Spiegel interview
2004, from Spiegel (Germany), any more info would be appreciated
thanks to NiandraLaDes
Miraculously alive after his decent into the underworld, John Frusciante leads The Red Hot Chili Peppers into a new golden era. John Frusciante moves purposefully among the journalists, publicists, band members and employees gathered in a bungalow suite at L.A.'s elegant Bel Air hotel. It's a Red Hot Chili Peppers press day and the guitarist is in full meet-and-greet mode, dressed in retro checked polyester slacks and a flouncy patterned shirt. But while Frusciante is affable, he seems preoccupied. Whenever he's not strictly needed for an interview, he's off in some corner speaking quietly but urgently into a telephone:
"And when it goes to the second chorus I really think that high harmony line should come up a little..."
The Chili Peppers are still finalizing the mixdown of their new album, By The Way, with longtime producer Rick Rubin (presumably the person on the other end of the phone line). "It feels strange doing interviews when the record isn't even finished," Frusciante confides before darting off to buttonhole Chili Peppers singer Anthony Kiedis.
"Hey you know how that vocal counter melody enters after the bridge..."
Frusciante has played on three prior Red Hot Chili Peppers albums, including 1999's Californication, the quadruple-Platinum disc that earned the band a Grammy and elevated it to a new plateau of credibility as a mature and enduring fixture in the rock firmament. But on By The Way, the guitarist comes into his own as a significant creative force, masterfully stacking layers of guitars, keyboards and heady vocal harmonies onto what are the most well-crafted songs ever to come out of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. There has never been a Red Hot Chili Peppers album quite so broad in scope; and there has never been one made with this much input from Frusciante. He even collaborated with Rubin and arranger Marc Mann to write some of the record's lush string arrangements.
"John really inspired us to take it to the next level on this album," says the band's drummer, Chad Smith. "On Californication he had just joined us, and he started writing music right away. But we hadn't really had time to reconnect, personally and musically, through touring, traveling together and spending time back at home. The chemistry of our band is so important. And now John is a really key, integral part of this new music that we have."
"I wanted this album to have more dimension, more different sounds and more movements in the chord progressions," says Frusciante. "But I also wanted it to be more fun."
A slight hesitancy and slurring of speech is the only readily apparent vestige of the guitarist's intense bout with heroin addiction during the Nineties. He spent six years out of the band, from 1992 to '98, an extended lost weekend during which he managed to burn down his own house in the Hollywood hills, among other feats of wild dysfucntionality. Frusciante alarmed many with blithe declarations that he'd been spending lots of thime in the company of ghosts, spirits and astral bodies, some of which he considered closer personal friends than anybody alive. But now the guitarist is healthy and back in the realm of the living.
"When you compare where John was in his life to where he is now, it's unbelievable," says Smith. "He was really in a rough spot. It's a miracle that he's alive, let alone the creative, wonderful person that he is now."
If there's any truth in the old commonplace that suffering is good for one's art, then Frusciante's journey through oblivion may have even enhanced his creativity. In this respect, the guitarist is similar to Brian Wilson, the drug-damaged yet brilliant former leader of the Beach Boys. The comparison is especially apt since By The Way is drenched in sunny Southern California good vibes. It is the Chili Peppers' Pet Sounds. Frusciante admits that surf music and Sixties pop vocals were two of his biggest influences during the writing and recording of the album.
"Me and Rick Rubin would get together every day, and he's got these CDs of AM radio hits from the Sixties. And they'd have stuff by the Mamas and Papas and songs like 'Cherish' by the Association and 'Georgy Girl' [by the Seekers]. Those songs are all about harmonies. I've been practicing harmonizing a lot in the past year and a half. My friend Josh and I would sit around and sing Beatles songs or that Velvet Underground song 'Jesus' which has a harmony in it. Anything we could think of that had harmony."
