Chad Beats The Hell Out Of His Drums, You Know?
There are musicians who, with increasing age, begin to repeat themselves and who merely defend their slot. But there are also those who seem to keep on growing. John Frusciante is one of the latter. On his new album “Shadows Collide With People” the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ guitarist opens yet again new musical horizons. Synthesizers are coupled with acoustic guitars, electronic interludes and rock’n’roll.
Cologne, a day after the beginning of carnival: While outside the first carnival lovers are looking forward to new heights in alcohol input, a somewhat tired but yet quite cheerful John Frusciante is sprawled out in an armchair belonging to a hotel room which quite a few people wouldn’t mind as an apartment. However, in this case it is just an interview room. As usual his shoulder-length hair falls into his face when he gesticulates while talking and talking is what he still does to a great extent even after three days full interviews.
Alternative Nation: You’ve been through three days full of interviews. Are there any questions you are sick and tired of by now?
Frusciante: I tend to answer those questions I like to be asked instead of answering every question I am being asked. So if you ask me the same questions I’ll try to move into a different direction. That’s how I maintain my mental sanity.
Alternative Nation: The last time you were in Germany you played some showcases. Why don’t you play any shows this time and when will your German fans get to see you live?
Frusciante: In Los Angeles I am currently recording a lot and I play assorted experimental shows with my friend Josh Klingloffer. In November, the Peppers started a six-months break and I try to use this time in the best way possible, because when I’m doing Chili Peppers’ stuff, it’s hard to go to the studio, rehearse and do everything else one has to do in order to record along the way. Therefore, I try to use my time in a sensible way so that I’ve finally got something done worth showing. If I went on tour, there’d be nothing left but memories. (laughs) I have to do something useful in my life. I’ve written so many songs and I simply need to use this time to record them. I could imagine putting together a band in a few years time and to do a real tour, especially when I’ve got more material to choose from, more than just this album, i.e. more music for a real band performance. I’ve done these acoustic shows for my last album, it was fun and it was nice to have this very personal experience with the audience. But what I’m really longing for is to re-define my relation to the medium “recording”. I think lately I had a lot of this exchange of love with large crowds and at the moment I’m trying to get myself back into a balance by doing these few experimental shows. I need to get a balance as a human being whose fundamental reason for being is to make music. In this way I’m happier because I get more music out of me.
Alternative Nation: Now that you’ve mentioned Josh Klingloffer: About two years ago you said in an interview that the next album would be released under a band name since Klingloffer would have his part in it. I “Shadows Collide With People” this album you were talking about?
Frusciante: Yes, it’s this album. But now it is different from what is was back then. Originally we had written the song “Omission” together and this song came about through collaboration. He played keyboard and I played guitar and both of us had the ideas for the vocals. So I said: “I’ll go into one corner of the room and do my vocals and you stay here and do yours.” We sat there and scribbled our parts onto a piece of paper and when we were ready we got back together again and sung our ideas together and they fit perfectly. At that time we thought that we’d do many songs together, just like this one. As time went by, this album became more of a solo album with which he’s helping me. There were also some other songs we wrote together, but when we decided to do a John Frusciante solo record we decided to save these songs for some other time. Only four songs were written in collaboration and maybe they’ll be released as an EP. They don’t have the same mood as the rest of the album, rather cold, electronic, experimental tracks. We’ll do further projects where we’ll work together, but we realized that these were my songs and it therefore had to be a solo album.
Alternative Nation: I couldn’t find any information on Josh Klinghoffer: Who is he and what does he do?
Frusciante: He is 24, plays keyboard, guitar, bass, synthesizer, drums and he is really good at playing all these instruments. He was in an L.A. band called The Bicycle Thief which played some shows with the Chili Peppers on the US leg of the Californication tour. He’s simply a very talented person and has been a very close friend for the past four years. He’s one the very few people who I really like to spend a lot of time with. In many respects he’s the person who is closest to me and with whom I can speak honestly about everything. His opinion is very important to me and I value it a lot.
Alternative Nation: Why did you go into a studio this time? So far you’ve recorded at home.
Frusciante: I’ve always wanted to go to into a studio to record my music, but up to now I hadn’t been ready for it since my songwriting was still in a kind of build-up-phase. I knew which kind of songs I wanted to write, but had to a lot of focussing to do and I had to create a sense of closure. I went into the studio because my music took this direction, it sounded more human and I had to record it with people. I didn’t simply want to program everything. I wanted a warm, human sound. It was to become more personal than everything I’ve ever done before. So far I’ve never had anyone like Josh, someone I could rely on to come up with his own parts. He’s a drummer who finally feels just like me. Chad is a great drummer for the Chili Peppers, but as creative musicians we come from totally different directions. We do overlap in some areas, we both like Black Sabbath a lot or Van Halen, “but in general Chad beats the hell out of his drums, you know?” That’s Chad’s style, taking his drums apart. My favourite drummers are people like Steven Morrison of Joy Division, Budgie, Siouxie and the Banshees. People who play this drum in the foreground and the other in the background and who turn playing drums into an artistic event. Who turn their beat into a kind of collage. That is the kind of drummer who’s interested in my songs. It’s not enough if someone simply plays a beat to my songs. I need someone who interacts creatively with the music. Since Josh is also a guitarist he’s made the beat a part of the guitar part and the vocal part as well.
