Techniques – John Frusciante On Inside Of Emptiness
“Back in the ’60s, recordings had some great sounds that now have been pretty much lost,” says Red Hot Chili Pepper John Frusciante, whose latest solo offering, Inside of Emptiness [Record Collection], is the fourth in a series of approximately six records he plans to release within the next few months. “And one of my goals in making solo albums is to bring back some of those cool engineering and production techniques that people have forgotten about. For example, the first guitar tone on Emptiness is a 1969 Les Paul into a cranked Vox AC15. Originaly, I had the amp in an isolation booth, because, these days, everyone wants a lot of separation between instruments. But when we opened the booth’s sliding glass door, the ambience immediately brought the whole recording to life. You first hear the close-miked sound from a Shure SM57, and then you hear a little delay from the amp leaking into all the drum mics. There’s all kinds of [signal] bleed on those old records, and I think that’s part of what gave the recordings such a great atmosphere.”
Frusciante – and multi-instrumentalist Josh Klinghoffer – tracked Emtiness live through a Neve 8088 console to a Studer A-800 analog tape deck, after replacing the Studer’s 24-track headstack with a 16-track version.
“That way, you get a bigger chunk of tape and a fatter sound for each track,” explains Frusciante. “Which is why I laugh when I see reviews of my records saying they’re ‘lo-fi’ 16-track recordings. I think 16-track sounds better than 24-track!”
Another benefit of reducing the number of available tracks was that it forced Frusciante to commit to ideas early on. “That’s part of the art and part of the fun – figuring how to do things within the confines of limited resources and a strict game plan,” he says. “I don’t like to throw down a million things, and then go through hell during the mix trying to decide what stays and what goes.”
Another nod to old-school recording was tracking different performances with a single mic, as on “I’m Around,” where Frusciante and Klinghoffer played simultaneously through one amp.
“This is what I call ‘joined guitars,’ and it’s a totally different sound than what you get when recording two guitars parts on two separate tracks with two mics,” says Frusciante. “I like records where all the instruments appear to be one big noise, and this method ‘tricks’ yours ears into perceiving the different tracks as one sound. There was another benefit, as well, because smearing the performances together helped Josh and I sound like a hand instead of two guys playing every part on the record.”
—Matt Blackett
