Rockin’ On interview, October 2004

I often get asked, like ”If you can choose anybody you like, who are you going to play with?” Then I’ve been doing it … which is the band I belong to. There’s no substitute for the long period I’ve spent with somebody. Playing with Flea is an ideal situation for me.

Even if he says so, he doesn’t stop creating solo works. Starting with The Will To Death, John Frusciante will be releasing a new album each month. What actually happened to him? The answer is in Automatic Writing and DC EP, a collaboration with DC hardcore punk band.

Nothing can stop John Frusciante now. As you might have heard, he decided to release a new album per month in the second half of this year. While he performs his important duties as a member of Red Hot Chili Peppers, he also showcases his endless and phenomenal creativity.

Starting with The Will To Death, he will be releasing Automatic Writing under the name of Ataxia, and then DC, a four song EP. These two albums came from warm interaction between John Frusciante and Fugazi, a punk rock band on the independent label Dischord, based in Washington DC; known for the considerable support at home and abroad for their steady approach to music. On Ataxia, there is Joe Lally, the bassist of Fugazi. DC EP was produced by Ian MacKaye, the Fugazi frontman, and recorded at Inner Ear Studios in Washington DC. Jerry Busher who played the drums on DC EP plays in groups All Scars and French Toast, and sometimes performs as a second drummer for Fugazi.

Definitely this is a milestone in American rock music history. On this side is Fugazi, a band has acted in quintessentially independent field, and on the other, Red Hot Chili Peppers, a major band in the huge music industry. So we are inclined to suppose that they are different from each other in field. But they get rid of our preoccupation with them. Though each has keep living independently with punk spirit at the West Coast or the East Coast, the two sides finally get a situation to collaborate on sounding, which will be regarded as an epoch-making event.

At least, to read the following interview, you can understand that John’s current creativity is strongly influenced by thought of DC hard-core punk band. John, who was once broken down under pressure to play in the famous rock band, is really a down-to-person now because he must be maintaining the place and the time to see himself and to remember what state of mind he was in at first.

Let’s just start with, would you tell us about your latest album Automatic Writing? How did you record with Fugazi bassist Joe Lally?
As musicians, both Josh Klinghoffer and myself have been big fans of Joe. Last year, Joe moved to LA from DC. It has been some years since Joe and I became friends. And I had talked with Josh “If we were able to play with Joe, we would feel fine.” So, I really asked for Joe to play with us, he kindly agreed to our request. And, as jamming by Joe, Josh, and myself, we had some tunes. In fact, there is not much difference between Chili Peppers and Ataxia in process, writing songs by jams into recording them. The only difference is that we wrote songs for two weeks instead of spending six months, and recorded not for three weeks but for five days.

I think the album’s tittle represents the short-term working process.
We wrote songs in minimal amount of time so that we named this album “Automatic”. Each song is exactly the same as it was when all of us first improvised together. The only difference is that each voice was added to tunes when we recorded. About lyrics, on the day we just recorded tunes, as I listened to and sung along to them in my house, I wrote up lyrics in that night. We completed all of the works within two weeks, and I found great pleasure in the working. That’s why there is a special kind of energy in this album and we can feel particular energy in sounds. The thrill and atmosphere of live performance… that I had never felt in studio before. In most cases, until hit the recording studio, I knew songs more than enough to know, so all I need to do is record them on tape. In contrast, I regarded recordings for Ataxia as performance in itself, that’s to say, I took up a positive attitude toward creating something there.

On this album, you mentioned that you were influenced by early PIL. How do you appreciate Keith Levene as a guitarist?
Of course, Keith Levene is my favorite guitarist. I suppose that you can hear that my performance of “Dust” especially shows his influence. In my opinion, Keith Levene is an important guitarist as undeniably capable as Jimi Hendrix or Jimmy Page. I wonder few people talk about Keith Levene. And there’re very few people trying to take over something he was supposed to do. On the contrary, there’re too many people influenced by Jimmy Page or Edie Van Halen.

