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John Anthony Frusciante (pronounced [fru?'???nte?]) (born March 5, 1970) is an American guitarist, singer, songwriter, and record producer. He is best known as the former guitarist of the rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers, with whom he recorded five studio albums. Frusciante has an active solo career, having released ten albums under his own name, as well as two with now-Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer and Joe Lally, as Ataxia. His solo recordings include elements ranging from experimental rock and ambient music to New Wave and electronica. Influenced by guitarists of various genres, Frusciante emphasizes melody and emotion in his guitar playing, and favors vintage guitars and analog recording techniques.
Frusciante joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers still a teenager being eighteen years old, first appearing on the band's 1989 album Mother's Milk. The group's follow-up album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991), was a breakthrough success. However, he was overwhelmed by the band's new popularity and quit in 1992. He became a recluse and entered a long period of drug addiction, during which he released his first recordings: Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt (1994) and then Smile from the Streets You Hold (1997). In 1998, he successfully completed drug rehabilitation and rejoined the Red Hot Chili Peppers with the album Californication (1999). His album To Record Only Water for Ten Days was compiled in 2001. On a creative spree, Frusciante released six solo albums in 2004; each album exploring different recording techniques and genres. In 2009, Frusciante released The Empyrean and again parted ways with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Frusciante has produced and/or recorded with the Wu-Tang Clan, The Mars Volta, George
Clinton, and others.
Frusciante has received critical recognition for his guitar playing, ranking eighteenth on Rolling Stone's list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in 2003, and he was voted the best guitarist of the last 30 years in a 2010 BBC poll called "The Axe Factor".
Biography
1970–1987: Childhood and early life
Frusciante was born in Queens, New York on March 5, 1970. His father, John Sr., is a Juilliard-trained pianist, and his mother Gail was a promising vocalist who gave up her career to be a stay-at-home mother. Frusciante's family moved to Tucson, Arizona, and then Florida, where his father served as a Broward County judge until October 2010. His parents separated, and he and his mother moved to Santa Monica, California.
A year later, Frusciante and his mother moved to Mar Vista, Los Angeles with his new stepfather who, he says, "really supported me and made me feel good about being an artist." Like many young people in the area, he became intimately involved in the L.A. punk rock scene. At nine he was infatuated with The Germs, wearing out several copies of their record (GI). By ten, he had taught himself how to play most of (GI)'s songs in a tuning that allowed him to play every chord with a single-finger barre. Soon after, Frusciante began taking guitar lessons from an instructor who introduced him to the music of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Frusciante began studying guitarists like Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix at eleven. After mastering the blues scale, he discovered Frank Zappa, whose work he would study for hours. He dropped out of high school at sixteen with the permission of his parents and completion of a proficiency test. With their support, he moved to Los Angeles in order to develop his musical proficiency. He began taking classes at the Guitar Institute of Technology, but turned to punching in without actually attending and left shortly thereafter.
1988–1992: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Frusciante first attended a Red Hot Chili Peppers performance at eighteen and he rapidly became a devoted fan. He idolized guitarist Hillel Slovak—familiarizing himself with virtually all the guitar and bass parts from the Chili Peppers' first three records. He became acquainted with Slovak; the two spoke months before Slovak's death and Frusciante's subsequent joining:
“ ...Hillel asked me, 'Would you still like the Chilis if they got so popular they played the Forum?' I said, 'No. It would ruin the whole thing. That's great about the band, the audience feels no different from the band at all.' There was this real kind of historical vibe at their shows, none of the frustration that runs through the audience when they jump around and can't get out of their seat. I didn't even watch the shows. I'd get so excited that I'd flip around the slam pit the whole time. I really felt like a part of the band, and all the sensitive people in the audience did too. ”
Frusciante became friends with former Dead Kennedys drummer D. H. Peligro in early 1988. They often jammed together, and Peligro invited his friend Flea (bassist of Red Hot Chili Peppers) to join. Frusciante and Flea developed a musical chemistry immediately, with Flea later acknowledging that might have been the day he first played the bass riff to "Nobody Weird Like Me". Around the same time, Frusciante intended to audition for Frank Zappa's band, but changed his mind before the final try-out as Zappa strictly prohibited illegal drug use. Frusciante said, "I realized that I wanted to be a rock star, do drugs and get girls, and that I wouldn't be able to do that if I was in Zappa's band."
Slovak died of a heroin overdose in 1988, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons, incapable of coping with Slovak's death, left the group. Remaining members Flea and vocalist Anthony Kiedis regrouped, determined to persevere. The pair added Peligro on drums and DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight, formerly of P-Funk, on guitar. McKnight, however, failed to connect musically within the group. Flea proposed auditioning Frusciante, whose intimate knowledge of the Chili Peppers' repertoire astonished him. Flea and Kiedis auditioned him and agreed that he would be a suitable replacement for McKnight, who was promptly fired. When Flea called Frusciante with the news of his acceptance into the Chili Peppers, Frusciante was elated; he ran through his house screaming with joy, and jumped on a wall, leaving permanent boot marks. He was in the midst of signing a contract with Thelonious Monster at the time—and had actually been playing with the act for two weeks—but his unanticipated reception into the Chili Peppers prom
pted him to change his plans.
