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August 2004, Guitare Extreme (France)
thanks to Morgane for translation and typing it out
scans of this would be much appreciated

Here you are with a new solo album and a great concert in Paris with the Peppers.You seem to be in great shape?
My solo project isn't a new album for me; it's been finished for over a year now!!! I did it while recording By the Way. It belongs to the past. However, it seems to be new and refreshing to Warner who want to present it as this summer's new release! For me it's just an album where I was finally able to express all my creative freedom and all my musical capacities that I got over the years. I got better as an author and as a composer and the result is more than satisfactory! I remain very proud to have fulfilled such a challenge because this album ressembles me like no other of my past artistic experiences!

Did you keep those songs for yourself because they didn't fit in for the Peppers?
No,not at all! I wrote the lyrics to these songs, thing that I never do for the Peppers.The choice was quite simple then: I composed some melodies where I added some words and kept them for me, if not I proposed the melodies to the band! There is no calculation in my process! The journalists are the only ones who see a calculation in it!

Your album appears to be more melancholic than the band's albums...
Finally!!Makes me happy that you're expressing this thought, I read so many articles that defined the peppers as a band who became syrupy since the last album!What an idea! Chad remains a heavy drummer and Flea, our bassist, prooves it everytime on stage by delivering tons of energy, which makes this allegation perfectly inept! Besides, my musical style stays the same in my 2 carriers: a precise, raw and tonic play! However from one project to another the musicians are not being the same, the result makes the music somewhat different, even if it's mainly composed by the same guitarist, I must admit! But now the musical agressivity of a band or musician can't be mesured by the number of decibels unfolded!J ust look at Cat Stevens; he plays with alot of agressivity even if his music is not placed in the hard rock cathegory! My disc will be more agressive or more melancholic depending on the listener and his mood of the moment! It's too easy to label someone and I don't like that!

They are however 2 different artistic approaches that you successfully make cohabit.
I am not monomaniac, not lore than the others. That's far from the truth and I proved that many times in my music.The energy that I find in a metal repertory unables me also to get back to a zen approach that I put at service for the others! In all my musical directions I put a little bit of all the ingredients. I just watch out for the final result!I love exploring many different horizons and take fully advantage of what life offers me!That's what life is trully about! I'm a complex person so it's only natural that my music reflects all my complexities as well as my contradictions!

Do you feel musically partitioned among the Peppers to have released such an album?
No! (thinks) I don't understand your question! Right now you are interviewing me then you are gonna interview other artists from different musical universes...You won't ask them the same questions and that's a good thing for your readers. For me it's the same thing, I love to vary my experiences and I don't feel locked up in a prison!

Did your experiences with drugs give you more openings musically speaking?
I wasn't on any kind of drugs when I worked on Shadows, if that's your question...But I can't deny the fact that without them I wouldn't be the guy you have in front of you right now and my music would be different !My many artificial trips opened some doors of my subconscious.So now do they confer me an advantage or an inconvenience? I can't answer that with objectivity. But what I do know is that if the drugs gave me some real troubles, today I use what I lived through back then to widen up my knowledge of things and people. I learned alot from the deep hole of drugs...and from the pain they make you endure! I'm not doing a eulogy of narcotics, I just notice the fact that I got out of it, so it's best if I point out the good sides.

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