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November 1991, Metal Forces (UK)
thanks to Naomi, for typing it out
click the thumbnail for scans

An endless interview schedule to promote, “Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik”, their latest album and first for Warner Brothers, has left John Frusciante RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS guitarist, looking decidedly burned. I arrive at the Royal Garden Hotel in London just in time to see him disappearing into a lift en route to his room. John, explains the record company PR, has had enough, and the frazzled fretster is packing his bags and heading home on the next available Concorde flight.

Anthony Kiedis, the bands live wire singer, meanwhile, has weathered all the media attention rather better. In a plush suite some four floors up and over looking a sun drenched Kensington Gardens, he appears very cool, very calm and pretty darned collected. Surprising, because this is his last interview of the day, and although I expect him to be all talked out he's every inch the professional.

“We had no idea about the music business when we formed,” begins the singer, pouring himself a glass of mineral water, before going on the explain their departure from from EMI records. “All we knew was that we wanted to make a record, and so when our manager got us this deal with EMI it was great. But, EMI was actually a terrible place for us to be, it was just the wrong label. As the years progressed we've just kept creating what we consider to be amazingly ground breaking and inspirational anti-mainstream music, for people who needed an alternative to mediocrity, and EMI just didn't understand what we were all about.”

“They always treated us as these pet punk rockers,” adds the frontman with an air of mild mannered contempt. “And kept us aboard to make themselves look good, but never did anything to support us or gave us the freedom to just get on and make the music, which is what a band is supposed to do.”

So 89's highly successful “Mother's Milk” opus turned out to be the bands last for EMI. With said album having been such a hit with fans and press alike, the Los Angeles based four-piece, completed by bassist Flea and drummer Chad Smith, found themselves being chased by all manner of major concerns, with Warner Brothers reportedly paying rather a lot of money to get the boys on their roster. Kiedis sounds pleased with their new home, as he goes on; “There'd been all this time since “Mother's Milk”, and we had the feeling in our guts that we were about to create the best thing we've ever done. So it was going to be much too important to give it back to a label that didn't understand us. We quit EMI, wrote the record and then found a new label. When all was said and done, Warner's seemed like the warmest and friendliest place to be. It's based in the same city we live in ourselves, just the whole thing felt right.”

So whilst the time spent between the album has involved its fair share of internal politics, Kiedis looks back fondly over all the touring they did to promote “Mother's Milk”. “My fondest recollection of all that touring is just us becoming a band,” he says. “When we went in to record “Mother's Milk” we were a band, but we hadn't really lived together, and it was the next two years of touring which really brought us together. We gained so much respect, understanding and love for each other that it brought us to the point where we could make this record. The whole point of being in a band is to develop this sense of musical telepathy, where you can communicate by listening to the other person playing, which ultimately helps the music.”

And considering the tragic consequences that brought this line-up together (guitarist Frusciante replaced original six-stringer Hillel Slovak after his untimely death in early '89), the singer now feels that they've got the chemistry just about right. “It's definitely roaring right now,” he adds contentedly.

The band have rarely sounded better, and, as the singer goes on to explain, the album's title is perfect for giving you an idea of what to expect. “As much as anything it's four words that look and sound cool together,” he says. “It just has this kind of vibe to it. But I hate trying to explain my lyrics or titles, although subconsciously the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS are attempting to try and spew back into a world that is devoid of any, an element of magic, this record is a magical experience to us, and hopefully when other people listen to it they'll hear that too.”

Somewhat surprisingly, “Blood, Sugar, Sex, Magik”, has been produced by Rick Rubin, and I put the question to the singer, that it's rather a departure for both parties, isn't it? “Before it all happened I did have a lot of doubts and preconceptions,” admits Kiedis. “Not knowing Rick Rubin, and only having looked into the stuff he's worked on like SLAYER and DANZIG I originally kept thinking that he wasn't the right guy at all. He seemed much more into all that demonic aspect of music, whereas the RED HOT CHILLI PEPPERS are such perpetrators of the positive energy, and I was worried he may not get the colourful picture of what we're all about.”

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