Free Spirit
The great thing about all of your solo records in particuliar is, because you did them all yourself, you put them on and immediately know you can't get any closer to the creative source.
Yeah. It's not going through any sort of a filter because it's one person. When we play music in the band, it goes through Rick Rubin [producer]. Sometimes an idea of mine goes through Flea, but that doesn't really "fliter" it because in social music you need that organization. When we're working as a band, it really helps to have Rick Rubin say, "This song needs a new section," or make little changes here and there. When you're writing music in a social environment, there are a lot of crazy things at work, disagreements that arise, so you need a fifth person to help make decisions. Blood Sugar took 10 months to write, Californication took nine months to write. The music on my records comes from the original point of inspiration; I hold onto that moment and see it through. When a song comes to me, I don't stop. I just have a pencil and paper and tape recorder and guitar, and I don't stop until the song is finished. If an idea for a song comes to me, I sit there for whatever time it takes until all the lyrics are done, all the sections are in order, and everything's in its perfect place.
During that process, is there ever a time when you say, "Oh, this could be a Chili Peppers song"?
No. Usually I know when a song comes to me if it's an idea for the Chili Peppers because it sounds unfinished when it's for the Chili Peppers; it doesn't sound complete. When it's a song that's meant for me, it sounds complete when it's just the acoustic guitar playing, or when it's just me singing along with my acoustic. The stuff I write for the Chili Peppers require a lot of imagination to hear it when it first starts. Like when "Otherside" started it was just [plays shorus riff]. I didn't know where it was gonna go, it was just this thing that I thought was cool. On my own, that was as far as I could go with it. The rest of it came about with the band.
Imean, there are exceptions to this rule, and I've never put it that way until just now, but really that is what happens: I'm writing stuff specifically because I'm curious what Anthony would write over something like that. There are other times - like on the chorus for "Parallel Universe" - when I first came up with it I was singing over it and it was inspired by the Ramones. I considered it a song of my own, but I thought to myself: "It's exactly in the key for that Chili Peppers song that needs a chorus." So I said, "I'll try it. If it doesn't work as a chorus for that song, then I'll write a song for it."
In our August 1999 feature, you mentioned how you'd strived to develop a "guitar style that would be the perfect guitar playing to accompagny Flea." What do you strive for, guitar-wise, with your solo stuff?
I don't really think that much in terms of "guitar" on my stuff; it's not very guitar-oriented music. I mean, it's the basis of the music, but there's no real "displaying" of anything in any way. The guitar is just there to be the foundation of the song, and it's not really there for a specific soloing style, or to have a specific rhythmic style. It's just my natural style. What I do on my solo stuff is just the most natural version of who I am, and I'm trying to represent the feelings that I'm feeling as purely as possible. It's about the songs. Everything that goes on top of the vocals and the acoustic guitar is just to emphasize aspects of what's already there.
At what point do you think you'll resume writing Chili Peppers music?
I'm going away to Europe to do a lot of interviews and a few shows until the middle of February, and at that point, we'll start writing our next record. I'm real excited about it, and Flea's already writing stuff. I mean, I've already come up with some ideas, but, like I said, ideas for Chili Peppers songs really don't amount to much until the whole band is playing together.
