and the music of the band, and it's obvious Frusciante became a Chili as much because his guitar expresses that spiritual message as for his inspired playing.
John, how did you get into the band?
JOHN: I've been with the band for two years now. I was playing with D.H. Peligro, who was a friend of Flea's. My dedication to the Red Hot Chili Pepper's music was immense, due to the fact that they've always played some of the most ground-breaking revolutionary music of all time. I used to pay for my friends' tickets to go see them, even though I didn't have any money myself. My idea of heaven at that time would have been going on tour with them and watching the Red Hot Chili Peppers every night. Anyway, D.H. got a jam together with me and him and Flea. Then tragedy set in. Hillel (Slovak) died. Even though Flea liked the way I played, they hired Blackbird (McKnight) of the Funkadelic's, because they had been friends for a long time and the friendship thing is very important to this band. But it wasn't clicking. This band has to work with four people putting their heads together and thinking as one. The people have to meld together, and it just wasn't happening with Blackbird. Anthony (Kiedis) heard me play when I was auditioning for Thelonius Monster. They fired Blackbird and hired me that night.
How'd you deal with Thelonius Monster?
JOHN: They hired me on the spot but I quit the same night I joined. I still played with them for two weeks. They were bummed, but I played with them for whatever gigs they already had scheduled.
Did you play in other bands before?
JOHN: When I joined the band I was only 18. I dropped out of high school when I was 16. I hadn't had much experience playing with other people at all. When I came to Hollywood, I jammed with everyone I could, but the first show I ever played was with Thelonius Monster. It was quite nerve-wracking. Here I was in the Red Hot Chili Peppers, yet the singer had only heard me once. I just had no idea how to act onstage. For the first couple of months as a Chili Pepper, I always felt I had to be entertaining onstage, that I couldn't just stand there. I would jump around like crazy even though it might not be coming naturally. I just felt obligated. As time went by, I realized there was a certain power in just standing there and looking cool. It works the same way for musicality. There are all these people out there who are capable of doing all these technical tricks. And they feel obligated to so them because they know how. But it wears very thin because there's very little of their personality coming through. They'd be better of if they learned how to express themselves. Music isn't the Olympics. Music is something you do because it's the face of God.
How long did it take you to?
JOHN: To really feel like I fit in? It took a while. I feel like it happens more and more all the time. Flea and Anthony, who were the two founding members of the band, accepted me right away. They said, “You're our guitar player now. Your ideas are equally as important as ours. We're going to make the same amount of money. We're not close-minded. We want to hear any songs you write.” So they made me feel comfortable. But still, it took a while for me to really express myself, as opposed to showing them what I could do. One's musical, one's not. That's why I can't listen to the playing on our album. I hate our album. We definitely hadn't locked into a groove when we recorded the album. There was a certain excitement to it, but our next album will be much different. It'll be better and more together. At that point, it was four different personalities, four people playing together. Now it's a band—a four-headed monster.
How do you record as a band?
FLEA: We like to record as much live as possible. On the Mother's Milk album we hadn't been playing together long. John had joined a few months before and Chad Smith had only been with the band for two weeks, so I don't think we had the experience to power through it live. So it was mostly with bass and drum tracks first, then everything else overdubbed. But after we'd been touring for a while, we recorded the “Show Me Your Soul” song that came out on a 12” and is part of the soundtrack from “Pretty Woman.” We had no problem sitting there and grooving through that whole song live. We'd all be in the same room. Our amps would be somewhere else. That's the only way to get the interplay. If we all record separately and every part is perfect, it can never be as good as each one playing together, and each person hearing little nuances that can happen at the moment.
JOHN: Just looking at the expression on Chad's face and seeing the way he plays a drum fill can make me play a certain way. Recording at separate times is more clinical and playing with other people is divine inspiration.
What about vocals?
FLEA: The only place we did live vocals was on “Fire,” which we did with the old band. We didn't do it on the last album because on a lot of the stuff, the vocals weren't done yet. But on the first and second album, and a lot of the third album, we did everything live. We didn't necessarily keep everything, but Anthony sang a scratch vocal while we played. The more live you can get it, the better. The more prepared you are, the more opportunity you have to play it live. The more cool you are, the better you'll pull it off.
I know you have a real group emphasis. How does that translate into the writing process?
JOHN: I think it mostly comes from jams. One guy will have an idea he came up with, and show up at the studio; say it's a really cool bass line, and I'll make up a guitar part. I might have a guitar part that would make a good bridge or a good chorus. Sometimes we'll work together on something. Other times we'll just be jamming and come across a groove that sounds real good, and we'll try to make that into a song. Then we'll throw it away and write a new song.
FLEA: There's no format. All those options could happen.
JOHN: Everybody is their own boss. I write the guitar parts, Chad does the drums and Flea writes the bass and Anthony write the vocals. Everybody makes suggestions about everyone else's part. If you really want to do that part, you can do it, but everybody takes suggestions from everybody else.