Alternative Nation: And why did Chad play the drums on the album and not Josh?
Frusciante: Well, we asked Chat to play the drum parts because at that stage Josh had problems with the studio. Meanwhile he feels quite comfortable in the studio, but at that stage he’d never been in a large recording studio before. He was nervous and I as the producer was very tough, because it was my first time as producer in a large studio and my desire for perfection was too strong. So we thought about it and decided to ask Chad. He tried to play like Josh. He played softer and played the parts we showed him. He played like a studio musician, Josh taught him the drum parts and we explained him the songs. He learned them very quickly and everything worked out very well.
Alternative Nation: Chad played drums and Flea played some bass parts. Didn’t Anthony feel somewhat left out?
Frusciante: I’ve got no idea. At least he never mentioned it. I think he knows that Josh and I worked really hard on the vocals. Anthony is rather a lead-singer, he’s not a background singer and he doesn’t play any instruments. I think if he felt left out it would have been rather silly. There were no parts he could have participated in. If I had needed someone with a really low singing voice, like a baritone, I would have asked him. I can’t sing that low. Not many people know about his talent cause he doesn’t do that very often with the Peppers. I thought that I needed such vocals on the album, but in the end I didn’t need them after all, but I had initially asked him if he’d do it just in case. He said he’d do it. Maybe on another album. Flea and Chad helping was really nice of them and I like what they’ve added to the music. I think Anthony knows that they’ve participated, but that they aren’t an integral part of this album. It’s not that I rehearsed with Chad and Flea and that we wanted to form a new band. That would be different. But this is mine and Josh’s thing and we just asked them for a little help.
Alternative Nation: Compared with “To Record Only Water For Ten Days” this album seems to cover a wider spectrum: There are folk-like songs, singer/songwriter songs and other tracks which are rock tracks while there are also more experimental songs. What was the initial reason to cover this range and to round it up to an entity of it’s own? What was the impulse to cover this range on one album and to let it become a unity?
Frusciante: To find a style exciting I do simultaneously be excited about a different kind of music, one that has absolutely nothing to do with the other style. This is how my taste works. At the time when Josh and I were recording we were listening to a lot of cold music such as John Foxx’s “Metamatic” album, but also John Biars or “Liege and Lief” by Fairport Convention. We were listening to Kraftwerk and Steeleye Span or the Beatles. And a lot of experimental, electronic music. All this perfectly balanced in my head. I listened to folk on my way to rehearsals and on my way back I listened to electronic stuff. So it makes sense that the music on my album displays a certain variety. I have to balance my music in the same way as the music I listen to. Yet at the same time I didn’t want have too many different types of music in the album cause I wanted it to work out from beginning to end. When I get out an album it is because I remember a certain mood and I want to feel it. I wanted to make an album which you can listen all the way through and which pursues a certain emotion. I also need a certain emotional bandwidth and continuous emotions.
Alternative Nation: But there are three obvious breaks: songs with numbers on their titles. Titles which are very hard to remember (Negative 00 Ghost 27, Failure 33 Object und 23 Go Into End). These tracks stick out. How does this work for you?
Frusciante: When we were recording this it was our way of having fun between the individual song recording in the studio. Months before we had already recorded demos of the other tracks and it was only a matter of getting the sound we wanted, while the instrumental stuff came about right there in the studio. I think it lends the album a spontaneous sound it would otherwise have lacked. Josh and me are also big fans of David Bowie’s “Heroes” and “Low”, we like the way instrumental tracks and songs a combines on these records. We thought that we should also mix our album a little bit so that it wouldn’t simply consist of a row of songs. We wanted small break taking off into another direction.
Alternative Nation: Do you still paint?
Frusciante: No.
Alternative Nation: Why did you stop?
Frusciante: I used to paint, now I paint with my guitar and synthesizers. It’s something I like: to look at art and to read about it still is a major influence on the way I make music. But my opinion on art is too clearly defined as that I could get any pleasure from simply doing it for fun. If I painted, it would have to agree with the taste I developed and the opinion I’ve got concerning what is good. And I am simply not able to do what I’d consider good, while I am well able to do this on my guitar. Over the past five years it has been my idea to reach in music what I’ve not been able to do in paintings. In this sense the time spent painting has been very valuable for me as a musician, even though it has no value for the world of art. (laughs)
—Benjamin Fuchs
