Pages: 1 2

Guitar World Acoustic: Do drugs make one more receptive to the spiritual world? Or less so?

Frusciante: I've seen them do both. I would say that there are better and longer-lasting ways of getting in that kind of world than taking drugs. In my experience, drugs definitely were a good way of shutting out the real world and going headfirst into a world that had nothing to do with the material plane. But the thing is the material plane is very much a reflection of other dimensions. And other dimensions get a lot of juice and energy from the material plane. And I now have a very rich inward life functioning as part of the world.

So it worked out for me. But most people don't have five years to throw away form their normal course of life to become a drug addict and shut out the world the way I did. I guess because of money and stuff, I had the opportunity to do that. But I've come back into the world now. And through the last few years of not taking any drugs, I found a way to feel even more high and get al the feelings I was trying to get from drugs. There's a way to do it. It has to do with purifying yourself, eating extremely healthy and doing whatever kind of exercise supplies you well. And there are other things, like being pure of intention. I don't have any kind of drive. I often think that's the reason I've been able to be successful with music - twice! It has a lot to do with the fact that I don't give a fuck about being successful. I don't depend on that for my happiness. I can be happy whether I'm a loser or a winner. I still love myself either way.

Guitar World Acoustic: The album title - To Record Only Water for Ten Days - sounds a little like a reference to fasting. Because there are those who drink nothing but water when fasting.

Frusciante: Originally, that's what it meant to me. But I started to realize that fasting was maybe the way a guru in India could purify himself. But somebody who's lived the life I've lived had to do it another way that was gonna take longer. So the album title is a reference to what I had to do to purify myself. It's like imagining one's body as a tape recorder, and what it would mean to record only water for 10 days, or whatever period of time. I was so infested with all kinds of spirits eight years ago that it was really necessary for me to have a certain amount of fights and battles to cleanse myself. To make it so that I was capable of making music that was a pure reflection of the places in the universe that I think are really beautiful.

Guitar World Acoustic: But you didn't actually record water at any point?

Frusciante: No. But to me, the music is as pure as if you were listening to the sounds of water. My music is that pure because I've worked at making myself that pure.

Pages: 1 2