John Frusciante Puts His Stamp on Stadium Arcadium
Frusciante Stadium Pals
GUITARS: '55 and '62 Fender Stratocaster; '69 Les Paul Custom; Martin 0-15.
AMPS: Marshall Major and Silver Jubilee heads. Marshall 4*12 cabinets with stock Celestions.
EFFECTS: Boss CE-1 Chorus Ensemble, DS-A Distortion, DS-2 Turbo Distortion; Electro-Harmonix English Muff'n fuzz, Holy Grail Reverb, Big Muff Pi fuzz, POG Polyphonic Octave Generator, Electric Mistress Flanger; DOD 680 Analog Delay; Moog MF-105 MuRF, MF-105B Bass MuRF; MF-101 Low-Pass Filter, MF-103 Phaser; Ibanez WH-10 Wah; Dunlop DB-02 Dime Custom CryBaby.
STRINGS: D'Adario .010-.046
Why did you call the two discs on Stadium Arcadium Jupiter and Mars?
As we wrote more and more songs, we started toying with the idea of doing two separately released albums, but we ended up putting everything that we felt super good about on a double CD. Then it just seemed like a good idea to give each disc a name, so that people would thnk of the 28 songs as two 14-song albums, each with its own vibe, and not get overwhelmed. As far as Jupiter and Mars, we liked the idea of the planet of creative intelligence, Jupiter, having the force and the drive of Mars, the warrior, which is the planet of manifestation of what you feel is right from inside. Any creative person has to struggle against all the forces in the world, and inside themselves, especially, that are working against them. You've got to be kind of a warrior to be an artist, and to stand up and be the best you can be in the face of criticism and adversity.
Where and how was the album recorded?
The album was recorded at The Mansion in Laurel Canyon, thougha few overdubs were done at the band members' home studios, and at Rick Rubin's studio. We recorded to three synchronized 2-inch, 24-track machines, running at 30ips, and mixed to analog tape as well. [Enginner Ryan Hewitt notes that the console was a Neve 8068 with 31102 mic preamps, and that Neve 1057 and 1073 mic preamps were also used for some tracks.] The basic tracks, including, with everyone playing together in the same room. For a lot of it we even had our amps in the same room with the drums, and we allowed for bleed, as I was really into trying to capture some of the atmosphere of '60s recordings, and also have that extra push you get when you know you've got to nail the take because you're all in the same room.
What's your philosophy regarding perfection vs. imperfection when recording?
There's a fine line between good imperfections and bad imperfections. You might have played on the wrong fret, or played an open string you didn't mean to play, and if you're a really self-critical person, you might immediately want to fix that. But, it's important to listen to those things a second time, and get other people's opinions. For example, during the solo on "She's Only 18," I was on the wrong fret for a second, but I just kept the flow going, and the solo was awsome. Once you stop fighting with mistakes, you actually roll with them, wait for them, and welcome them. They're one of those things that the spirit of music likes. If there are no mistakes, a record has no vibe.
What microphones did you use to record your guitars?
I use a Shure SM57 positioned on axix a couple of inches from the cone. On some tracks the engineer, Ryan Hewitt, added a Royer R-121 ribbon mic, positionned about 15 feet away, in order to capture some of the room sound. We used a Telefunken Ela M 250 tube condenser mic on the acoustic guitars.
