John Frusciante: Blue Cool Sound Painter

In 1988 he replaced the deceased Hillel Slovak in his favourite band, the Red Hot Chili Peppers: Guitarist John Frusciante was in the right place at the right time – but he didn’t remain long. After two albums and legendary hits such as “Give It Away” and “Under The Bridge” he was gone again, dealt with massive drug problems which made him end up in the gutter of L.A. and with “Niandra Ladies (sic) & Usually Just A T-Shirt” (1995) and “Smile From The Streets You Hold” (1997) he released two crazy solo records which clearly paid tribute to Pink Floyd co-founder Syd Barrett and Captain Beefheart. Especially Frusciante’s debut record is a partly daring, very rough collection of material out of his home laboratory, stuffed with psychedelic sounds, instrumentals with backwards guitars and a voice which particularly tells of all the highs and lows of human existence its owner has come to know – and at that time John was merely 24 years of age and barely escaped death: heroin, crack and every substitute in between ended up inside of him. Today, John is feeling way better while you can still hear that the guitarist and singer didn’t spend the second half of his life collecting stamps.

Since the production of the mega-selling “Californication” (1999) he is with the Red Hot Chili Peppers again – where everything began – and replaced Dave Navarro who – after years of stardom – regained passion for his own, underrated projects. On the most successful RHCP-album to date Frusciante also had his finger in the pie as a songwriter. And as if that was not enough: The year 2001 begins with another solo-work of a very special kind: “To Record Only Water For Ten Days” features relatively straight songs among a lot of spaced-out sounds & moods. And an invincible, idiosyncratic home-recording-atmosphere with a lot of small, weird surprises – the range between alternative-charts and noodling-demo is fully covered. John Frusciante (29) wrote the material for his new record while on tour with the Red Hot Chili Peppers between November 1999 and April 2000. All songs were produced by him – in the living-room.

G&B: John, when I heard “Going Inside”, the first track on your new record, I was fascinated by the crazy fuzz-sound in the first guitar-solo. Which device did you use for that?

John: Oh, I just sang over a compressor with a lot of overdrive on the input of the hard-disc-recorder. People always think it’s a guitar but it’s really just my voice. I already did that on my first album – back then also processed with reverb and backwards-effects – and then it really sounds like a guitar.

G&B: Which were the most important instruments on the new production, aside from your voice?

John: Primarily an acoustic Martin guitar which I borrowed from Anthony (Kiedis, RHCP-singer) and that for a pretty long time now; it had once been given to him by Rick Rubin (the producer). It’s a brown Martin from the ’30s. Meanwhile, I also got to own several Martins myself. The electric guitar which can be heard on my record is a Fender Mustang by the way; it was the only instrument which I always had with me. All of my good guitars were on the road or in storage along with our equipment while we were on tour, so I only had this Mustang from 1966 and an old Gibson SG from 1961 available when I was at home for a few days. The guitars I recorded over a POD with Line6 into a hard-disc-recorder, it was an 8-track by Yamaha. Additionally I had a keyboard (Korg M1) and a drum-machine (Akai MPC3000). Afterwards everything was transferred to 2-inch-analog-tape and mixed by Jimmy Boyle on a 24-track-mixing-console. In this phase, a few overdubs, vocals and harmonies et cetera were added.

G&B: A lot has changed in the past few years concerning the possibilities of home-recording…

John: A lot. You can do everything on your own. You take a drum-machine and you got a sound which has been made 20 years ago or you switch to a synth sound from 1995. And, although you’re recording in your living room, you’re able to experiment with 20 different room-simulations. It’s a good time to be a musician.

G&B: Did you record the synth sounds via MIDI-guitar or did you play them on the keyboard?

John: Only on the keyboard. I’m not a trained keyboard player and my contributions on that instrument are rather simple. Actually, I wouldn’t be able to write a song on it, i have done this on the piano maybe two times. Otherwise I’m using the keys for space, moods or for very simple melodies. On some of the newer songs, I’m accompanied by a friend who plays the keyboard. For me it’s really important that everything is done properly.

G&B: Are you two older records still available?

John: The first one still is, it was released on Rick Rubin’s “American” label. Maybe I will also re-release the second one someday. I had to buy back the rights to take it off the market because I wasn’t satisfied with it from start to finish. When I recorded that stuff I wasn’t in the best place. Though a lot of my friends are telling me that they love the music, I’m not totally happy with it. And when it comes to this I’m really feeling a certain kind of responsibility, because I want to communicate good feeling to people through my music. And I’m not feeling content about that album.

G&B: Was this linked to your health at that point?

