The Watt from Pedro show, 25th January 2009
Mike Watt: Which studio did you use?
John Frusciante: My home.
Mike Watt: Yeah
John Frusciante: Yeah. Yeah, I have a few studio setups in my house. And, for this album we used the big one. It was, like a big 48-track, uh, you know, two 24-track tape machines, and a big 40 channel EPI(???) console that used to be at The Record Plant in New York in the 70s, and yeah, it’s, you know, really cool, it’s a whole 70s style record.
Mike Watt: Yeah. What did you call this record?
John Frusciante: The Empyrean
Mike Watt: The Empyrean?
John Frusciante: Yeah, it’s symbolic on a lot of levels of the story, which is kind of, uh, has a lot to do with, uh, uh, sort of about inner life, um, the kind of trials you go through inside yourself that really don’t ever get even talked about into the outside world or, expressed in any way, other than in your connection to creativity, you know, and uh, all the ups and downs that come with that. So, that was the subject matter, and then, the music was reflecting the same dynamics of the story, and I just feel like as a record, it was kind of, like a, just a peak for us in terms of really being able to have what’s coming out of the speakers be what we’re hearing in our heads. Cuz, for a long time we had to translate through other people so I also see it as being kind of a peak that me and him have been working towards for a long time. Flea plays bass on it, and uh, Johnny Marr played guitar on a couple of songs.
Mike Watt: When was it done?
John Frusciante: It was finished, like, a year ago.
Mike Watt: Oh!
John Frusciante: Yeah.
Josh Klinghoffer: It was finished a year ago?
John Frusciante: Almost. Not, uh, you know, I guess we finished it in, like, April.
Josh Klinghoffer: Yeah. We started it in the end of two thousand sss….
John Frusciante: Seven, yeah
Josh Klinghoffer: No, the end of 2006, I think. The very end of.
Mike Watt: The end of 2006?
John Frusciante: Noo
Josh Klinghoffer: Christmas. Like, right around Christmas.
John Frusciante: Yeah, it was done over the course of, like, a year. Is that…
Mike Watt: But the end of 2006 is when I was playing with you in Europe
Josh Klinghoffer: Yeah, six, because then I was touring with..
John Frusciante: Yeah so it was December 2006. Then, mostly recorded throughout, on and off. You know, there’s probably only a total of about two, two-and-a-half months at the most of actual recording and mixing time but…
Mike Watt: Yeah, yeah, yeah…
John Frusciante: It was just huge gaps in between.
Mike Watt: Right.
John Frusciante: Cuz we were on tour and then when I got home I was making other kinds of music all the time, and didn’t want to just do one thing all the time, so, yeah, it’s probably only…we still..we record really quickly. It’s probably only…it was…and this the most we’ve ever taken out time making a record and it still probably only totaled two, two-and-a-half months of actual days.
Mike Watt: Like, what demo? Or just go for it?
John Frusciante: No, we had a pretty clear in my, in our heads cuz I, I usually…our process usually starts where, like, I’ll write a song and I’ll make, uh record a version of all the songs that I’m thinking we’re going to have on a particular album.
