Feature on John in the April issue of Premier Guitar
After having unintentionally broken news on Enclosure, Premier Guitar have more of interest. In their April issue, there’s a lengthy feature on John, which is also available to read on their website.
Here is how they announced the article:
And here are a couple of excerpts from the interview:
How did you conceptually select songs for Enclosure?
My object was not to feature my songs, but to use the songs as a place to express myself sonically and rhythmically, with the drums as the primary instrument—more so than the melody. That’s really the change that’s taken place in the last 30 years in electronic-based forms of music. Drums have moved to the top of the hierarchy of musical elements, and typical chord changes or other elements aren’t a necessity in making music. In some ways I can go farther out than I’d be able to go if I didn’t have a song beneath me. For instance, the stuff I’ve done with chopping up jazz drum solos, doing drums that are in time with the song on certain accents and off time on other hits. I haven’t heard anybody go that far with sampling and chopping up off-time drums.
Is expression the same for you on all instruments? Or is guitar a special tool?
The guitar is the best way for me to study other people’s music. Since I started playing, I’ve probably spent more time learning off records than doing any other activity in life. Doing that has so many values, among them the ability to think about music in intellectual terms. Not just hearing what you like and enjoy, but analyzing it and getting inside the heads of the people who played or wrote it. I like learning all the parts of a piece of music so I really know why I feel what I feel in the best terms that my mind is capable of understanding. I like to play one of the parts, but be able to visualize the rest of the parts and think about their relationship to each other in terms of intervals and rhythmic spaces.
What guitars did you use on Enclosure?
My main guitars are Yamaha SG2000s. My favorite is a purple one from 1980. I have a few others, and a few SG1500s. I switched from the Strat to the Yamahas in late 2010. I’ve played the Strat once in the last three years, and only on one little recording.
You can read the entire article titled John Frusciante: War and Peace on Premiere Guitar’s website for more answers, a complete list of the gear he’s used on Enclosure and a photo of his home studio.
To order your own copy of the magazine for $2.50 instead of the usal $6.95, click here.
Thanks to a friend’s kindness, i-m.net will obtain a copy of this magazine, but it will probably take a while for it to arrive, so if you do not see it on here and you have it – drop a line and send in scans, please.