However, Frusciante was not familiar with the funk genre of Red Hot Chili Peppers' sound: "I wasn't really a funk player before I joined the band. I learned everything I needed to know about how to sound good with Flea by studying Hillel [Slovak's] playing and I just took it sideways from there." Several weeks into the band's new lineup, Peligro, whose performance was suffering due to extreme drug abuse, was fired. Soon after, Chad Smith was added as the group's new drummer and the new lineup began recording their first album, 1989's Mother's Milk. Frusciante focused on emulating Slovak's signature style, rather than imposing his own personal style on the group. Producer Michael Beinhorn disagreed, and wanted Frusciante to play with an uncharacteristic heavy metal tone, largely absent from the band's three preceding records. Frusciante and Beinhorn fought frequently over guitar tone and layering, and Beinhorn's idea ultimately prevailed as Frusciante felt pressured by the producer's much greater knowledge of
he studio. Kiedis recalls that "[Beinhorn] wanted John to have a big, crunching, almost metal-sounding guitar tone whereas before we always had some interesting acid-rock guitar tones as well as a lot of slinky, sexy, funky guitar tones."
The Chili Peppers collaborated with producer Rick Rubin for their second record with Frusciante, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Rubin felt that it was important to record the album in an unorthodox setting, so he suggested an old Hollywood Hills mansion, and the band agreed. Frusciante, Kiedis and Flea isolated themselves there for the duration of the recording. Frusciante and Flea seldom went outside, and spent most of their time smoking marijuana. Around this time, Frusciante started a side collaboration with Flea and Jane's Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins called The Three Amoebas. They recorded roughly ten to fifteen hours of material, none of which has ever been released.
Blood Sugar Sex Magik was hugely successful upon its release on September 24, 1991. It peaked at number three on the Billboard charts, and went on to sell thirteen million copies worldwide. The unexpected success instantly turned the Red Hot Chili Peppers into rock stars. Frusciante was blindsided by his newfound fame, and struggled to cope with it. Soon after the album's release, he began to develop a dislike for the band's popularity. Kiedis recalled that he and Frusciante used to get into heated discussions backstage after concerts: "John would say, 'We're too popular. I don't need to be at this level of success. I would just be proud to be playing this music in clubs like you guys were doing two years ago.'" Frusciante later said that the band's rise to popularity was "too high, too far, too soon. Everything seemed to be happening at once and I just couldn't cope with it." He also began to feel that destiny was leading him away from the band. When the Chili Peppers began their world tour, he started to he
ar voices in his head telling him "you won't make it during the tour, you have to go now." Frusciante admitted to having once taken great pleasure in hedonism; however, "by the age of twenty, I started doing it right and looking at it as an artistic expression instead of a way of partying and screwing a bunch of girls. To balance it out, I had to be extra-humble, extra-anti-rock star." He refused to take the stage during a performance at Tokyo's Club Quattro on May 7, 1992, telling his bandmates that he was leaving the band. He was persuaded to perform, but left for California the next morning, according to the guitarist, "it was just impossible for me to stay in the band any longer. It had come to the point where even though they wanted me in the band, it felt like I was forced out of the band. Not by any members in particular or management in particular, but just the direction it was going."
1992–1997: Drug addiction
Frusciante developed serious drug habits while touring with the band during the previous four years. He said that when he "found out that Flea was stoned out of his mind at every show, that inspired me to be a pothead". Not only was Frusciante smoking large amounts of marijuana, but he began to use heroin and was on the verge of full-scale addiction. Upon returning to California in the summer of 1992, Frusciante entered a deep depression, feeling that his life was over and that he could no longer write music or play guitar. For a long time, he focused on painting, producing 4-track recordings he had made while recording Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and writing short stories and screenplays that dealt with a variety of motifs. To cope with his worsening depression, Frusciante increased his heroin use and spiraled into a life-threatening dependency. His use of heroin to medicate his depression was a clear decision: "I was very sad, and I was always happy when I was on drugs; therefore, I should be on drugs all the ti
me. I was never guilty—I was always really proud to be an addict." Although he openly admitted to being a "junkie", he believed drugs were the only way of "making sure you stay in touch with beauty instead of letting the ugliness of the world corrupt your soul."
Frusciante released his first solo album Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt, on March 8, 1994. Despite the common belief that most of the tracks were recorded while he was strung out on heroin in his home in the Hollywood Hills, Frusciante has said that "That album was not recorded when I was a heroin addict. It was released when I was a heroin addict.”
The first half of Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt was recorded shortly after the completion of Blood Sugar Sex Magik; the second half between late 1991 and early 1992, during the album's tour. "Running Away Into You" is the only track recorded after he left the Chili Peppers. The album is a heavily experimental avant-garde composition whose initial purpose was spiritual and emotional expression: "I wrote [the record] because I was in a really big place in my head—it was a huge, spiritual place telling me what to do. As long as I'm obeying those forces, it's always going to be meaningful. I could be playing guitar and I could say 'Play something that sucks,' and if I'm in that place, it's gonna be great. And it has nothing to do with me, except in ways that can't be understood." Frusciante further asserted that the album was meant to be experienced as a cohesive unit rather than separate entities or songs. Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt was released on Rick Rubin's label American Recordings.
Warner Bros., the Chili Peppers' label, owned rights to the album because of the leaving-artist clause in Frusciante's Chili Peppers contract. However, because he was reclusive, the label gladly handed the rights over to Rubin, who released the album at the urging of Frusciante's friends.
An article in the New Times LA described Frusciante as "a skeleton covered in thin skin" who at the nadir of his addictions nearly died from a blood infection. His arms became fiercely scarred from improperly shooting heroin and cocaine, leaving permanent abscesses. He spent the next three years holed up in his Hollywood Hills home, the walls of which were badly damaged and covered in graffiti. During this time, his friends Johnny Depp and Gibby Haynes went to his house and filmed an unreleased documentary short called Stuff, depicting the squalor in which he was living. The house was eventually destroyed by a fire that claimed his vintage guitar collection along with several recorded tapes of music and left him with serious burns after he narrowly escaped.
Frusciante released his second solo album, Smile from the Streets You Hold, in 1997. The album's first track, "Enter a Uh", was largely characterized by cryptic lyrics and hysterical screeches. Frusciante also coughs throughout the track, showcasing his deteriorating health. By his own admission, the album was released in order to get "drug money"; he withdrew it from the market in 1999.
