The Lost Boy
What was the feeling like in the rehearsal room when you first got back together?
“It was great,” John beams through his brand new Beverly Hills teeth, “But I had very little technical skill. I’d hardly played guitar for five years; I’d mostly been painting. But the way they took me back made me feel good about myself. I had very little ability, but it didn’t matter to them, it was just the spirit of what I was doing and the fact that it was me. It felt so good to have friends who really believed in me when nobody else did, because I was a person who people pretty much thought of as finished.”
What’s next for the Chili Peppers?
“As soon as I get back from Europe we’re gonna go back in the rehearsal studio to write some songs,” reveals John with undisguised excitement, “We’ve already got a few ideas and I’m so excited about the sound. Everybody’s approaching their instruments completely differently. Flea’s been playing with a pick because we have this Joy Division cover band and he’s been learning all of Peter Hook’s bass lines. And I’ve been learning synthesiser parts from different types of electronic music like Kraftwerk, Depeche Mode and techno music. I’ve been learning sequencer parts on the guitar as a technical challenge and to think of the guitar differently. I’m trying to get towards the purest representation of the feelings that I’m tuned into as I can.”
‘To Record Only Water For Ten Days’ - the follow up to ’97’s harrowing ‘Smile From The Streets You Hold’ collection - contains Frusciante’s most complete and spiritually uplifting solo work to date. Unsurprisingly, it’s fundamentally informed by the guitarist’s ongoing communion with ghostly voices from the fifth dimension.
“I’m so tuned into these imaginary realms of existence that they’re the places I’m writing about when I write lyrics. I’ve had so many visions of other lives and what it’s like in other dimensions that I can write about them with clarity and focus.”
Is the spectre of heroin in your psyche finally dead, or is it something you’ll continue to fight against for the rest of your life?
“I don’t battle against it,” considers John “If anything it helps me. I have no temptation whatsoever to do drugs, but the experience was beneficial to me. Not to say that I’d see drugs as beneficial for anybody else. I know a lot of people who took drugs and it destroyed every one of them. It destroyed me too, but I managed to pull myself back and benefit from the whole thing. It’s a sure-fire way to f**k up your whole life, but what I felt on them and what I learned from them I’ll never turn my back on.”
Do you feel stronger for your experience?
“Absolutely. I wouldn’t trade the experience for anything. I’m very proud of the life I’ve lived. I’m very proud of who I am and where I’ve been.”
And you’re happy?
“I’m very happy. Every day I tell myself that I love life so much.”
John Frusciante’s new album, ‘To Record Only Water For Ten Days’, is out now.
Loading ...
