John Frusciante Puts His Stamp on Stadium Arcadium
Last modified: 2:59:35 CET on 16 Jan, 2010 |
"MAKE YOU FEEL BETTER" The overdubs on the final verse and chorus were played on a Les Paul, with the original panned left and a slightly out-of-time echo on the right. This was one of the last overdubs on the record, but I felt that it took the ending up to another level.
"ANIMAL BAR" The main part is done with volume-knob swells a wah, and a chorus pedal - but I used the wah pedal exactly the opposite of how it's normally used. I raise the volume while he wah is in the full bass position. Then I lower the volume and repeat the move on the next chord. It's unusual for a guitarist to use a wah that way, but it is the way a synthesist would think. The chorus effect is maxed at some points, as in the Holy Grail, which is set to the Spring Sound. The solo is processed with the stereo phasing effect from the Analogue Systems Phaser.
"SO MUCH I" The harmony guitars were overdubbed.
"STORM IN A TEACUP" We used the same envelope-filtering effect as on "Dani California" for the rhytm parts.
"WE BELIEVE" We used the Doepfer's LFO controlling its filter on the main guitar part, and there are also some harmony feedback tracks run through the MuRF on the opening to the second verse. I doubled Flea's bass line at the end with a Les Paul. The solo at the end was done using the English Muff'n, and treated afterwards with a DOD Analog Delay, the feedback knob of which I turned manually to get a controlled echo feedback thing.
"TURN IT AGAIN" I recorded a lot of guitar tracks towards the end and mixed them all myself. I just creatively organized them in my brain and mixed them, having one guitar come in here and another guitar come in over there.
"DEATH OF A MARTIAN" We were rehearsing at the studio for about a week before we actually started recording, but they were just letting tape roll, and we wound up using a few of those takes, including this one, and they have amore relaxed feeling to them than the other songs. The main guitar part was played through a Leslie, and the "Martian" sounds were made with a filter that was modulated super-fast. There are three lead guitars on the outro, but they are mixed very quietly. On early Funkadelic albums, George Clinton would mess around with the volume of things, and not just have the parts fit into a perfectly balanced unity the way most producers do. On one track there would be really loud lead guitars, and on another super-loud bass, or quiet lead vocals, etc. The band and our producer were not into that as a general direction for the album, but this is one of the few spots where I'm doing that sort of thing. Of course, they sent the mix back, saying, "The guitars are too soft" - but that's what I was going for !
FRUSCIANTE ON TAKING STADIUM ARCADIUM LIVE
"When we started rehearsing the songs for live performance it was a real bummer, because everything sounded so empty without the modular synth and other treatments we used on the album. But I found a way to approximate many of the sounds using an array of Moogerfooger pedals controlled with a couple of CP-51 Control Processors.
"I have both the regular and the bass MuRF pedals on my pedalboard - which not only produce sounds like those on the record, they are also good for adding an element of accident, because you never know what to expect from them. For example, one night, I was playing some open chords with distortion or something, and when I kicked in the MuRF, it started playing one of the baddest 'drul' beats I've ever heard. The next night, I tried to do the same thing, but I couldn't even come close. You've just got to let the pedal take you wherever it's going to take you.
"I also have three Moogerfooger MF-101 Low-Pass Fliter pedals. One of them is set to make a sort of wa-wa-wa-wa, or futuristic Leslie sound, by modulating the filter's envelope with the LFO in the CP-51. I use that to simulate the modular synth filter sounds on "Dani California," and a few other pieces. Another filter pedal is set to produce that super-fast filter "Martian" sound that I use on "Death of a Martian," and the verses of "Tell Me Baby." The third one is used to cover any other sort of envelope filter sound I may want to make. Finally, I have an MF-103 12-Stage Phaser for emulating the Analogue Systems phasing effects, and a MF-102 Ring Modulator.
"What I came to realize, however, is it's really a matter of shifting the energy, and, some nights, I might just as easily create the same effect by jumping around like a maniac at the point in a song where, on the album, I turned on some treatments. Or maybe Chad [Smith, drummer] will just pump up the drums at those points - as long as there is some sort of movement. The band has got such a new energy since we've started getting along better, and we're just flying on stage now. You can put me up there with no effects and a tiny combo amp and I would still feel great - as long as we have that feeling between us."
---Barry Cleveland