1997–2002: Rehabilitation and return to the Chili Peppers
In late 1997, after more than five years of addiction to heroin, Frusciante quit it cold turkey. However, months later he was still unable to break addictions to crack cocaine and alcohol. In January 1998, urged by longtime friend Bob Forrest, Frusciante checked into Las Encinas, a drug rehabilitation clinic in Pasadena, to begin a full recovery. Upon arrival, he was diagnosed with a potentially lethal oral infection, which could only be alleviated by removing all of his teeth and replacing them with dentures. He also received skin grafts to help repair the abscesses on his ravaged arms. About a month later, Frusciante checked out of Las Encinas and reentered society.
Fully recovered and once again healthy, Frusciante began living a more spiritual, ascetic lifestyle. He changed his diet, becoming more health-conscious and eating mostly unprocessed foods. Through regular practice of vipassana and yoga, he discovered the effect self-discipline has on the body. To maintain his increased spiritual awareness and reduce distraction from his music, Frusciante decided to abstain from sexual activity stating: "I'm very well without it." All of these changes in his life have led him to a complete change in his attitude toward drugs:
“ I don't need to take drugs. I feel so much more high all the time right now because of the type of momentum that a person can get going when you really dedicate yourself to something that you really love. I don't even consider doing them, they're completely silly. Between my dedication to trying to constantly be a better musician and eating my health foods and doing yoga, I feel so much more high than I did for the last few years of doing drugs.
At this point I'm the happiest person in the world. These things do not fuck with me at all, and I'm so proud of that—you don't know how proud I am. It's such a beautiful thing to be able to face life, to face yourself, without hiding behind drugs; without having to have anger towards people who love you. There are people who are scared of losing stuff, but you don't lose anything for any other reason than if you just give up on yourself. ”
Despite his experience as an addict, Frusciante does not view his drug use as a "dark period" in his life. He considers it a period of rebirth, during which he found himself and cleared his mind. Frusciante has since stopped practicing yoga, due to its effects on his back, but he still tries to meditate daily.
In early 1998, the Red Hot Chili Peppers fired guitarist Dave Navarro and were on the verge of breaking up. Flea told Kiedis, "the only way I could imagine carrying on [with the Red Hot Chili Peppers] is if we got John back in the band." With Frusciante free of his addictions and ailments, Kiedis and Flea thought it was an appropriate time to invite him back. When Flea visited him at his home and asked him to rejoin the band, Frusciante began sobbing and said "nothing would make me happier in the world." With Frusciante back on guitar, the Chili Peppers began recording their next album, Californication, released in 1999. Frusciante's return restored a key component of the Chili Peppers' sound, as well as a healthy morale. He brought with him his deep devotion to music, which had an impact on the band's recording style during the album. Frusciante has frequently stated that his work on Californication was his favorite.
During the Californication world tour, Frusciante continued to compose his own songs, many of which would be released in 2001 on his third solo album To Record Only Water for Ten Days. The album was stylistically unlike his previous records, less markedly stream-of-consciousness or avant-garde. However, the lyrics were still very cryptic and its sound was notably stripped down. The songwriting and production of To Record Only Water for Ten Days were more efficient and straightforward than on his previous recordings. The album strayed from the alternative rock he had just written with the Chili Peppers on Californication, focusing more on electronic and New Wave elements. In addition to his guitar work, Frusciante experimented with a variety of synthesizers, a distinctive feature of the record.
In 2001, Frusciante began recording his fourth album with Red Hot Chili Peppers, By the Way (2002); he considered the time to be among the happiest in his life. He relished the chance the album gave him to "keep writing better songs". While working on By the Way, he also composed most of what would become Shadows Collide with People, as well as the songs created for the movie The Brown Bunny. His goal to improve his guitar playing on the album was largely driven by a desire to emulate guitar players such as Andy Partridge, Johnny Marr and John McGeoch; or as he put it, "people who used good chords". The album marked Frusciante's shift to a more group-minded mentality within the Chili Peppers, viewing the band as a cohesive unit rather than as four separate entities.
2002–2007: 2004 recordings and Stadium Arcadium
Frusciante wrote and recorded a plethora of songs during and after the By the Way tour. In February 2004, he started a side project with Joe Lally of Fugazi and Josh Klinghoffer, called Ataxia. The group was together for about two weeks, during which they recorded about ninety minutes of material. After two days in the recording studio, they played two shows at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood, and spent two more days in the studio before disbanding. Later that year, five songs provided by Frusciante appeared on The Brown Bunny soundtrack.
Frusciante released his fourth full-length solo album Shadows Collide with People on February 24, 2004. This featured guest appearances from some of his friends, including Klinghoffer, and Chili Peppers bandmates Smith and Flea. In June 2004, he announced that he would be releasing six records over six months. The Will to Death, Ataxia's Automatic Writing, DC EP, Inside of Emptiness, A Sphere in the Heart of Silence and Curtains. With the release of Curtains Frusciante debuted his only music video of 2004, for the track "The Past Recedes". He wanted to produce these records quickly and inexpensively on analog tape, avoiding modern studio and computer-assisted recording processes.
In early 2005, Frusciante entered the studio to work on his fifth studio album with the Chili Peppers, Stadium Arcadium. His guitar playing is dominant throughout the album, and he provides backing vocals on most of the tracks. Although usually following a "less is more" style of guitar playing, he began using a full twenty-four track mixer for maximum effect. In the arrangements, he incorporates a wide array of sounds and playing styles, from the funk-influenced Blood Sugar Sex Magik to the more melodic By the Way. He also changed his approach to his playing, opting to contribute solos and allow songs to be formed from jam sessions. Several reviews have stressed that the influence of Hendrix is evident in his solos on the album, with Frusciante himself backing this up. He also expanded the use of guitar effects throughout the album, and used various other instruments such as the synthesizer and mellotron. He worked continuously with Rubin over-dubbing guitar progressions, changing harmonies and using all his
technical resources.
