Inside of Emptiness Bio

Inside Of Emptiness was made in Los Angeles by Josh Klinghoffer, engineer Ryan Hewitt and myself. My favorite records at the time, in terms of the production, were White Light/White Heat by Velvet Underground and Lust For Life by Iggy Pop.

The first song is called “What I Saw” and it was written in New York. We distorted the fuck out everything on it. It is very dirty. The second song is called “The World’s Edge” and it is a good example of why I think Josh Klinghoffer is the best drummer in the world. The third song is called “Inside A Break”. It was written in Japan. This song contains a guitar solo by Josh that is being electronically bent out of tune.

The fourth song is called “A Firm Kick” and continues my series of A songs (“A Doubt”, “A Corner”). It contains a noisy guitar solo that I did by beating the fuck out of my guitar. “Look On” was written in Paris, France and is a look back at the 70’s and long guitar solos.

“Emptiness” was inspired by the little known group Empire. They were an offshoot of Gen X and they made brilliant original music that was completely ignored by the public (how unusual!).

“Emptiness”, “I’m Around” and “666” were all written while I was reading a biography about Aleister Crowley. Each of these three songs, in their own way, are the result of me thinking about him and his life.

“I’m Around” contains our first example of what I call joined guitars. Toward the end and in the second chorus Josh and I played intertwining Johnny Marr type guitar parts through the same amp which causes the two separate parts to be perceived by the ear as one part.

The title “666”, aside from being the name Aleister Crowley often signed letters as, is also a reference to the chorus’ three bars of six which are interjected into the otherwise 4/4 feel of the song (something that was unintentional and subconscious).

“Interior Two” was written the same day as “Inside A Break”. It is inspired by early rock n’ roll. I love that music and those types of lyrics and it is fun for me as a songwriter to juxtapose music that would have sounded current in 1958 with lyrics that go in surreal or nonsensical directions that didn’t exist in music back then.

The last song is called “Scratches” and we think the Rolling Stones should buy it off us.

We are greatly indebted to the Rick James episode of Chapelle’s show, the watching and quoting of which helped give this record a happy atmosphere.

Thank you for listening. More to come.

– John Frusciante

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