MTV2 Gonzo interview, 2004
February 2004, Gonzo (MTV UK)
Many thanks to Gem Healy, for the transcript.
If anyone has correct information of the air date; or, even better, a video clip, it would be much appreciated.
Zane Lowe: Coming up today on the couch we welcome Mr John Frusciante (Frush-an-tay), did I pronounce it correctly? We can ask him personally. I think it’s pronounced John Frushantay. That’s right of course you will know him as guitarist for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but a lot of people who’ve been throwing questions our way, ah, for one of the greatest guitar players in modern music history, will also know him from his solo material, he’s got a brand new album coming out, called Shadows Collide With People, and we’re gonna focus most of the conversation on that…watch everybody go to another station haha! Seriously it’s gonna be good, gonna be good talking to him and the record is amazing, it’s lovely, lush production, great songs, and not the kind of um, sort of indie, shmindy type, lo-fi type record you’d expect from a popular guitar player doing a solo album, it’s a quality piece of work.
[Video: The Vines – Ride]Zane Lowe: John Frushantay, joining us on the couch today, answering a few of your questions, a few of mine, talking about his latest album, Shadows Collide With People. Straight to some music news: Chili Peppers, tour dates confirmed, two more massive UK shows, I kind of let this slip last week by accident but anyway, as previously reported, the band’s fans have already snapped up 200,000 tickets in record time for the open-air shows in Manchester, Edinburgh and Hyde Park in London, two more dates have been added, Cardiff Millennium Stadium on June 23rd, for the Welsh massive, and another date at London’s Hyde Park on the 25th, for the London massive, so there you go if you’ve got a little cash you need to get in there right now although the rate at which those tickets were flying…
Man off camera: You’ve got time it goes on sale, I think this Saturday.
Zane Lowe: You are correct, sir, Saturday the 21st of February, alright, put that in you diary wake up early and get ready to go to the Chili Peppers in the summer.
[Video: The Darkness – Love Is Only A Feeling] [ John is now sat on the couch when the camera cuts back to the studio.]Zane Lowe: Welcome back to the UK, bro, do you like it here?
John Frusciante: [Quietly] Yeah.
Zane Lowe: You do? When was the last time you actually came back out here? Do you come out here when you’re not sort of with your friends in the band?
John Frusciante: “Mmm-hmm”. [Indicating ‘yes’]
[Immediately cuts to a 7 second clip of ‘Going Inside’ video]Zane Lowe: Let’s talk about the new album…right, Shadows Collide With People, it’s your first record you’ve done on your own and with your friends outside the Chili Peppers in 3 years, I mean, how long have these songs been floating around for you, that feature on this album?” [Holds up Shadows]
John Frusciante: Um, let’s see, the oldest songs on there were written on the Californication tour but I think there’s only one, or maybe a couple from that period of time. [Picks up Shadows and studies the back] The rest of them were written during By The Way, or right before By The Way, or right after By The Way.
Zane Lowe: Do you find that the songs kind of differ, depending on whether you’re writing them on the road, or whether you’re actually in a more intimate environment, on yourself? By yourself?
John Frusciante: No there’s no specific difference, [short pause]
Zane Lowe: [Interrupts and talks over John] Do you not like to put yourself in an environment…?
John Frusciante: [Continues his original sentence] Every song’s different from every other song you know.
Zane Lowe: Sure.
John Frusciante: But i find that in general on tour there’s a kind of um, there’s a kind of a, there’s a kind of a confusion that runs through everything that you do when you’re on tour because you’re never really sure where you are you know, you’re, part of you’s in the place you just left and part of you’s in the place where you’re going…
[Video: RHCP – Scar Tissue] [Video: RHCP – Breaking The Girl]