Frusciante began a series of collaborations with friend Omar RodrÃguez-López and his band The Mars Volta, by contributing guitar and electronic instrumentation to song "Cicatriz ESP" off their album De-Loused in the Comatorium. He also contributed guitar solos on their 2005 album Frances the Mute. In 2006, he helped The Mars Volta complete their third album Amputechture by playing guitar on seven of its eight tracks. In return, Rodriguez-Lopez has played on several of Frusciante's solo albums, as well as made a guest appearance on Stadium Arcadium.
2007–present: Red Hot Chili Peppers departure, The Empyrean and further collaborations
Ataxia released its second and final studio album, AW II in 2007. Following the Stadium Arcadium tour (early May 2006 to late August 2007), the Red Hot Chili Peppers agreed to a hiatus of indefinite length. In early 2008, Anthony Kiedis finally confirmed this, citing exhaustion from constant work since Californication as the main reason. Frusciante quit the group during this period, but did not publicly announce his departure until December 2009.
Frusciante's tenth solo album, The Empyrean, was released on January 20, 2009 through Record Collection. The record—a concept album—was in production between December 2006 and March 2008. The Empyrean features an array of musicians including Frusciante's ex-Chili Peppers bandmate Flea, friends Josh Klinghoffer and former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, as well as guest musicians including Sonus Quartet and New Dimension Singers. Frusciante stated: "I'm really happy with [the record] and I've listened to it a lot for the psychedelic experience it provides," suggesting the album is "to be played as loud as possible and is suited to dark living rooms late at night."
Frusciante continued to collaborate with other artists. Along with continuing to provide guitar work to The Mars Volta's studio albums, The Bedlam In Goliath, and Octahedron, Frusciante also began an electronic duo with Aaron Funk under the name Speed Dealer Moms. Their first EP was released in December 2010 on Planet Mu Records.
Along with Speed Dealer Moms, Frusciante also provided guitar for Swahili Blonde, a project of percussionist/vocalist Nicole Turley. The project released its debut album Man Meat in 2010. That same year, Frusciante functioned as executive producer for Omar RodrÃguez-López's directorial film debut, The Sentimental Engine Slayer. The film debuted at the Rotterdam Film Festival in February 2010. Along with work on the film, Frusciante and RodrÃguez-López have released two collaborative records in May 2010. The first is the album Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & John Frusciante, an album with just the two of them, the other a quartet record, Sepulcros de Miel, consisting of Omar RodrÃguez-López, Juan Alderete, Marcel RodrÃguez-López, and Frusciante. Frusciante also contributed music to the documentary film, Little Joe, based upon Joe Dallesandro.
In 2011, Frusciante will appear in the documentary, Bob and the Monster. The film details the life and career of one of Frusciante's longtime friends and someone he considers a mentor, Bob Forrest.
Musical style
Frusciante's musical style has evolved over the course of his career. Although he received moderate recognition for his early guitar work, it was not until later in his career that music critics and guitarists alike began to fully recognize it: in October 2003, he was ranked eighteenth in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Frusciante attributes this recent recognition to his shift in focus, stating that he chose an approach based on rhythmic patterns inspired by the complexity of material Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen produced. On earlier records, however, much of his output was influenced by various underground punk and New Wave musicians. In general, his sound is also defined by an affinity for vintage guitars. All the guitars that he owns, records, and tours with were made before 1970. Frusciante will use the specific guitar that he finds appropriate for a certain song. All of the guitars he owned before quitting the band were destroyed when his house burned down in 1996.
The first guitar he bought after rejoining the Chili Peppers was a 1962 sunburst Fender Stratocaster, which is now his most-often used guitar, which he has played on every album since joining the Chili Peppers, and their ensuing tours. Frusciante's most prized instrument is a 1957 Gretsch White Falcon, which he used twice per show during the By the Way tour. He has since stopped using it, saying there was "no room for it". Virtually all of Frusciante's acoustic work is played with a 1950s Martin 0-15.
Frusciante uses a variety of vocal styles on his solo albums, ranging from the distressed screeches on Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt and Smile from the Streets You Hold to more conventional styles on later records. With the Chili Peppers, Frusciante provided backing vocals in a falsetto style, which he started using on Blood Sugar Sex Magik. He thoroughly enjoyed his role in the Chili Peppers as backup singer, and said that backing vocals are a "real art form".Despite his commitment to the Chili Peppers, he felt that his work with the band should remain separate from his solo projects. When he returned to the Chili Peppers in 1998, Kiedis wanted the band to record "Living in Hell", a song Frusciante had written several years before. Frusciante refused, feeling that the creative freedom he needs for his solo projects would conflict with his role in the band.
Technique
Frusciante's guitar playing employs melody and emotion rather than virtuosity. Although virtuoso influences can be heard throughout his career, he has said that he often minimizes this. He feels that in general, guitar mastery has not evolved much since the 1960s and considers the greatest players of that decade unsurpassed. When he was growing up in the 1980s, many mainstream guitarists focused on speed. Because of this, he thinks that the skills of many defiant New Wave and punk guitarists were largely overlooked. Therefore he accentuates the melodically-driven technique of players such as Matthew Ashman of Bow Wow Wow and Bernard Sumner of Joy Division as much as possible because he thinks that their style has been overlooked and consequently underexplored. Despite this, he considers himself a fan of technique-driven guitarists like Randy Rhoads and Steve Vai, but represses an urge to emulate their style: "People believe that by playing faster and creating new playing techniques you can progress forward, b
ut then they realize that emotionally they don't progress at all. They transmit nothing to the people listening and they stay at where Hendrix was three decades ago. Something like that happened to Vai in the 80s." Believing that focusing only on "clean tones" is negative, Frusciante developed an interest in playing with what he calls a "grimy" sound. As a result, he considers it beneficial to "mistreat" his guitar and employ various forms of distortion when soloing. He also tries to break as many "stylistic boundaries" as he can, in order to expand his musical horizons. He thinks that much of the output from today's guitarists is unoriginal, and that many of his contemporaries "follow the rules with no risk".
