Love Loss Life Magik
Last modified: 11:44:34 CET on 24 Sep, 2008 |
August 2002, Pulse (USA)
Many thanks to Máté, for typing it out
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An air of skittish anticipation surrounds the Red Hot Chili Peppers backstage at London’s famed BBC studios. In their dressing rooms before a scheduled performance on The Jonathon Ross Show, the band members have caught wind of the evening’s featured guest. Drummer Chad Smith walks up with a noticeably mischievous grin. „Did you bring your panties?” he queries, in pseudo-proper English. „Tom Jones is here,” he explains, firing a gigantic, imaginary sling shot. Clearly amused, he proceeds down the hallway, grabbing the band’s tour manager by the shoulders. „Tom Jones! Panties!” he pleads. „We need more panties!” In years past, that kind of backstage request could have yielded enough undergarments to engulf the Welsh superstar, but tonight, the pickings are slim. The once debauchery-filled and devil-may-care lifestyle of the Red Hot Chili Peppers has given way to a decidedly quiet, and panty-free, pre-performance atmosphere. In his dressing room, Anthony Kiedis sips tea before performing his vocal exercises, emitting a series of loud, guttural “Yang, yang, yang’s” heard throughout the hallway. In an adjacent room, guitarist John Frusciante is taking advantage of the provided stereo by blasting an electric mix, ranging from Mars Volta’s “Cut that City” to Sam Cooke’s “You Send Me”, increasing the volume on the latter and turning to fellow band member Flea. “This is a great song,” he notes, as he sits intently in front of the speakers, closing his eyes and concentrating on each note as if it contained some cosmic secret. Flea listens, and then smiles as he watches Frusciante sway his lithe body back and forth.
Earlier in the day at their hotel, Kiedis perches on the edge of his seat, dressed in faded, black jeans and Moscow emblazoned T-shirt and permeated with an energy he describes as “relief, accomplishment and satisfaction.” Moments before, the band heard the final mixes for “Can’t stop” and “Don’t Forget Me,” the last two songs for its new album, By the Way (Warner Bros.). Vocals for the songs were laid the prior week during a pit stop in New York, en route from L.A. to Rome, pushing their deadline to the absolute last minute. The album’s completion marks the end of a long and exhausting road for Kiedis and company. “Basically, I have been focused on this every day of my life for about 400 days,” he explains while calmly lowering his cup of green tea. “And it came out more beautifully than I could have ever expected.”
The culmination of 14 months of dedicated work has resulted in the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ eighth studio album (its fourth with its current lineup). And its most majestic and progressive offering. By the Way finds the band toying with a host of influences – everything from Latin to ska to the Phil Spector and Brian Wilson vocal styling of yesteryear. Listen closely and you’ll hear Flea’s trumpet playing, Frusciante’s impromptu Wurlitzer chord changes, ambient and sparse electronic backdrops and plenty of warm string orchestration. The pioneering champions of today’s unavoidable and wildly popular rap/rock/pop/punk/funk-sound have once again evolved. This, of course, should come as no surprise to fans who own the band’s firs record (which features a rendition of Hank Williams Sr.’s “Why Don’t You Love Me”) and have followed them since. Change, it seems, has been good to the band. “It’s always been a part of who we are,” explains Kiedis. “Multi-faceted, no boundaries as to what we can play. We feel comfortable playing anything in this band, which is a blessing.”
Guitarist Flea, decked in full L.A. Lakers regalia and sporting bright blue hair, agrees. “We’re always changing. I feel like just by being who we are and by playing the type of music that we play, we’ve never tried to do anything but what we are at a certain time. And I think that’s why people connect with us, because they know it’s not contrived. People like that realness in music.”
This fact was never more evident for the Peppers than with the overwhelmingly positive reaction received from 1999’s Californication. Filled largely with contemplative and dirge-like ballads, the album surprised many when it went on to sell over 13 million copies worldwide. For the band, the album’s success reaffirmed and solidified a band chemistry that was glaringly absent on 1995’s darkly distorted One Hot Minute. The departure of former Jane’s Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro opened the door for the return of a sober and rejuvenated John Frusciante, and the result was immediate.
“I pity the fool who is in a band that doesn’t realize the value of chemistry,” declares Kiedis. “Because I’ve been through a number of band changes and I know that beyond a shadow of a doubt, that is the single most important thing to a band, the way you affect on another creatively.”
The return of Frusciante may have restored the band’s chemistry, paving the way for the success of Californication, but Kiedis maintains that Navarro was not to blame for the poor reaction to One Hot Minute. “We just can’t do what we do with anyone else other than the four [current] members in this band. We did our best to maintain, but we didn’t have that chemistry. That’s no fault of Dave Navarro’s. It’s just a matter of God-given chemistry.”