Moreover there’re million people those who want to follow their play. Hardly anyone tries to follow the direction that Keith Levene has been up to. I think that on Automatic Writing, I was performing the individual sound of mine. In parallel with it, it’s true that I have feelings for his performance, such as timbre or freewheelingness. And then Joe produced very strong and heavy groove of dub so that we were able to take his performance as the foundation. This is why our experiment was able to become freely. How can I explain … to me, the most sympathetic thing to Keith Levene’s playing is the aspect of quest for. I feel he uses the guitar not for just playing the guitar or performing solo play but as a means to quest. In short, I’m interested in his questing mind for sound. So, I think on the Ataxia’s record, it receives influence from his attitude of quest for sound. But I’ve always been doing such things at rehearsal. When I jammed with Flea for Chili Peppers, we sometimes ended up all day playing the sounds like PIL. But that doesn’t happen simply because of an accomplished album.

Well. How did you name the band “Ataxia”?
At that time, I was reading a book written by Iannis Xenakis. He was a Greek, an architect, and a composer. There’s “Ataxia”, the Greek language, in the book. Ataxia means disorder. I think “Ataxia” is nice to look at, also I like its vocable. And the meaning of “Ataxia” is the same meaning as the tittle of Joy Division’s song. That’s what pleased me because Joe, Josh, and I are big fans of Joy Division. I think “Ataxia” is a symbolic word for three of us.

You and Flea have loved and have respected Fugazi. When did you first make friends with them? And how have you been keeping on close relationship with them?
Flea is friends with Ian Mackaye. While I was quitting, Chili Peppers held show with Nirvana in Brazil. At that time, Ian was there as a roadie. What’s the name of that girl band? L7. Ian joined L7 as a roadie. After a few years, the first show since I came back to Chili Peppers in 1998 was held at club in Washington, DC. Ian came to see us He’s really good person and friendly. So, I asked him about songs because I loved Fugazi very much. When Fugazi went on tour in 1999, I visited their backstage room. All members were pleasant people. I felt they were very welcoming to me with opening arms. The atmosphere in backstage-room of Fugazi was completely different from other band’s backstage room that I had ever visited. Since then I would often go to their shows. When they held show at somewhere about me, I always went to see their show and would go together after show. We swapped phone numbers, so we kept in touch with them after they finished the tour. When Chili Peppers went to DC, members of Fugazi came our show to see. From that time, I would often jam with Ian, not for recording but for fun. Interacting with them is really wonderful thing in my life. I think Fugazi is not just one of the most amazing bands in musical history but also they’re great people or they’re in high-level of humanity. I have never met such a down-to-earth people before. They inspire me in music as well as how to live and what I ought to be. On that point, the presence of Ian is very important to me.

What did you find from experience in recording of DC EP, produced by Ian Mackaye?
Jerry Busher is one of my favorite drummers in the world. One day I sent four demo tracks to him, and he gave some ideas for drum part to me. Besides, I would talk with Ian about the recording of my album in DC. He had been encouraging me, and would say to me “Feel free to come here.” I had been interested in their work at studio. And I had been wanting to go there. So, I dashed off there at my earliest convenience. On the day I arrived in DC [Day 1], I went to eat together. On the next day [Day 2], I rehearsed with Jerry. I listened to drum part, and his play was really wonderful. Towards the end of rehearsal, Ian came and gave some ideas to us, which was indeed wonderful too. On the day after next [Day 3], we went into recording studio, and at the next night [Day 4], we finished off. We recorded four songs and mixed them in only two days. I’m satisfied with the result and I really enjoyed working with Jerry and Ian. The atmosphere of that studio was relaxed. Though we told jokes in a friendly atmosphere, I felt they sincerely worked. The best thing about working with Ian is that I was able to confirm that my direction was not wrong. There was not very difference between The Will To Death and DCEP in working process because I’ve been strongly influenced by Ian, even I was recording The Will To Death in my hometown. All ideas, like ending up recordings in five days and making up an album within $10.000, came from conversation with Ian about a year ago. At that time, I began to feel senseless about many steps in the process of currently record making, and I prefer 60’s style and punk rock style of record making to current style. I definitely think the reason why I come to have such direction I take now is that I’m strongly influenced by Ian.