Frusciante's approach to album composition has changed. On his early recordings, he welcomed sonic imperfections, noting that "even on [To Record Only Water for Ten Days] there are off-pitch vocals and out-of-tune guitars." However, on later albums such as Shadows Collide With People, he pursued the opposite: "I just wanted everything to be perfect—I didn't want anything off pitch, or off time, or any unintentional this or that." Frusciante views songwriting as taking time, and does not force it: "If a song wants to come to me, I'm always ready to receive it, but I don't work at it." Much of his solo material is first written on an acoustic or unamplified electric guitar. He cultivates an atmosphere conducive to songwriting by constantly listening to the music of others and absorbing its creative influence. He also prefers to record his albums on analog tapes and other relatively primitive equipment. This preference stems from his belief that older equipment can actually speed up the recording process, and th
at modern computerized recording technology gives only an illusion of efficiency. Frusciante tries to streamline the recording process as much as possible, because he thinks "music comes alive when [you] are creating it fast". He also enjoys the challenge of having to record something in very few takes, and believes that when musicians are unable to handle the pressure of having to record something quickly they often get frustrated or bogged down by perfectionism.
Influences
Although Hendrix was arguably Frusciante's most profound influence, he was also inspired by glam rock artists David Bowie and T.Rex as well as avant-garde acts like Captain Beefheart, The Residents, The Velvet Underground, Neu!, Frank Zappa and Kraftwerk. He credits his inspiration for learning guitar to Greg Ginn, Pat Smear and Joe Strummer, among others. As an adolescent, he began focusing on Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, as well as other bands like Public Image Ltd., Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Smiths. During the recording of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Captain Beefheart and the acoustic, one-man blues of Leadbelly and Robert Johnson, were among the most noteworthy influences. On Californication and By the Way, Frusciante derived the technique of creating tonal texture through chord patterns from post-punk guitarist Vini Reilly of The Durutti Column, and bands such as Fugazi and The Cure. He originally intended By the Way to be made up of "these punky, rough songs", drawing inspiration from early punk artists
such as The Germs and The Damned. However, this was discouraged by producer Rick Rubin, and he instead built upon Californication's melodically-driven style. During the recording of Stadium Arcadium, he moved away from his New Wave influences and concentrated on emulating flashier guitar players such as Hendrix and Van Halen. With his recent solo work, he has cited electronic music—in which the guitar is often completely absent—as an influence. His electronic music influences include Depeche Mode, New Order, The Human League, Ekkehard Ehlers, Peter Rehberg and Christian Fennesz.[5] His interests are constantly changing, as he believes that without change he will no longer have any interest in playing: "I'm always drawing inspiration from different kinds of music and playing guitar along with records, and I go into each new album project with a preconceived idea of what styles I want to combine."
Discography
Date of release Title Record label
March 8, 1994 Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt
American Recordings
August 26, 1997 Smile from the Streets You Hold
Birdman Records
February 13, 2001 To Record Only Water for Ten Days
Warner Music Group
2001 From the Sounds Inside
Internet self-release
February 24, 2004 Shadows Collide with People
Warner Bros. Records
June 22, 2004 The Will to Death
Record Collection
October 26, 2004 Inside of Emptiness
Record Collection
February 1, 2005 Curtains
Record Collection
January 20, 2009 The Empyrean
Record Collection
Frusciante joined the Red Hot Chili Peppers still a teenager being eighteen years old, first appearing on the band's 1989 album Mother's Milk. The group's follow-up album, Blood Sugar Sex Magik (1991), was a breakthrough success. However, he was overwhelmed by the band's new popularity and quit in 1992. He became a recluse and entered a long period of drug addiction, during which he released his first recordings: Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt (1994) and then Smile from the Streets You Hold (1997). In 1998, he successfully completed drug rehabilitation and rejoined the Red Hot Chili Peppers with the album Californication (1999). His album To Record Only Water for Ten Days was compiled in 2001. On a creative spree, Frusciante released six solo albums in 2004; each album exploring different recording techniques and genres. In 2009, Frusciante released The Empyrean and again parted ways with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Frusciante has produced and/or recorded with the Wu-Tang Clan, The Mars Volta, George
Clinton, and others.
Frusciante has received critical recognition for his guitar playing, ranking eighteenth on Rolling Stone's list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" in 2003, and he was voted the best guitarist of the last 30 years in a 2010 BBC poll called "The Axe Factor".
Biography
1970–1987: Childhood and early life
Frusciante was born in Queens, New York on March 5, 1970. His father, John Sr., is a Juilliard-trained pianist, and his mother Gail was a promising vocalist who gave up her career to be a stay-at-home mother. Frusciante's family moved to Tucson, Arizona, and then Florida, where his father served as a Broward County judge until October 2010. His parents separated, and he and his mother moved to Santa Monica, California.
A year later, Frusciante and his mother moved to Mar Vista, Los Angeles with his new stepfather who, he says, "really supported me and made me feel good about being an artist." Like many young people in the area, he became intimately involved in the L.A. punk rock scene. At nine he was infatuated with The Germs, wearing out several copies of their record (GI). By ten, he had taught himself how to play most of (GI)'s songs in a tuning that allowed him to play every chord with a single-finger barre. Soon after, Frusciante began taking guitar lessons from an instructor who introduced him to the music of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.
