A Pepper And Fearless
Q: You have said, about your five years that you have spent away from the world of music: “I haven’t stopped playing because I was taking drugs, but because I had to. Drugs was only a way for me to fight the reasons why playing music was horrible”. What was so horrible?
JF: Some time before quitting the Red Hot Chili Peppers, I had the impression that the whole world was reflecting on what was happening in my head. I couldn’t understand how people systematically understood the opposite of what I was saying or doing. I experienced a sort of control over my spirit which meant the conclusion of a cycle. I had to exhulte in whichever manner possible, because I had come to a point when I realized that I couldn’t stand the idea of our own world, regulated by sexual traumas and death. And all the wonderful things I loved deeply, I could not see them the same way, they had only become a representation of death and sexual traumas. That is why, when I left the Red Hot Chili Peppers, playing music, or painting had suddenly become horrible. I had to retire completely to understand what was death, or to seize my own perception on sexual frustrations and inhibitions. It is in this manner that drugs has helped me. But it has been a year since I’ve dealt with drugs.
Q: Are you saying that drugs could be positive?
JF: Are you crazy? (He leaves the room… He comes back after three minutes) Fuck, I just woke up and I don’t see why I’m talking about drugs. (Extenuated, in one breath) Speaking about drugs is a nightmare for me. I don’t want to talk about it anymore. I was addicted, because I wanted to, it was a choice, but I was, for five years. It was hard. I mean, it’s true that there were good times, but they were very very rare. For the rest of the time, you’re in a living hell. I was a shadow. When you’re taking drugs, you’re naked, you don’t control anything, you have no strength, no control on your own destiny. Even though it has given me pleasant moments, drugs completely destroy a man once he’s addicted. And I was. I really have the impression of living something wonderful ever since I haven’t been take drugs anymore (disappears another time). I have the impression that my music is now closer to what I am, because I’m clean. It has really become a reflection of myself. I realize now that I was completely incapable of being creative at that time, because my head was a mess.
Q: And during that period, you haven’t touched your guitar a single time?
JF: No. Not once…Well, yes… Let’s say that there were times when I wanted to pick up again, and restart, and I told my girlfriends: “I’ll start guitar again, I’ll be doing concerts again, and I’ll go back to the Red Hot Chili Peppers.” And that’s what I did, and I’m happy, because at the time, it was a joke. I was a slave to drugs, do you understand? A fucking slave… And to what? When I think back about it… Anyway, at that time, I felt like I was the king, whereas I was nothing.
Q: And how was your reunion with the guitar?
JF: (Smiles) It went well…I had to start again slowly. It’s always very hard starting again from scratch.
Q: Has your idea of guitar changed?
JF: To start, my guitar playing is a melting pot of techniques from guitarists at the time. When I started, it was mostly punk guitarists, and since I was a teen in the 80s, I was also introduced to the “guitar heroes” of heavy rock. I managed to develop a vocabulary. I think it was around ’88 or ’89 – we had just finished the Mother’s Milk tour – that I realized that all this technique, used as such, had no meaning. I understood that someone could have a simple technique and play good. He can do slides, bends, harmonics, vibrato, without feeling ashamed. The essential is that he has to play right, and in time. In the tempo, each note has to be placed right, and to be careful about their succession. You have to concentrate on each note to give it depth and importance. I think that these five years have helped me mature in the way that I am now sure to be right in becoming an opposite of a flashy guitarist. Before, I was asking myself if I was doing good.
Q: And what about your music?
JF: My music, and my guitar playing, are focused on the idea of presenting my feelings in an artistic way. Nowadays, I have a minimum of technique because I haven’t played in five years, and I have a better understanding of what certain guitarists, such as Bernard Summer from Joy Division, or Ricky Wilson of the B-52’s, Johnny Marr from the Smiths wanted. They didn’t have an amazing technique, but they played in a personal way, in which no one believed in. For Californication, I was strongly inspired by these guys, as well as Robert Smith…(clears his throat to take out something bothering him) (…) Excuse me… I have learnt a lot thanks to these new personalities, because for me, these artists managed to develop a new aspect of the guitar, where each note is exactly at the right place, and, more importantly, where each note has a meaning. They knew how to impose the idea that it was better to create personal atmosphere, than playing hundreds of notes to prove oneself. I wished to find back the technique from when I was 21, to keep it fresh. I attempted to glue different styles in my guitar playing, like techno parts, or synth parts like in the Depeche Mode albums, all of that to satisfy my will to absorb diverse things, to be able to develop my own personal atmosphere. I play fast, but not like guitar virtuosos, because it is a technique I have developped. For all these reasons, I can now confirm that I have guitar playing style. It suits me entirely, it totally belongs to me…
Q: About your album, you have said that it had something to do about your idea of finding a state of purity and to be open. Has your childhood inspired you for this album?
JF: Mmmm… (he scrapes his throat again, but quieter this time). When I was a young boy, my head was full of different emotions. At 16, I went down the boulevard, at home, in Santa Monica, and suddenly, there was a bunch of voices, in my head. They were talking to me from behind my intelligence, and told me things about my life, a sort of manual on my childhood, of when I was 5, 10, 15. Those events were a source of a great number of songs. What I tried to do with this album was to write songs that express what I felt when I was a teenager. I settled in an empty room. There was only my guitar, my machines, and I let my inspiration flow. That’s how this album was born.
Q: It seems to be the testimony of a dark period, initiating the start of a brighter future…
JF: Yeah… I think the thing is that I tried to incorporate light positively, in an existence that was doomed to shadow. Each day, I’m slightly happier to be alive. For me, it’s a combination of light and shadow. One defines the other. When you have been close to death, you understand better what living means.
Q: Do you think that your anxieties and your doubts can positively feed the composer?
JF: I have a friend who is a very good musician and who, at the same time, can’t get rid of his anxieties. They never leave him alone. For my part, I don’t doubt myself, so I don’t know. All I can say about my friend is that I’m certain that he can only become better once he stops doubting. For what concerns me, I’m not really sure that I know what “anxieties” or “doubt” mean, I know that when I was a teenager, my first songs were inspired by anger. I wrote about thirty songs in 4 years, with my guitar and my rage. If I’ve evolved, it’s in the way that my music comes from more positive feelings, closer to love. I needed to slip away to discover and achieve that level of fullness.
Q: After the Blood Sugar Sex Magik tour, Flea had a nervous breakdown, you withdrew for 5 years… In the end, what is your vision on the world of music, of its business, on their courses?
JF: None… All I can say is that, for Flea, as well as for me, playing bass or guitar after a break up is a moment of reflection, of ultimate happiness. You regain consciousness of what that represents. Music is an amazing source of creation. When you need something subconscious, music enables you to sublimate it, to reveal it. It fills in empty space, moves in the air, and created interactions with the air. When I was small, there was music to accompany me, when I was feeling horribly lonely in the world, there was music to accompany me and reassure me, and I think that’s one of its most important aspects…
Q: Do you think that this view of music is representative of actual music production?
JF: The majority of bands now are focused on the idea to make money, to succeed, and to become stars. They forget the most important point: to create pleasure. Too often bands consider that the most important thing is to make money, and good for them if people follow. I’m less and less certain that musicians need to be selfish, or at least I don’t think that we should be proud to the point of saying it and repeating it. I make music because playing guitar is the most beautiful thing in the world for me; but I only wish for one thing right now: that people are well and happy when they listen to my songs.
