The (Re)Birth of Tragedy
That's what I meant, it seems like it's something that speaks for itself in your mind.
The stuff I wrote in the bio is about the production aspect of it, which is different from what I'm used to in my life. At the same time, there's lots of groups who grew up having to - for instance, my friends in The Mrs Volta, they used to be in At the Drive-In, where they used to have to make a record in five days, you know? Whereas, I grew up making records with Michael Beinhorn, then with Rick Rubin, where a lot of time and money was spent. So, I had to learn how to make records quickly. Now that I do things that way, it's opened up a whole world to me in terms of being at one with my dreams and to decide to do a project and just do it. At precious points in my life, I'd talk about doing a project and then nothing would ever happen about it. It was just talk. Now, I say I'm going to make a record, and I make a record. Then a month later, II say I'm going to make another record and I make another record... I feel like I'm at one with what I want to do. I'm glad I took this philosophy that the economics are an important part of playing music, and that's what's opened this up to do as much music as I have. The acceleration of how much better each record gets, from my respective, is something that could only be gotten from doing a bunch of recordings right next to each other. It's a time I'll always be proud of.
Was it your goal to have a high level of productivity, or was it just by chaance doing one thing after nother that it all fell in line?
I had a six-month break drom the Chili Peppers and I had about 70 songs that I wanted to record, So I said, 'I'm going to record as many of these songs as I can in this time.' I don't know how many I recorded, but I did a decent portion of them. I don't get a six-month break very often. Once the Chili Peppers start working together again, I won't get much time to spend. Now that I can make a record that quickly, I can take a weekend and record a few songs here and there.
The thing that strikes me about your playing and singing is that you seem so adaptable and a quick learner. From one record to the next, there's this very apparent growth in various areas that you seem to focus upon. For instance, I've noticed how much your singing has progressed since your first solo record up to now, the great control that you have of harmony and lead vocals, not to mention the development of your guitar style. Is there something that with each record you look back and try to do better?
It's not so much that I try to get better. If I've already done something, it's not that exciting to continuee with the same concept.. For me, it's important to go somewhere that I haven't gone before. If I play a certain style on one album, I want to do something completely different on the next one. It's the most important thing an artist can do - to turn the corner abruptly nd do something that's not linear, like any normal person would do.
Was your goal to play with a mixed batch of musicians on these recordings?
Uh... no, not really. It's mostly me and my friend Josh [Klinghoffer] on the records. Joe Lally [Fugazi bassist] played on one record and my friend Omar Rodriguez from The Mars Volta plays some guitar solos on a couple of the records.
Are you trying to get away from overdubs and adding in layers?
No, no, no... that was just on The Will to Death. And, still on that, there was a lot of overdubs to the basic tracks. On the Ataxia record, the music and vocals were done live, but I did a lot of overdubs treating the tracks - like running the drums through my synthesizer, doing little synthesizer overdubs, things like that. But, with The Will to Death, I wanted this space to be there. On Shadows Collide with People [Warner Bros., 2004], there wasn't a lot of space, it was really produced and had things going on all the time. For The Will to Death, I was litening to the third Velvet Underground album a lot, as well as listening to BBC sessions and demos that other bands would do that had a really stripped-down sound. I was really attracted to that kind of sound. I did so many harmonies on [Shadows that I didn't want to have as many of them as that. But, the record I have coming out in December [Curtains] has more harmonies on it than anything I've ever done.
