Free Spirits In The Material World
Last modified: 22:19:46 CET on 08 Nov, 2010 |
GW: Coming, as you did, from a jazz and classical background, did rock music seem simplistic to you at first?
FLEA: No. Because it was a whole other world. I was amazed because the background I came from was all reading music. But here were my friends, just hanging out and jamming on Hendrix tunes and blues. It just seemed so much wilder. It was more in tune with people my age and what they were into. It was a challenge for me to get into that. So it didn't seem simplistic,no.
GW: What is the essence of the funk?
FLEA: The essence of the funk is being loyal to the funk. Living by it, feeling it 24 hours a day. It's the true universal language. I just love it. Always have. I believe in it. I believe that it can save people. I love so many kinds of music, but the funk is something else. I hear funk in everything.
GW: Even Mozart?
FLEA: Yeah. I hear it everywhere.
GW: Has playing with John and Chad Smith [the Chilis' current drummer] changed your approach to bass in any way?
FLEA: I'm sure it has, but I can't put my finger on any tangible thing. I mean, the main thing about being a good player is listening to the other players. I try to listen as best as I can to them. So obviously I'm paying off of them. On this album, I really got off on just playing beautiful, simple bass lines. I was also very inspired by Eric Avery, the bass player from Jane's Addiction. On their last record, he played such beautiful bass parts so simply and so nicely. It was an inspiration for me. It helped me get a big sound on the record. You know, I have this reputation for being this bitchin' bass player and stuff. But I was never able to just get a beautiful, big round bass sound, the reason being that I played too much: There was no room for the bass lines to breathe and be big. But on this record, I got a big, booming, killing sound.
GW: What kind of gear did you use?
FLEA: On the record I played a Wal bass and a Music Man five-string through Mesa/Boogie cabinets and a Gallien-Krueger head.
GW: Do you use very heavy strings?
FLEA: Medium.
GW: Do you like your action high or low?
FLEA: Medium. [laughs] Actually, I like it as low as can be without buzzing.
GW: A lot of people associate heavy bass slapping with high action.
FLEA: Yeah, well, I figure as long as the strings don't buzz, why torture yourself?
Show-And-Tell time continues back at John Frusciante's house. The guitarist produces another one of his fave axes – a fretless Stratocaster!
GW: What do you use that for?
FRUSCIANTE: Oh, you sit around and play like... [He plays an Indian raga-style improvisation, using the A string as a drone.] I came up with one Indian-sounding thing on it while Flea was playing the drums. Flea had the idea of using it on the bridge of “Mellowship Slinky.” [He plays the riff.] So it's on there, and in the solo section of “Suck My Kiss.” A few different places.
GW: Did you have this fretless custom-made for you?
FRUSCIANTE: Well, the frets on this guitar were completely shot, so I took it to Nadine's [a L.A. music store]. Actually, I took it in for something else, but the guy says, “Man you gotta get new frets.” And he put on these huge frets. Jumbos. Which were like shit. So wimpy. When I play, I press down hard on the strings. And when I did that with the jumbos, it didn't even sound in tune. So I just told him to make it fretless.
GW: I it hard to chord on that?
FRUSCIANTE: It's no good for chords. Absolutely impossible. Check it out. [He hands me the guitar. I try some chords, then some raga-style riffs.]
GW: Takes some getting used to, eh?
FRUSCIANTE: Yeah. But at the same time I was really comfortable on it the first time I played it. When I can't do something, I like it – it sounds better to me when you don't have everything completely in control.
GW: [playing] Oh I see, chords sound all muted because the strings aren't being stopped by the frets. [I try some blues riffs.]
FRUSCIANTE: But see, you don't have to bend. You just slide up and down on the string to change the pitch. It's hard to bend. Why would you want to? [He takes the guitar and demonstrates.]
GW: Do you know of anybody else who does this?
FRUSCIANTE: Adrian Belew. I'm shit at it. He's probably amazing at it by now.
GW: Are you into alternate tunings at all?
FRUSCIANTE: Not in any systematic way. But yeah, sure, we futz with our tuning all the time. On “Power Of Equality,” the first song on the record, the low E string is tuned down to E flat. Sometimes Flea tunes down to D, like for “Naked In The Rain.” [He tunes down and plays the riff.] But we're not into it like Sonic Youth is. I did do a few songs with broken strings. Then there was the acoustic guitar on the song “I Could Have Lied.” I was playing it from my bedroom, which is where I played all the acoustic guitars and... What was I talking about?
GW: The broken string.
FRUSCIANTE: Yeah, so like the G string was missing on that. I was missing strings on a lot of songs.
GW: “The Righteous And The Wicked” opens with this wonderfully sick harmonized guitar sound.
FRUSCIANTE: That's no harmonizer! [He dashes into another room and returns with an ancient Gibson lap steel.] That's this! I broke a string when we were recording the basic tracks to that song, so we had to redo the guitar. That's one of the few basic tracks that wasn't played live. We kind of pieced it together. Like the choruses are a Les Paul through a couple of Marshalls. You know, big-time distorted guitar. And I was really pissed when I did it too. I thought I was sucking. Feelings like that hardly ever came over me in doing this album. Most of the time everything just flew out perfectly.
But what about the ghosts? It's a story with which everyone who reads the entertainment press is familiar: Hollywood rock band makes record in haunted mansion. Spirits of the rich and famous. Ectoplasm flying everywhere.
“It was haunted, man.” Flea's tone of voice signals that he's not joking. “There was a heavy vibe in that place. I never saw a ghost, but I felt a lot of things. It could have been my imagination, I don't know. But it was pretty spooky.” The bassist goes on to detail a few classic poltergeist experiences reported by the band's crew: rooms suddenly going ice cold, preternaturally animated vegetation – that sort of thing. John backs Flea up 100 percent.
FRUSCIANTE: There's ghosts in the house. I hear them when I listen to the record.
GW: Did you see a ghost?
FRUSCIANTE: No, I heard one.
GW: Speaking? Bumping?
FRUSCIANTE: A woman having an orgasm.
GW: That certainly must have added to the vibe of the record.
FRUSCIANTE: Everything about that place did. It was a very magical place.
--- Alan Di Perna
