The Watt from Pedro show, 25th January 2009
John Frusciante:…and I’m, you know, producing and stuff. We actually made one album that was a collaboration. We could play something off that if maybe. Um, we made one song where it was both of us writing songs and stuff, and…
Mike Watt: Collaborating with the write?
John Frusciante: Yeah, where some songs were Josh’s and some were mine, and uh…probably if I wasn’t so busy in the band over the last 10 years I, we would’ve done stuff like that more often but, um, you know, it seemed like I was always so anxious just to make solo records anytime there was a little break….
Mike Watt: Right, right.
John Frusciante:…and so, that’s what we would do.
Mike Watt: Yeah, the need for solo records. I think it’s great.
John laughs.
Mike Watt: You know.
John Frusciante: You know, I’ve always just spent all my time recording since I was a kid, so it’s kinda more natural for me to do that than it is to do a band, you know. A band has been something more that I sort of, uh, settled into, it didn’t come naturally, at first. I’m much more comfortable just working by myself and calling the shots, stuff like that…
Mike Watt: I wanna talk about who you got into music….but uh. Oh yeah, we uh, after Elephants…well yeah, you didn’t tell me about how you got involved with that. How’d you end up mixing that, Warpaint.
John Frusciante: They’re just friends of mine and uh, Josh played drums on one song, and I played mellotron on one song. And, they just, they had recorded a record and they needed someone to mix it, and I was so, sort of, hot on the mixing from…
Mike Watt: You were in mix mode.
John Frusciante: Yeah…from…yeah, my friend Adam started forgetting that I play guitar. The engineer who was doing it with us, because he was so used to me being the guy on the mixing board and stuff. I’d play guitar on something and he’d be like, ‘I forgot you, you’re so good on guitar.’ (Laughs.) But uh, but yeah. Warpaint, it was just, uh, I really love the band and stuff. They, they uh, they make music that really expresses things that I feel inside me. So, it was a pleasure to…
Mike Watt: You wanted to get in on it.
John Frusciante: Yeah.
Mike Watt: Like, uh, Omar…
John Frusciante: Mmhmm.
Mike Watt:..had you be a guitar player for him.
John Frusciante: Yeah, I’ve played on all their albums, except their first EP. I just did another one in August.
Mike Watt: Does he play on it? I mean, there was one where he didn’t play, right?
John Frusciante: Well, no. He played, but he played, like, overdubs. Like, I played..there’s two where I played all…most of the written guitar parts and then he did additional parts on top of that, like, tracking with the drummer or, umm…I guess there was just one where for the whole album I played all those parts. But even on the next one I did after that, the last one that was released, I did pretty similar, you know, where I’m playing uh, a lot of written parts.
Mike Watt: I think, that’s really righteous that you would say, ‘Yeah, guide me.’
John Frusciante: Oh, it’s fun! Yeah, cuz, uh, I’ve spent so much time concentrating on practicing guitar, just learning things of records, and things like that, that uh, to be able to apply that skill that I have of being able to learn something and then play and just have being, like, how hard I’m hitting the guitar, how I’m expressing myself through the part, rather than thinking of the notes and the rhythms. It’s just fun. When I was kid, I thought I would be in Frank Zappa’s band when I grew up, you know.
(Laughing)
John Frusciante: So I kinda wanted to have a situation like that where I’m playing some, like, uh, you know, sort of difficult to play music and odd time signatures and stuff, and just like, locking into it and stuff.
Mike Watt: Like the challenge of it.
John Frusciante: Yeah, it’s fun! And the one we just did, I guess they’re probably about to mix it right now, that came out really cool. They’re going in a new direction, and it’s exciting.
Mike Watt: Mars Volta.
John Frusciante: Mmhmm.
Mike Watt: Uh, we heard, uh ‘Can’t Take That Away’ by Animal Train…and…some young cats…and then you guys played ‘Come Out’ by Steve Reich.
John Frusciante: Yeah.
Mike Watt: Thoughts on that?
