Tonal Telepathy
You always say that in the Chili Peppers you depend on each other. Would you give an example of the effect of you and Flea playing together?
Hmm, that's difficult. If Flea were here, I could show you that I do actually play stuff all the time that doesn't make sense without the bass. Let's see [audio example #3 from the cd comes in here / John demonstrating how his melodies depend on Flea's bass lines, e.g. on 'Don't Forget Me'].
The two of you seem to like switching roles.
Oh yes. This is very important when you are playing with someone. If the other has an idea, you shouldn't just add something that is like this idea. You have to play something opposed to what the other does. I guess that Flea and I have to advantage that whatever we play works out quite well. Even if I try to disagree with him musically things blend in perfectly and disagreeing makes it then even more colourful.
If ordinary persons try to play your songs in a rehearsal room, they will notice how difficult it is.
Maybe. But that is not the point. As a teenager I completely overestimated what a band needs from me. I tried to remember all this complicated Frank Zappa stuff. When I joined the Chili Peppers, I had too much technique up my sleeve. Even though I could master the most complicated rhythms, I had never heard of the "lay back and push" principle, and this concerning the band as a whole. In none of the guitar magazines I was reading at that time this was mentioned. So I sat in the studio and the producer said: "John, you gotta lay back, you're pushing to hard." or "John, you're laying too far back, you gotta push harder." Oh, sorry, drummers had been talking about this Ian Paice [Deep Purple] and Ringo Starr. Everyone who's playing with others will get into this situation. We all have to move to the groove. Either you're playing precisely the basic pace or you're playing ahead of it or you're far behind. The basic beat stays the same. It depends on how you push it or how you're laying back on it. If you manage this as a band, you'll get an absolutely solid groove. A good example for a song being really pushed is 'The Song Remains The Same' by Led Zeppelin. Also the stanza in 'Don't Forget Me' is rather laid back, whereas we're pushing it in the chorus. I can remember how I was in the rehearsal room with the others for the very first time playing Hendrix' 'Fire', 'Purple Haze' and 'Foxy Lady' or 'Jeff's Blues' by the Yardbirds. None of us pushed at the same time. I pushed briefly and then laid back, after hat someone else pushed before he laid back. [laughs]
The Artist's Studio
Everything's Marshall: Live as well as in the studio John counts on a combination of a bass and an e-guitar top. For the Californication tour is were a 200 Watts bass top called Major (named model 1978), built between '67 and '74, as well as a Jubilee 25/50 guitar top. When recording the very same album, he used as he says himself a same bass top model and a 65' guitar top. Everything by Marshall.
Everything's Fender: John is known as an absolute Strat fanatic. Mostly he's surrounded by a 62', in rare cases he's been sighted with a '55, various Teles, a Jaguar or even a Gretsch White Falcon. His guitar for practice and travelling is a Mustang. Acoustically he's counting on Martin, even though you can hear a Taylor on the more Spanish sounding songs on the album.
John himself describes his love for Fenders like this: If you're looking for a full heavy metal or punk sound it's not necessarly a Fender you'd want. But as far as I am concerned I do hardly play any powerchords and therefore don't need the rock guitar sound. I do stress the spatial aspect when playing, mostly with a clear sound. Clean as it is, a Fender can open so many worlds. I seems to me as if a Les Paul doesn't contain such a broad variety as a clean Strat or Tele. You can get to many different moods out of them, so many different colours. I love this detail and the sparseness of this thin, clean sound with the hard attack and bite.
---Lars Thielke
