Pages: 1 2

1994, RAW magazine issue 163
taken from now-dead RHCP Central.net

John Frusciante was guitarist with the RED HOT CHILI PEPPERS during their climb to stardom, but walked out on them during their last tour. Why? He had a premonition that he had to do it! With his first solo album due, Frusciante reveals he's living in a different dimension, man! ARTIE NELSON freaks out...

A skinny guy with bleached hair and pale skin comes down the stairs. He's wearing a blue shirt, is smoking a filterless Camel, and answers to the name of John Frusciante. Yes, THE JOHN FRUSCIANTE, ex-Red Hot Chili Pepper who's now embarking on a solo career. He sits next to me on an old two-piece shocking velvet couch from which we can take in a panoramic view of Los Angeles. With plenty of Evian water and Fruit Smoothie drinks in the table, the topic of conversation is naturally John's new album, called 'Niandra Lades And Usually Just A T-Shirt'! It's out early next year on Rick Rubin's American Recordings label.

"It has the vibe of when I was recording it" Frusciante begins. "Just for myself to trip out. It had the same kind of vibe as Jane's Addiction without drums. It seemed just as heavy. Some people are after as macho thug's presence (with the drums), but as long as the feeling of macho stud is there ..."

When did you finish the album?

"About a year ago. But it's taken this long to get it out, because it was recorded so casually. I actually recorded it in my house", he says, pointing to some guitars, a bass, a clarinet-looking thing, a Moog synthesiser and a four-track. "Then I asked Rick (Rubin), 'Do you wanna put it out?', and he said yeah ... and we were excited about it. But when you're not looking at it as the big new promotion money-making object, people are slower. So it's taken a year."

Having been lucky enough to hear an advance of 'Niandra ...', I couldn't help but realise how much impact John had on the Chilis with their 1991 album, 'BloodSugarSexMagik'.

"Yeah ... it was like sixty-forty" he nods. "I wrote like, sixty percent of the music and Flea wrote forty'"

So it must have been John who gave the Chilis another dimension, helping them transcend the party Funk thing and broaden their sound.

"Yeah, I had a good time 'cos I was always looking at Flea and my amp," John nods. "Me and Flea (RHCP bassist) and Steven Perkins (drummer with Porno For Pyros) have a band. We're called the Three Amoebas. We have ten or 15 hours of stuff on tape, and it's great. There are never any dull moments ... it all fucking flows perfectly. It doesn't have any of the things that made instrumental Rock laughable a few years down the line. So we're gonna release that, and they're the main people I'm interested in jamming with. Me and Flea jam now and then, but Steven's really busy with Porno right now. I don't really know any other musicians.

Tell us about your friendship with River Phoenix, the late actor who actually features on 'Niandra'.

"Me and River used to play together. We had a sort of communication that was intense, on just two guitars."

How many tunes did you cut with him?

"We did two songs," John expands. "One's called 'Bought Her Soul', and it's the second song on the album. I recorded the song and I said to River, 'Make sounds with your voice and I'll record you backwards over this song but you're not allowed to hear the song.'So he made sounds into the mic while I recorded and listened to it on the headphones. That's the other voice in the background besides my voice. It went perfectly with the song. We were cosmic together. The other song is 'Soul Removal'. He sings and wrote the first half, and I wrote the second half, and you can hear the guitars on that. It has the thickness of a bunch of guitars, but the unity of one guitar. We weave in and out of each other in a really cool, natural way. 'Bought Your Soul' struck me as being driven by a powerful emotion.

Pages: 1 2