I see. By the way, in the future, whom are you going to play with?
That’s a question I often get asked, like ”If you can choose anybody you like, who are you going to play with?” Then I‘ve been doing it … which is the band I belong to. There’s no substitute for the long period I’ve spent with somebody. I’ve spent my time playing the guitar, together with Flea, for years and years. So, it’s impossible for me to substitute somebody for Flea. Playing with Flea is an ideal situation for me. Of course I really enjoyed working with Brian Eno. If I have next opportunity to work with him, I would love to do it in any form. It’s just that, um, that’s an experience to learn for me. Knowing the way other people do things, I’m able to acquire something, for instance. However, to create my real music, or to create music from the bottom of my heart, I couldn’t do it without those whom I love, people who are closest to me, and people who have been playing by my side. Oh, but I hope one day I may be able to create something with Guy Picciotto (guitarist of Fugazi). He has great talent as a producer too. I think it might be interesting to collaborate with him. And these days I often listen to hip-hop. I found there’re some people to do something interesting in the field. So I imagine how it to be if I create something of that sort. For instance, I like GZA (Wu-Tang Clan) very much and I get interested in how it to be if I collaborate with him. Um … Nothing special … I’m just fan of him. I have feeling that we’re definitely able to create something interest if I collaborate with him, but I don’t have to do it no matter what. If I want to create something interesting in hip-hop style, I will do it in my band (laugh).

Well, I hear you will release another three albums in the course of this year. Would you give us brief comment on those albums?
OK, I will. I’ll explain one by one.

The album that will be coming out after DC EP is named Inside of Emptiness and it’s a very loud album. It contains the songs that we made the best of distortion, and lots of having a sense of speed, lots of dirty that I’ve ever made. About my capacity as a producer, I think I was able to acquire skill fairly well because all musical instruments seemed like unite in one sound. For me, as a recording musician, that was the direction I had been trying for. So I was really happy when I was able to reach there. I felt “Finally, I’m able to control and to understand all elements in recording studio”. And the album contains not only loud songs but also soft songs. But even soft songs have vibration of loud. Maybe it’s my favorite album that I’ve ever made. So when I begin to talk about it, I’m able to carry on speak well of it (laugh). Really I feel proud of it.

And the next album that I collaborated with Josh, which title is A Spher In The Heart Of Silence. It begins with electronic music piece that lasts about 10 minutes. When Josh and I first held show at Knitting Factory, we played that tune. Um … what to call it? Let me put it this way: it has the atmosphere of Steve Reich’s works. A Sphere In The Heart Of Silence is also an unique album. Though it has a flavor of electronic music, it contains 2 piano numbers, which are very organic and have a natural sound to them. In fact, I believe that I was able to make individual sound for each album without curbing the live aspect. You can feel the live aspect in our albums, and can have the feeling that “as if it’s going to break up, but that won’t happen”.

And the album that will be coming out at the end of this year is the one where I sung and played the acoustic guitar. It was recorded on an Ampex 8-track tape machine that I bought from Vincent Gallo, at my house, like Jimi Hendrix recorded Electric Ladyland, or King Crimson recorded In The Court Of The Crimson King. And Omar A Rodriguez-Lopez of The Mars Volta played guitar on some songs. The album also contains a song with upright bass. To me, it’s a personal and special album. It has a very warm sound. In that sense, I guess it’s the most perfect album that I’ve ever made. Yeah, (at the moment) Inside of Emptiness and Curtains are my favorite albums.

—Yoshiyuki Suzuki

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