John: When I compiled the album I wasn’t taking drugs anymore. But prior to that I was in the hospital and in a really unclear mental state. This really is the most difficult time when you’re leaving the hospital (after a rehab). You just don’t know what’s going on then. On my first record I was really on drugs – and I’m proud of that record. I can’t say that about the second one. I also don’t believe that you can play on drugs. I guess… (hesitates) I guess it’s more about… (hectic) Let’s not talk about that anymore! It’s ridiculous! You certainly don’t want to waste your time with me. I’ve got better things to tell! Let’s keep talking.

G&B: Who are the first people who get to hear your songs?

John: It’s friends who come to my home: Josh, Tony [sic? Maybe Toni Oswald or Anthony], it depends on who’s there at the moment. I’ve got some friends, maybe five, and I’m playing my songs to them before I record them. A lot of times I call them when I’m sitting in a hotel room in Japan and play new ideas to them through the telephone.

G&B: And what makes a song perfect in your opinion?

John: When the right idea comes it’ll stick in my head very, very tight: there’s already a real structure and these structures mustn’t be interrupted anymore. Then the song is finished, just in my head. By now I’m very disciplined with that. I’ll take my notebook and write down everything that comes to my mind and I won’t stop until the song is finished. In the past I just sang the lyrics like they came into my head, also while I was recording them – I was absolutely fanatic then – and these would end up being the final takes. Today I write down the lyrics and record the music I’m imagining to tape. I just want to capture that particular mood in which I came up with the lyrics just like with the melody and the chords. In the past I was more interested in the sound of the lyrics, today the content is more important to me.

G&B: Which songwriters have impressed and influenced you?

John: Syd Barrett who recorded two wonderful albums, then The Residents, haha! They have been a real influence on me, especially the lyrics on their “Fingerprince” record. Then also Ian Curtis of Joy Division who has impressed me especially in the last 4 years. And David Bowie, Darby Crash of The Germs… But I love all kinds of lyrics e.g. what Peter Murphy did with Bauhaus, Martin Gore’s lyrics in Depeche Mode, although I would never call them an influence. My lyrics have nothing to do with theirs.

G&B: The term “influence” seems really hard to grasp. A good meal or a certain mood can have a bigger influence on a human or musician than a song he maybe just enjoys.

John: For me that mood-aspect, the energy surrounding you, is a really important point. Without that there wouldn’t be any music. You write songs because of certain energies, certain feelings. Just because of this you let yourself influence by somebody in the first place.

G&B: Your music suggests a big openness, it’s very relatable in places, very atmospheric and fragmented.

John: In the last years I have discovered lots of atmospheres and visions for myself, all moods which have nothing to do with the tangible three-dimensional world. I also engaged in painting. Of course it was primarily my goal to be a better songwriter and guitarist. I’ve worked on that. I wanted to paint musical pictures to reflect those moods and atmospheres to give other people the chance to discover them, too.

G&B: Who were your biggest influences as a guitar player?

John: Well, there’s Bernard Sumner (aka Bernard Albrecht) of Joy Division and New Order – he is definitely my No.1. Other favorites of mine are Matthew Ashman of Bow Wow Wow who also played on the first Adam And The Ants record, then Rick(y) Wilson, guitarist of the B-52’s – he played on their first 4 records and then died; especially his guitar playing sounds really perfect to me. You know, these are all people who place every note they play in the right place in my opinion. They don’t just start playing and spread their notes everywhere and nowhere. They’re neither fast or fluid soloist but they’ve got perfection in placing their few notes with feeling for the particular rhythm, the particular timing. They just got the feel for it! And that’s exactly what I always wanted to achieve with my guitar playing: to put every note in its right place and to really just play what the particular moment requires – so no extra notes which don’t have to be there. The room, that space-thing in my playing is really important to me – and that’s what these people are doing as well. I don’t like guitarists who see it as their task to fill every gap in the musical room with their notes. That’s not interesting to me, that’s not what I want to show the listeners. I rather want to convey the importance of that room in between, it’s magic and how exciting the air between the sounds can be.

G&B: And only who allows space between their own notes enables his band-mates to express themselves. You just mentioned solely band-guitarists and the Red Hot Chili Peppers are also primarily a band-phenomenon – especially one with a very interactive structure. And that’s certainly something very special…

John: Oh, thanks. Yeah we’re really feeling as a band and we also sense this energy that’s in the air when we four get together in a room. We simply play what we’re feeling, we listen to each other, often times much closer than we listen to ourselves… And that’s what makes the music: We listen to the band as a whole, not to the individuals.

G&B: Are you likewise planning to present your own music with a band?

