When There’s A Will
September 2004, Amplifier Magazine (USA),
thanks to Caroline for typing it out
click the thumbnail to see the scans
With three records released thus far, and four more scheduled before year-end, John Frusciante places his trust squarely in the hands of his fans.
In a lot of people's minds, it's difficult to think of John Frusciante without thinking of the Red Hot Chili Peppers. But in light of the guitarist's nearly indispensable contributions to the band over the years and his eclectic, soon-to-become voluminous solo catalog, it should be more appropriately difficult to think of the Chili Peppers without thinking of Frusciante.
Cinsider: the Chili Peppers under the guitar ministrations of Jack Sherman and Hillel Slovak in the early to mi-'80s were little more than a clut funk/punk band with a great press kit and few discernible sales. Slovak's overdose death in 1988 led to Frusciante's hiring in 1989, resulting in the Chili Peppers' first commercially succesful release, 1990's Mother's Milk. Three years later saw the stratospheric multiplatinium release of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and Frusciante's input into the album's success cannot be overstated.
Still not convinced ? Then examine the parade of guitarists who took Frusciante's place in the wake of his departure in 1992 and the underwhelming results that followed. Not even Jane's Addiction guitar deity Navarro could restore the Chili Peppers to their rightful place in the upper echelons of the charts with his work on One Hot Minute. It took Frusciante's return on 1999's triumphant Californication to send another Chili Peppers' record racing across store scanners and into the hearts of critics.
Outside of Frusciante's monumental additions to the Chili Peppers' canon, he also been responsible for some of the most weirdly endearing solo works in rock and roll. Hir first, the spacily offbeat Niandra Lades & Usually Just a T-Shirt, was conceived while Frusciante was still in the throes of the heroin habit that led him to leave the Chili Peppers during the Japanese tour for Blood Sugar Sex Magik in 1992. His sophomore album, 1997's Smile From the Streets You Hold, was the sound of an artist shaking off the emotional chains of the past and working out a tentative creative plan for the future. His next album, 2001's To Record Only Water For Ten Days, was a much more traditionally structured affair which served as incontrovertible proof of Frusciante's influence over, and importance to, the Chili Peppers' sound.
Given all that, it's worth noting that neither Niandra Lades nor Streets You Hold can be dismissed as lesser works because of Frusciante's chemical dependency issues, or because of the hazy aftermath of their resolution. Both albums, while clearly exhibiting the stress fractures of the circumstances that framed them, are also just as legitimately representative of such avowed Frusciante experimental influences as Frank Zappa and Robert Fripp, and are daringly flawed translations of the musical ideas of his personally held heroes.
With his tumultuos problems well in the past; Frusciante has been utilizing his newfound clarity to serve both the Chili peppers and his solo muse. Earlier this year saw the release of the guitarist's fourth solo album, the eccentrically polished rock of Shadows Collide With People; but that was merely a taste of what Frusciante has in store for his fans in 2004. Already released is the raw verve of The Will To Death (with longtime collaborator Josh Klinghoffer) and a punkish band effort titled Automatic Writing under the group banner Ataxia (also featuring Klinghoffer, along with Fugazi bassist Joe Lally). DC EP (produced by Fugazi front man Ian MacKaye) will be released whitin weeks and Inside of Emptiness is up next with a late October appearance. Thses are but the first four in a planned series of six total releases to be issued, one a month, before the end of the year. Such prodigious output is rare, but not unheard of. Over the course of a year in 20002 and 2003, former Be Bop Deluxe guitarist Bill Nelson self-released a double album of new material, two separate discs for attendees at his annual fan convention and a six-disc box set called Noise Candy. What is unusual about Frusciante's string of releases is the fact that he has attracted the interest af an indie label to put them all out; his parent record company, Warner Brothers, will assist Record Collection in distributing the albums.