Frusciante began studying guitarists like Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Jimi Hendrix at eleven. After mastering the blues scale, he discovered Frank Zappa, whose work he would study for hours. He dropped out of high school at sixteen with the permission of his parents and completion of a proficiency test. With their support, he moved to Los Angeles in order to develop his musical proficiency. He began taking classes at the Guitar Institute of Technology, but turned to punching in without actually attending and left shortly thereafter.
1988–1992: Red Hot Chili Peppers
Frusciante first attended a Red Hot Chili Peppers performance at eighteen and he rapidly became a devoted fan. He idolized guitarist Hillel Slovak—familiarizing himself with virtually all the guitar and bass parts from the Chili Peppers' first three records. He became acquainted with Slovak; the two spoke months before Slovak's death and Frusciante's subsequent joining:
“ ...Hillel asked me, 'Would you still like the Chilis if they got so popular they played the Forum?' I said, 'No. It would ruin the whole thing. That's great about the band, the audience feels no different from the band at all.' There was this real kind of historical vibe at their shows, none of the frustration that runs through the audience when they jump around and can't get out of their seat. I didn't even watch the shows. I'd get so excited that I'd flip around the slam pit the whole time. I really felt like a part of the band, and all the sensitive people in the audience did too. ”
Frusciante became friends with former Dead Kennedys drummer D. H. Peligro in early 1988. They often jammed together, and Peligro invited his friend Flea (bassist of Red Hot Chili Peppers) to join. Frusciante and Flea developed a musical chemistry immediately, with Flea later acknowledging that might have been the day he first played the bass riff to "Nobody Weird Like Me". Around the same time, Frusciante intended to audition for Frank Zappa's band, but changed his mind before the final try-out as Zappa strictly prohibited illegal drug use. Frusciante said, "I realized that I wanted to be a rock star, do drugs and get girls, and that I wouldn't be able to do that if I was in Zappa's band."
Slovak died of a heroin overdose in 1988, and Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Jack Irons, incapable of coping with Slovak's death, left the group. Remaining members Flea and vocalist Anthony Kiedis regrouped, determined to persevere. The pair added Peligro on drums and DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight, formerly of P-Funk, on guitar. McKnight, however, failed to connect musically within the group. Flea proposed auditioning Frusciante, whose intimate knowledge of the Chili Peppers' repertoire astonished him. Flea and Kiedis auditioned him and agreed that he would be a suitable replacement for McKnight, who was promptly fired. When Flea called Frusciante with the news of his acceptance into the Chili Peppers, Frusciante was elated; he ran through his house screaming with joy, and jumped on a wall, leaving permanent boot marks. He was in the midst of signing a contract with Thelonious Monster at the time—and had actually been playing with the act for two weeks—but his unanticipated reception into the Chili Peppers prom
pted him to change his plans.
However, Frusciante was not familiar with the funk genre of Red Hot Chili Peppers' sound: "I wasn't really a funk player before I joined the band. I learned everything I needed to know about how to sound good with Flea by studying Hillel [Slovak's] playing and I just took it sideways from there." Several weeks into the band's new lineup, Peligro, whose performance was suffering due to extreme drug abuse, was fired. Soon after, Chad Smith was added as the group's new drummer and the new lineup began recording their first album, 1989's Mother's Milk. Frusciante focused on emulating Slovak's signature style, rather than imposing his own personal style on the group. Producer Michael Beinhorn disagreed, and wanted Frusciante to play with an uncharacteristic heavy metal tone, largely absent from the band's three preceding records. Frusciante and Beinhorn fought frequently over guitar tone and layering, and Beinhorn's idea ultimately prevailed as Frusciante felt pressured by the producer's much greater knowledge of
he studio. Kiedis recalls that "[Beinhorn] wanted John to have a big, crunching, almost metal-sounding guitar tone whereas before we always had some interesting acid-rock guitar tones as well as a lot of slinky, sexy, funky guitar tones."
The Chili Peppers collaborated with producer Rick Rubin for their second record with Frusciante, Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Rubin felt that it was important to record the album in an unorthodox setting, so he suggested an old Hollywood Hills mansion, and the band agreed. Frusciante, Kiedis and Flea isolated themselves there for the duration of the recording. Frusciante and Flea seldom went outside, and spent most of their time smoking marijuana. Around this time, Frusciante started a side collaboration with Flea and Jane's Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins called The Three Amoebas. They recorded roughly ten to fifteen hours of material, none of which has ever been released.
Blood Sugar Sex Magik was hugely successful upon its release on September 24, 1991. It peaked at number three on the Billboard charts, and went on to sell thirteen million copies worldwide. The unexpected success instantly turned the Red Hot Chili Peppers into rock stars. Frusciante was blindsided by his newfound fame, and struggled to cope with it. Soon after the album's release, he began to develop a dislike for the band's popularity. Kiedis recalled that he and Frusciante used to get into heated discussions backstage after concerts: "John would say, 'We're too popular. I don't need to be at this level of success. I would just be proud to be playing this music in clubs like you guys were doing two years ago.'" Frusciante later said that the band's rise to popularity was "too high, too far, too soon. Everything seemed to be happening at once and I just couldn't cope with it." He also began to feel that destiny was leading him away from the band. When the Chili Peppers began their world tour, he started to he
ar voices in his head telling him "you won't make it during the tour, you have to go now." Frusciante admitted to having once taken great pleasure in hedonism; however, "by the age of twenty, I started doing it right and looking at it as an artistic expression instead of a way of partying and screwing a bunch of girls. To balance it out, I had to be extra-humble, extra-anti-rock star." He refused to take the stage during a performance at Tokyo's Club Quattro on May 7, 1992, telling his bandmates that he was leaving the band. He was persuaded to perform, but left for California the next morning, according to the guitarist, "it was just impossible for me to stay in the band any longer. It had come to the point where even though they wanted me in the band, it felt like I was forced out of the band. Not by any members in particular or management in particular, but just the direction it was going."
