Tonal Telepathy
You used a Marshal yesterday, a guitar and a bass top at the same time.
Yes, I do that all the time live as well as in the studio. And also a Fender Spring Reverb from the 50's.
Sounds like Vintage Spirit!
I love vintage, especially guitars. The folks form Fender asked me if I wanted to build my own signature model. I was really honoured but I refused this offer. These old guitars and their parts are perfect, as far as I'm concerned I couldn't have improved that.
Could it be that you are playing more solos these days?
I think so. Not on purpose, but more and more little melodies and solos sneak in.
Your solo style depends rather on melody than on technique
That's the reason why I can get so many of the in. During our rehearsals I did consciously try to play as little blues as possible. Even after I had quit the band, had not played for years and being completely out of practice blues did work out anytime. I really wanted a different approach: During the entire 'Californication' tour I learned how to transfer 80's style synthesizer melodies for guitar like Kraftwerk. On their records from the 70's I found some very pleasant, simple melodies with a special flair, melodies which seemed in no way to be connected with blues. I had found a new sound and learned other synthesizer melodies, like stuff by Depeche Mode who, for example, gave my way of playing a completely new perspective On stage I played my good old Jimmy Page-like riffs, cause this is where I come from and this was exactly what the songs demanded A lot of our songs are somewhere based on these funky-bluesy stories. On good nights I could play my Kraftwerk melodies on top of the old songs, but it never melted perfectly. But as soon as we started working on new material I wanted to stick with the idea and didn't want to retire to the old riffs. I didn't want to play melodies like a guitarist anymore, but wanted to develop some that would not remind me of what guitarists normally do when playing a solo. I was also influenced by Surf guitarists such as Duane Eddy and the Shadows from the early 60's. But I also didn't pay too much attention to them when they moved into their solos. I was rather interested in their melodies found in their instrumentals. One of the few guitarists whose solos I would always listen to was George Harrison. His solos were always wonderful melodies and very intelligent. He always kept the chord changes in the back of his mind and played on top of them in a very clever and tasteful fashion. Before this album I did have a very good look at George Harrison because I wanted to understand why he plays the way he does and what he does and how he plays around those chords. I just don't want to simply learn other people's technique in order to hear that in their work. I want to think about why someone chose exactly the notes he's playing. And that meant that I have to listen to the bass and get to know the underlying chords in order to consider their effects.
You speak of colours when you talk about playing guitar. How do you go about concerning tone colour?
Thinking of colours instead of mechanical sequences on the frets it something that originates in my love for painting.
Did you start painting during your long break?
I actually began to paint while working on 'Blood Sugar'. Just for fun that is. I imagined using the guitar as a brush. There are invisible colours in the shape of emotions in your head whose vibrations you can adapt to your style. My break, however, was under a different star. When I decided to become addicted to heroin, I felt better and my depressions gave way. I wanted to spend my life letting go and being only responsible for my own well-being I didn't want to spend a thought on what the outside world would think of me. I have been invisible for years and I did enjoy it very much due to this time I am now a 'richer' person. I wanted to increase my love for painting and wanted to understand pictures better. I admire painters for their way of self-expression. At some stage I noticed that I do the same on my guitar.
How do you transfer this idea of painting into music?
That's hard to describe. Maybe I'll give a very simple example: When your bass guitarist plays something very hard, very fast and you are joining in also playing hard and fast, then this will not trigger any special feeling in your head. But if you play something simple and spacious, you will see that a feeling develops, a feeling that is totally different from what happened when listening to the bass line for the first time. Maybe it's this way of putting things side by side, this kind of harmony that I mean when I speak of colours. If you look at a collage by Max Ernst you will find different textures next to each other. These aspects can be transferred to music. Things like a perspective where you can see something clearly in the background and where the foreground is blurry. In music this means that things don't have to be straight all the time to make sense and to work out. The individual elements can be completely different from each other and yet they can harmonize.
