Lost And Found
Is this the difference between the RHCP of then and the RHCP of now? The fact that you get on well now?
Yeah, now each of us appreciates the other. In the BSSM era everyone believed he was the most important member of the band, while now we are aware that individually we don't count. We know it's important to create together. We think the world is what others make, not what we make singularly.
It hasn't always been so. There was a time when you all emanated a negative energy. On stage your nudity was aggressive. Were you aware of it when you took off your clothes?
Yeah, it began to bother me too when I developed a certain artistic sensibility. I felt our appearance on stage was wrong. During the BSSM tour I often turned my back on the audience. I didn't take part in the athletic moves that Anthony and Flea made. I thought they were ugly, they were so masculine that they became gross.
Flea said in an interview that you always did the opposite of what they did. If they wanted to play soft, you played very hard.
It's true, but I also did some artistic games in my mind with music. I understood that often good things to listen to are those that combine the tough and the soft, kind sounds with rough ones, sometimes they mix soft and rough, kind and tough also. Anti-realistic combinations. Most of the people wouldn't dare to do that. If the band has a strong sound and the guitarist plays in a delicate way, it sounds freaky. But this is what I used to do then, and I still do now. The only difference is that they like it too now, because they know I don't hate them. So if they play hard, I play soft. If they play fast with small and short notes, I extend them and make them flow. In that way we get an artistic balance.
Do you write everyday?
If the song wants to come to me, I'm always ready to receive it, but I don't work at it. I always did it since I was a kid, so I learned very well to recognize when it's time to write and when I'm imposing it on myself.
How do you know when you have enough songs for a record?
There's always something inexplicable that holds the songs together. I have several of them written at the same time that are still demos: I didn't work on them in a studio because they didn't have that certain something that combines them with the others. Since I'm back with the RHCP I want my solo albums to sound like a single record from beginning to end. The first 2 albums were a bit dispersed, the songs were recorded at different times and weren't written to be together. But in the past years it became very important to have a clear idea of the concept that tie a song to another.
Is it true that your favourite guitarist is Jimmy Page?
I could answer this question many ways. He's my favourite among the rockstar-guitarists. To me, he isn't better than Keith Levine, or Matthew Ashman from Bow Wow Wow or John McGeoch of Siouxsie & The Bashness. Jimmy Page brought the guitar of the deafening-rock kind to a level that no one will be able to exceed. But to me the most influential guitarists of the last 30 years are not the possessed ones, that is not the ones who make solos, but those who give consistency to the sound. Today my way to play is more influenced by these kind of guitarists than by Jimmy Page. I think that way to play guitar has developed only between 1965-1975, then it became ridiculous. I loved Jimmy Page since I was 7, he's the reason why I began to play. My favorite way to practice is to learn all his solos. I can play "Since I've been loving you" from beginning to end.
Your style is unique, though.
It's a conscious choice. For By The Way I deliberately looked for a not-Jimmy Page sound. I listen to music and guitarists so different that in my style there is a bit of everything. That's why I play in a way that doesn't resemble anyone else.
Very often it even seems it's not you!
I want it to be that way, otherwise I didn't care about making records. I always want to do something different than what I did before. In my opinion this is the only way that is worth playing. I only do it for the pleasure it gives me. I don't like doing always the same things. The one who repeats himself doesn't like adventure and plays only because it's a job.