1992–1997: Drug addiction
Frusciante developed serious drug habits while touring with the band during the previous four years. He said that when he "found out that Flea was stoned out of his mind at every show, that inspired me to be a pothead". Not only was Frusciante smoking large amounts of marijuana, but he began to use heroin and was on the verge of full-scale addiction. Upon returning to California in the summer of 1992, Frusciante entered a deep depression, feeling that his life was over and that he could no longer write music or play guitar. For a long time, he focused on painting, producing 4-track recordings he had made while recording Blood Sugar Sex Magik, and writing short stories and screenplays that dealt with a variety of motifs. To cope with his worsening depression, Frusciante increased his heroin use and spiraled into a life-threatening dependency. His use of heroin to medicate his depression was a clear decision: "I was very sad, and I was always happy when I was on drugs; therefore, I should be on drugs all the ti
me. I was never guilty—I was always really proud to be an addict." Although he openly admitted to being a "junkie", he believed drugs were the only way of "making sure you stay in touch with beauty instead of letting the ugliness of the world corrupt your soul."
Frusciante released his first solo album Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt, on March 8, 1994. Despite the common belief that most of the tracks were recorded while he was strung out on heroin in his home in the Hollywood Hills, Frusciante has said that "That album was not recorded when I was a heroin addict. It was released when I was a heroin addict.”
The first half of Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt was recorded shortly after the completion of Blood Sugar Sex Magik; the second half between late 1991 and early 1992, during the album's tour. "Running Away Into You" is the only track recorded after he left the Chili Peppers. The album is a heavily experimental avant-garde composition whose initial purpose was spiritual and emotional expression: "I wrote [the record] because I was in a really big place in my head—it was a huge, spiritual place telling me what to do. As long as I'm obeying those forces, it's always going to be meaningful. I could be playing guitar and I could say 'Play something that sucks,' and if I'm in that place, it's gonna be great. And it has nothing to do with me, except in ways that can't be understood." Frusciante further asserted that the album was meant to be experienced as a cohesive unit rather than separate entities or songs. Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt was released on Rick Rubin's label American Recordings.
Warner Bros., the Chili Peppers' label, owned rights to the album because of the leaving-artist clause in Frusciante's Chili Peppers contract. However, because he was reclusive, the label gladly handed the rights over to Rubin, who released the album at the urging of Frusciante's friends.
An article in the New Times LA described Frusciante as "a skeleton covered in thin skin" who at the nadir of his addictions nearly died from a blood infection. His arms became fiercely scarred from improperly shooting heroin and cocaine, leaving permanent abscesses. He spent the next three years holed up in his Hollywood Hills home, the walls of which were badly damaged and covered in graffiti. During this time, his friends Johnny Depp and Gibby Haynes went to his house and filmed an unreleased documentary short called Stuff, depicting the squalor in which he was living. The house was eventually destroyed by a fire that claimed his vintage guitar collection along with several recorded tapes of music and left him with serious burns after he narrowly escaped.
Frusciante released his second solo album, Smile from the Streets You Hold, in 1997. The album's first track, "Enter a Uh", was largely characterized by cryptic lyrics and hysterical screeches. Frusciante also coughs throughout the track, showcasing his deteriorating health. By his own admission, the album was released in order to get "drug money"; he withdrew it from the market in 1999.
1997–2002: Rehabilitation and return to the Chili Peppers
In late 1997, after more than five years of addiction to heroin, Frusciante quit it cold turkey. However, months later he was still unable to break addictions to crack cocaine and alcohol. In January 1998, urged by longtime friend Bob Forrest, Frusciante checked into Las Encinas, a drug rehabilitation clinic in Pasadena, to begin a full recovery. Upon arrival, he was diagnosed with a potentially lethal oral infection, which could only be alleviated by removing all of his teeth and replacing them with dentures. He also received skin grafts to help repair the abscesses on his ravaged arms. About a month later, Frusciante checked out of Las Encinas and reentered society.
Fully recovered and once again healthy, Frusciante began living a more spiritual, ascetic lifestyle. He changed his diet, becoming more health-conscious and eating mostly unprocessed foods. Through regular practice of vipassana and yoga, he discovered the effect self-discipline has on the body. To maintain his increased spiritual awareness and reduce distraction from his music, Frusciante decided to abstain from sexual activity stating: "I'm very well without it." All of these changes in his life have led him to a complete change in his attitude toward drugs:
“ I don't need to take drugs. I feel so much more high all the time right now because of the type of momentum that a person can get going when you really dedicate yourself to something that you really love. I don't even consider doing them, they're completely silly. Between my dedication to trying to constantly be a better musician and eating my health foods and doing yoga, I feel so much more high than I did for the last few years of doing drugs.
At this point I'm the happiest person in the world. These things do not fuck with me at all, and I'm so proud of that—you don't know how proud I am. It's such a beautiful thing to be able to face life, to face yourself, without hiding behind drugs; without having to have anger towards people who love you. There are people who are scared of losing stuff, but you don't lose anything for any other reason than if you just give up on yourself. ”
Despite his experience as an addict, Frusciante does not view his drug use as a "dark period" in his life. He considers it a period of rebirth, during which he found himself and cleared his mind. Frusciante has since stopped practicing yoga, due to its effects on his back, but he still tries to meditate daily.
