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March 2009, Guitarist & Bass (France)
Thanks to Bram, Sophie, Perrine and Eleni for joining forces to translate this.
Click the thumbnail for scans.

Editor's foreword

We all know the inclination of John frusciante to regularly retire from the world so he may come up with a more explicitely personal album (the rapid succes he has seen with the Peppers visibly has'nt contented one of his most essential needs: the spiritual).

In accordance with this need, John quit the band in 1992. Shortly after releasing his second record with them he slammed the door shut behind him . Preyed on by general remorse, he found a sanctuary in hallucinogenics, & swapped the guitar for the paintbrush to express his soul losing its track.

Seven long years of solitude and suicidal tendencies were followed by the miracle of his return to the Red Hot Chilis. Californication evokes the effect immediately: the band had found its aura again.

But John, ever animated by his philosophical quest, persued his interior voyages: between 2006 & 2008 he recorded what was to become his 10th and latest album: The Empyrean. Besides his guitar playing (magnificentely expressive, holding all the emotion of a man connected with his depths), this concept album, without implicitely strifing to it, places two entities before us: one is a person creative in search of answers from the world that surrounds him, the other is wed to a superior force which creates and sustains life. Frusciante doesn't expect to be understood at first glance since it deals with an internal sightseeing of his own psyché. A long route marked by symbols of death & rebirth. With this new album, it seems John wants simply to share his philosophy of life after many an "up" & "down". At the start of the story we are told that the material aspect of life, stemming from the senses, provokes fear of death, but the return to the self by listening to your own creative potential fills us again with happiness and strength of purpose. The cartesian philosophers (Spinoza, Liebniz) wouldn't have disowned a theory that permits the spirit to be connected to a mysterious 'creating' force or 'life'-energy. The notion of becoming one with this force is then a constant battle to stave off obscurity & develop our inspirations, that would be what John is trying to state here.

Complex and uninhibited

Frusciante is the incarnation of the contradiction. He speaks and writes a lot, but still could not be more reserved as far as his beliefs or personal opinions are concerned. Some say he is almost an autistic but when he is fired up with a topic, you can’t keep him. Look, just to explain the concept of the album, which is not quite one (concept-album) but it looks all the same, he wrote a real serial on his official website. According to the description of the guitarist, "The Empyrean" is the highest point of heaven (don’t look for the word has disappeared from the dictionary since the 30’s), the vacation area for the greatest divinity. But in his mind it is more about the state the most suitable to the inspiration for an artist. It also explains at length that, like the Holy Grail, it is in the depths of ourselves that we finally found a truth sought elsewhere. Even if it emphasizes that we should "never forget that there is an endless reservoir of creativity in the universe."

Except for two songs, the texts are very personal, Frusciante recognizes it is often painful to confide as much, even in music. But from his personal experience, it is a whole philosophy he managed to develop.
John Frusciante:Whatever the motivations are, we all sometimes follow through unreachable goals. But we are human beings and I am convinced that we all have a force deep inside of us that drives us to bring us closer to the source of all creativity. After that, we can express this creativity in every possible way, being a guitarist, teacher, actor, workman ... The ultimate goal is never really clearly defined, and it is not intelligible. But this should not stop us in our quest. "The Empyrean" therefore describes my development and my experiences with the creative forces since my childhood until now.

According to you, you felt sometimes the need to find other modes of expression than music like painting...

John Frusciante:It was vital not to get away from my creative energy and keep my relationship with art the purest possible. For a long time, painting was the only mode of expression that suited me. I had lost much of my passion for music after living very painful events. The way popular music uses art became unbearable to me. I think many musicians also lose their passion, but they continue because it has become their way of life and they can not do without all those people who flatter their ego. But these things mean nothing to me. It seemed much more important not to lose sight of the essence of art. So I moved my energy to painting. When I returned to music, for me it was like a rebirth. I realized that my relationship with music remained intact, which would not have been the case if I had not gave up for a certain period.

Guitarist & Bass: In your description of "The Empyrean" you even talk about death and rebirth to describe the prerequisite torments of the creativity, isn’t it a bit excessive, even if it remains in a symbolic way. Can’t we stay in some light or reckless, while being creative?

John Frusciante: I don’t use death in its literal meaning, like a final separation, but in relation to these elements which we must get rid of even if we believe they are part of our being and our personality. I think especially of the ego. So many people live by their ego and that is what drives all their actions. So there are parts of themselves that can be consciously destroyed. To get rid of the influence of his ego is a kind of death. Some may believe that their ego is all they are. The rebirth is what happens when you realize some aspects of your personality were useless to live. The part that died was much less essential to your existence than the one which was reborn.

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