John: Not necessarily in a band. I’ve got a Friend, Josh Klinghoffer, and I’ve never met someone before who’s so similar to me. Also in musical terms we think very similarly. Josh’s not only a great guitar player, he’s also an outstanding drummer, keyboard player, bass player and singer. We harmonize very well together also concerning our voices… Of course I’m working for the Chili Peppers in the first place but when there’s time left – so when Anthony is not in town or Flea’s spending time with his daughter on the weekends – then I can go to the studio with Josh and work on new songs.

Maybe it will end up as an album someday.

G&B: What’s the most important thing you’ve learned in the ten years of your career as rock-musician?

John: What was most important happened when I realized… (hesitates) that the air is moved by me when I play the guitar and that I can create shapes and colors, not on a physical level with my fingers, but I do it with my soul. As a guitarist my fingers are just the middle-part, the medium, they aren’t the start or the end of the action. Anyway the result of the process is that you put the molecules of the air in a certain order which then meet somebody’s ear in a certain way and evoke certain feelings. Essentially that’s what happens when you’re playing guitar – that’s what it’s about. And where everything starts is a very similar matter: It also starts with a feeling in your own head. There starts a song, starts the guitar-playing and this has nothing to do with physics. How someone is moving their fingers on the fret-board is really not important to me. Important are the emerging sounds, the colors, shapes and of course the feelings which come up in peoples heads listening to these sounds. As a kid I looked at it differently, I was very much focused on the technique and thought this was the only way I could improve my playing. Now I know that playing guitar is something that can change and evolve constantly, it’s endless if you use all your freedom. But it’s not endless when you’re maybe trying to always play faster.

G&B: So you’re seeing yourself more as a sound-painter?

John: Yeah. When I’m working on songs with the Chili Peppers I’m thinking in the same categories as a painter would. I’m thinking about shape and composition, lines, dots, perspective, depth, surface – that’s what’s going on in my head. And additionally there are also aspects and concepts of music-theory – those theoretical terms and points of view are not contradicting my emotional approach… It’s just helpful to let let my emotions do their thing. There were times in my life in which it was important to me to leave names for such things behind. But for a few years now I feel connected to people who had a very good emotional flow: Charles Mingus, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane – and they always also thought about aspects of theory (concerning their music) but just because it seemed natural to them! I was really natural for them to create atmospheres and surroundings. It’s about creating as much musical depth as possible. Of course you can take a song which really touches you, analyze it and rebuild it in your own way. But when it comes to the emotional side, the expression, the impact of the original, it doesn’t work. To achieve something like this you have to listen to yourself.

Studio Recordings
Kristen Vigard – Kristen Vigard (1988)
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Mother’s Milk (1989)
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991)
John Frusciante – Niandra LaDes & Usually Just A T-Shirt (1994)
John Frusciante – Smile From The Streets You Hold (1997)
V.A. – We Will Fall: Iggy Pop Tribute (1997)
Banyan – Anytime At All (1999)
Perry Farrell – Rev (1999)
Red Hot Chili Peppers – Californication (1999)
John Frusciante – To Record Only Water For Ten Days (2001)

Live Equipment
Following guitars are part of John Frusciante’s devices with the Red Hot Chili Peppers since the “reunion”: A 1962 Sunburst Fender Stratocaster with a rosewood fret-board, a 1955 Two-Tone-Sunburst Stratocaster with a maple neck, a Gretsch White Falcon from the same year and a Maton (sic)-acoustic-guitar (without date). A red Fender Jaguar from 1962 is one of Johns favorites but it belongs to a sound engineer who is a friend of John’s. John used to own an old Jaguar himself but it ended up in the second-hand-department of Guitar Center on Sunset Boulevard when the maestro needed money for drugs. So it was gone. Otherwise you can say that this musician doesn’t really limit himself to one type of guitar: On the recordings for “Californication” there was also a borrowed 1965 Fender Telecaster and various Gibson-models (from the SG Custom to a ES175-jazz-guitar) used besides the aforementioned ones. Continuing with the following effect-pedals: Boss Chorus Ensemble, Ibanez WH10 WahWah, Boss FZ3 Fuzz, MXR 90 Phase-Shifter, Boss DS2 Turbo-Distortion, a Uni-Vibe Stereo Chorus as well as the 16-Second-Digital-Delay and the Micro-Synth by Electro-Harmonix. The amps: John Frusciante recently used four JCM-900-Marshall-Cabinets with a 4×12″ in the studio which were miked closely. Additionally there are following amps: an older JTM 45 from the early 60s, a 25/50 Silver Jubilee, a 200-watts Major-Top and a SupraBass – everything by Marshall; the exception to the rule is a Blackface-Showman-Top by Fender.

03.01. gitarre & bass