The World’s Biggest Band Hijack MOJO!
Last modified: 0:15:01 CET on 16 Jan, 2010 |
Critics noted By The Way’s intricate chord changes and harmonies, its range of instrumental textures from bubblegum to mariachi, and the nods to the Beach Boys and The Beatles. Frusciante (who is to release six solo albums this year on a Warners sub-label, starting with The Will To Death in June) was making up for lost time. Recording at the Chateau Marmont, the Sunset BLVD hotel where Frusciante had spent a portion of his lost years, the guitarist was given free rein to innovate.
Frusciante: “Before the record started, me and my friend Josh [Klinghoffer, with whom he has an experimental side band, Ataxia] had been getting together with a Complete Beatles score book and learned the chords and harmonies to every song. This continued when we were making the Chili Peppers album - I’d rehearse during the day from two to six, then go home, put on a movie, take a nap, then Josh would come over at nine and we’d stay up till seven in the morning, playing Beatles songs and singing our heads off. I was learning to harmonize. Anthony and I had agreed earlier that we’d like to make the backing vocals a bigger part of the music. Towards the end of the record I started listening to Pet Sounds constantly.”
Kiedis: “Californication, because we were starting afresh, was like being back at album number one again. So By The Way was our sophomoric effort. Hopefully next time it will take another complete turn - whether for simplicity or complexity - but hopefully in some way for the better.”
They started recording tracks for the new album last summer, although it’s too early - reckons Rick Rubin - to tell which way it’s going to go. They’ll restart when they get back from this summer’s imperial mega tour…
“…with James Brown,” Flea grins, showing the gap in his teeth. The Chilis bassist comes over all misty-eyed when talking about the Godfather Of Soul. He describes getting thrown off the side of the stage on the previous occasion his band shared a bill with Brown (they didn’t believe I was in the band) and getting growled at by the great man when he stuck his head into his backstage tent.
In fact, it’s fair to say that each of the Chili Peppers has retained his adolescent fandom. It’s an engaging quality you don’t always see in veteran bands. When, as a final question before going home, MOJO asks each of them to define the band’s place rock history, most tackle it with a list of names of artists they find historic - from The Clash to Queen and everything in between - and, as for their own assets, toss in a few words like “integrity” (Flea), “chemistry” (Frusciante), “the punk-funk-rock thing” (Smith). All of them mention their longevity.
“As time has gone by, and it’s 21 years, we’ve just gotten better in public,” reflects Flea. “Learned from our mistakes and held onto the things that are good. There aren’t a lot of bands who have done that.”
“I don’t think you’ll know where we fit yet,” concludes Anthony, before showing us to the door, “because we keep sliding around. We keep changing. And we’re not done yet.”
--- Sylvie Simmons
