John Frusciante
Here you are with a new solo album and a great concert in Paris with the Peppers. You seem to be in great shape?
My solo project isn’t a new album for me; it’s been finished for over a year now! I did it while recording By the Way. It belongs to the past. However, it seems to be new and refreshing to Warner who want to present it as this summer’s new release! For me it’s just an album where I was finally able to express all my creative freedom and all my musical capacities that I got over the years. I got better as an author and as a composer and the result is more than satisfactory! I remain very proud to have fulfilled such a challenge because this album resembles me like no other of my past artistic experiences!
Did you keep those songs for yourself because they didn’t fit in for the Peppers?
No,not at all! I wrote the lyrics to these songs, thing that I never do for the Peppers.The choice was quite simple then: I composed some melodies where I added some words and kept them for me, if not I proposed the melodies to the band! There is no calculation in my process! The journalists are the only ones who see a calculation in it!
Your album appears to be more melancholic than the band’s albums…
Finally!! It makes me happy that you’re expressing this thought, I read so many articles that defined the Peppers as a band who became syrupy since the last album! What an idea! Chad remains a heavy drummer and Flea, our bassist, proves it every time on stage by delivering tons of energy, which makes this allegation perfectly out of place! Besides, my musical style stays the same in both of my careers: a precise, raw and tonic play! However from one project to another the musicians are not being the same, the result makes the music somewhat different, even if it’s mainly composed by the same guitarist, I must admit! But now the musical aggressiveness of a band or musician can’t be measured by the number of decibels unfolded! Just look at Cat Stevens; he plays with a lot of aggressiveness even if his music is not placed in the hard rock category! My disc will be more aggressive or more melancholic depending on the listener and their mood at the moment! It’s too easy to label someone and I don’t like that!
They are however two different artistic approaches that you successfully make cohabit.
I am not monomaniac, not lore than the others. That’s far from the truth and I proved that many times in my music.The energy that I find in a metal repertory enables me also to get back to a zen approach that I put at service for the others! In all my musical directions I put a little bit of all the ingredients. I just watch out for the final result!I love exploring many different horizons and take fully advantage of what life offers me!That’s what life is truly about! I’m a complex person so it’s only natural that my music reflects all my complexities as well as my contradictions!
Do you feel musically partitioned among the Peppers to have released such an album?
No! (thinks) I don’t understand your question! Right now you are interviewing me then you are gonna interview other artists from different musical universes…You won’t ask them the same questions and that’s a good thing for your readers. For me it’s the same thing, I love to vary my experiences and I don’t feel locked up in a prison!
Did your experiences with drugs allow you to be more open, musically speaking?
I wasn’t on any kind of drugs when I worked on Shadows, if that’s your question…But I can’t deny the fact that without them I wouldn’t be the guy you have in front of you right now and my music would be different! My many artificial trips opened some doors of my subconscious.So now do they confer me an advantage or an inconvenience? I can’t answer that with objectivity. But what I do know is that if the drugs gave me some real troubles, today I use what I lived through back then to widen up my knowledge of things and people. I learned a lot from the deep hole of drugs…and from the pain they make you endure! I’m not doing a eulogy of narcotics, I just notice the fact that I got out of it, so it’s best if I point out the good sides.
Do you consider yourself lucky to still be here and do you still have some aftereffects?
Of course! I’m not dead and I still make a living out of my passion despite all the dangerous misbehavior that I had throughout my life! I burned my life and luckily it didn’t consume itself entirely.It took me time to understand that you don’t have to be high to make good music; you just have to be a good person and stay true to what you believe in. You take drugs because you feel bad and take some more because you feel worse and worse…It’s not a solution! Yoga and meditation bring more well-being and creativity than all the drugs on the planet! I feel more balanced and happy now to be what I am, thanks to these philosophies.
Let’s talk about music again: was it easy to find your place in the musical universe again?
I never lost it! I just had,during a delicate time, less exposure in media, but I never ceased to play music. I can’t even imagine not playing music.My level wasn’t the same but my intentions were! To prove what I’m saying: as soon as I rejoined the Peppers our 2 albums had enormous success! They are great albums that no one can be ashamed of!
In what way did your play and composition get better?
In every way! I got more mature and therefore my vision of music evolved as well, my compositions and different methods varied between my down periods and now.The sensitivity you find on my album comes from the sum of all my past experiences.That disc constructed itself in a way I never could have imagined! My play is more precise and brings a new dimension to the album that I appreciate a lot more! The entire album was composed on a acoustic guitar and accompanied by Chad’s unbridled rhythm, to be sure that each song was going to be perfectly efficient. The additions are there only to improve and not to compensate the eventual lacks of interests.
Your album is found to be very homogeneous, is that something you need to work on?
A song didn’t appear on the album because it didn’t correspond to the cohesion. However that track is a bonus in the Japanese version. I compose so much different songs that I can’t imagine realizing a disc with disparate tracks that I would mix like an inexplicable patchwork!That would be an error! I’ve always conceived my albums like initiatory trips and that forces me to be very carefully with the songs I choose in order not to disturb the listener during his cruising.
“Song To Sing When I’m Lonely” your song about loneliness is harrowing! Is it autobiographical?
It is! It’s about braking up with my girlfriend, she found my absences too long and too frequent. I told her that it had to be that way because of my job and that it made me happy. She thought she could change the situation to her advantage. That wasn’t the case, not at all…that episode of my life forced me to write about loneliness and after listening to music I composed the words came out naturally. However, this is not a sad song. I love being alone. In this song I explain something very important in my life: my guitar remains my one and only true friend. I always needed it during both the happiest and saddest periods of my life.
An acoustic album like Niandra LaDes… is it a return to the roots?
I always loved acoustic. I must confess that for me a good composer only works on an acoustic guitar. They offer you more possibilities and the clarity of the instrument enables you to compose prettier and more precise parts…
