Chad Beats The Hell Out Of His Drums, You Know?
Alternative Nation: But there are three obvious breaks: songs with numbers on their titles. Titles which are very hard to remember (Negative 00 Ghost 27, Failure 33 Object und 23 Go Into End). These tracks stick out. How does this work for you?
Frusciante: When we were recording this it was our way of having fun between the individual song recording in the studio. Months before we had already recorded demos of the other tracks and it was only a matter of getting the sound we wanted, while the instrumental stuff came about right there in the studio. I think it lends the album a spontaneous sound it would otherwise have lacked. Josh and me are also big fans of David Bowie's "Heroes" and "Low", we like the way instrumental tracks and songs a combines on these records. We thought that we should also mix our album a little bit so that it wouldn't simply consist of a row of songs. We wanted small break taking off into another direction.
Alternative Nation: Do you still paint?
Frusciante: No.
Alternative Nation: Why did you stop?
Frusciante: I used to paint, now I paint with my guitar and synthesizers. It's something I like: to look at art and to read about it still is a major influence on the way I make music. But my opinion on art is too clearly defined as that I could get any pleasure from simply doing it for fun. If I painted, it would have to agree with the taste I developed and the opinion I've got concerning what is good. And I am simply not able to do what I'd consider good, while I am well able to do this on my guitar. Over the past five years it has been my idea to reach in music what I've not been able to do in paintings. In this sense the time spent painting has been very valuable for me as a musician, even though it has no value for the world of art. (laughs)
---Benjamin Fuchs
