John interviewed in the April 2014 issue of Guitar Player
John was interviewed by Guitar Player, who have not had a feature on him since The Empyrean Days.
The interview was carried out by Barry Cleveland, who is responsible for some other great JF features in the past, notably the one from Stadium Arcadium era.
In this lengthy feature, John’s reluctant approach to fame and ego is covered as much as his reinvented guitar playing. Naturally, he is asked questions about leaving the Red Hot Chili Peppers and his gear; but he also talks a lot about his relationship to the creative process, his home studio and his creative relationship with Black Knights. Curiously, he also explains how Trickfinger, his very secretive one-off project came to be, so at this point, it is probably OK to discuss it.
While the entire piece may seem dry and less relaxed than the Premier Guitar feature, it’s a great read.
Here are some excerpts.
When evolving your guitar playing, how do you find the right balance between honoring your roots and tradition, and playing new things in new ways?
Everything I do has its roots in other things that hav been done before, and one thing that I do specifically is to look at musical styles from the past to see where certain trends, certain evolutions, just ended because they were no longer fashionable. I then try to pick up where those lines left off – whether the foundation was some aspect of synth-pop or progressive rock or jazz or whatever. I try to use that as a basic starting point and continue the same thought process.
What is creativity?
Creativity is everywhere, all the time. It’s the nature of who we are. As for artistic creativity, I think a lot of people put it on a pedestal and imagine it is something they can’t quite grasp – but it’s the most natural thing in the world. Of course, there are lots of ways that you can work against it, and that aren’t helpful, like if you look at your art as something that you want to get something back from the world for. Then you’re not in creativity mode anymore – you’re in attention receiving mode or something like that. Having been in this business for a long time, I’ve noticed that typically guitar players who practice a lot and search a lot before they become famous, when they became famous, they will stop searching and just freeze. They’ll say, “Okay, this is what everybody likes me for, so this is what I’ll be.” To me, that’s when the relationship to creativity ends.
Updated on April 4th 2014: You can read the entire interview here
The scans, albeit in an unusual format, are already available and they will be updated once a physical copy of the magazine arrives, for archival purposes.
Click the thumbnails to go to the pages with the scans in the gallery or click here.
If you’re interested in purchasing the magazine, you may do so here or search eBay. The cover has been provided as a part of this news item, for your reference.
*Many thanks to TL for the “scans” and Steve for the tip.