In early 1998, the Red Hot Chili Peppers fired guitarist Dave Navarro and were on the verge of breaking up. Flea told Kiedis, "the only way I could imagine carrying on [with the Red Hot Chili Peppers] is if we got John back in the band." With Frusciante free of his addictions and ailments, Kiedis and Flea thought it was an appropriate time to invite him back. When Flea visited him at his home and asked him to rejoin the band, Frusciante began sobbing and said "nothing would make me happier in the world." With Frusciante back on guitar, the Chili Peppers began recording their next album, Californication, released in 1999. Frusciante's return restored a key component of the Chili Peppers' sound, as well as a healthy morale. He brought with him his deep devotion to music, which had an impact on the band's recording style during the album. Frusciante has frequently stated that his work on Californication was his favorite.
During the Californication world tour, Frusciante continued to compose his own songs, many of which would be released in 2001 on his third solo album To Record Only Water for Ten Days. The album was stylistically unlike his previous records, less markedly stream-of-consciousness or avant-garde. However, the lyrics were still very cryptic and its sound was notably stripped down. The songwriting and production of To Record Only Water for Ten Days were more efficient and straightforward than on his previous recordings. The album strayed from the alternative rock he had just written with the Chili Peppers on Californication, focusing more on electronic and New Wave elements. In addition to his guitar work, Frusciante experimented with a variety of synthesizers, a distinctive feature of the record.
In 2001, Frusciante began recording his fourth album with Red Hot Chili Peppers, By the Way (2002); he considered the time to be among the happiest in his life. He relished the chance the album gave him to "keep writing better songs". While working on By the Way, he also composed most of what would become Shadows Collide with People, as well as the songs created for the movie The Brown Bunny. His goal to improve his guitar playing on the album was largely driven by a desire to emulate guitar players such as Andy Partridge, Johnny Marr and John McGeoch; or as he put it, "people who used good chords". The album marked Frusciante's shift to a more group-minded mentality within the Chili Peppers, viewing the band as a cohesive unit rather than as four separate entities.
2002–2007: 2004 recordings and Stadium Arcadium
Frusciante wrote and recorded a plethora of songs during and after the By the Way tour. In February 2004, he started a side project with Joe Lally of Fugazi and Josh Klinghoffer, called Ataxia. The group was together for about two weeks, during which they recorded about ninety minutes of material. After two days in the recording studio, they played two shows at the Knitting Factory in Hollywood, and spent two more days in the studio before disbanding. Later that year, five songs provided by Frusciante appeared on The Brown Bunny soundtrack.
Frusciante released his fourth full-length solo album Shadows Collide with People on February 24, 2004. This featured guest appearances from some of his friends, including Klinghoffer, and Chili Peppers bandmates Smith and Flea. In June 2004, he announced that he would be releasing six records over six months. The Will to Death, Ataxia's Automatic Writing, DC EP, Inside of Emptiness, A Sphere in the Heart of Silence and Curtains. With the release of Curtains Frusciante debuted his only music video of 2004, for the track "The Past Recedes". He wanted to produce these records quickly and inexpensively on analog tape, avoiding modern studio and computer-assisted recording processes.
In early 2005, Frusciante entered the studio to work on his fifth studio album with the Chili Peppers, Stadium Arcadium. His guitar playing is dominant throughout the album, and he provides backing vocals on most of the tracks. Although usually following a "less is more" style of guitar playing, he began using a full twenty-four track mixer for maximum effect. In the arrangements, he incorporates a wide array of sounds and playing styles, from the funk-influenced Blood Sugar Sex Magik to the more melodic By the Way. He also changed his approach to his playing, opting to contribute solos and allow songs to be formed from jam sessions. Several reviews have stressed that the influence of Hendrix is evident in his solos on the album, with Frusciante himself backing this up. He also expanded the use of guitar effects throughout the album, and used various other instruments such as the synthesizer and mellotron. He worked continuously with Rubin over-dubbing guitar progressions, changing harmonies and using all his
technical resources.
Frusciante began a series of collaborations with friend Omar RodrÃguez-López and his band The Mars Volta, by contributing guitar and electronic instrumentation to song "Cicatriz ESP" off their album De-Loused in the Comatorium. He also contributed guitar solos on their 2005 album Frances the Mute. In 2006, he helped The Mars Volta complete their third album Amputechture by playing guitar on seven of its eight tracks. In return, Rodriguez-Lopez has played on several of Frusciante's solo albums, as well as made a guest appearance on Stadium Arcadium.
2007–present: Red Hot Chili Peppers departure, The Empyrean and further collaborations
Ataxia released its second and final studio album, AW II in 2007. Following the Stadium Arcadium tour (early May 2006 to late August 2007), the Red Hot Chili Peppers agreed to a hiatus of indefinite length. In early 2008, Anthony Kiedis finally confirmed this, citing exhaustion from constant work since Californication as the main reason. Frusciante quit the group during this period, but did not publicly announce his departure until December 2009.
Frusciante's tenth solo album, The Empyrean, was released on January 20, 2009 through Record Collection. The record—a concept album—was in production between December 2006 and March 2008. The Empyrean features an array of musicians including Frusciante's ex-Chili Peppers bandmate Flea, friends Josh Klinghoffer and former Smiths guitarist Johnny Marr, as well as guest musicians including Sonus Quartet and New Dimension Singers. Frusciante stated: "I'm really happy with [the record] and I've listened to it a lot for the psychedelic experience it provides," suggesting the album is "to be played as loud as possible and is suited to dark living rooms late at night."
Frusciante continued to collaborate with other artists. Along with continuing to provide guitar work to The Mars Volta's studio albums, The Bedlam In Goliath, and Octahedron, Frusciante also began an electronic duo with Aaron Funk under the name Speed Dealer Moms. Their first EP was released in December 2010 on Planet Mu Records.
Along with Speed Dealer Moms, Frusciante also provided guitar for Swahili Blonde, a project of percussionist/vocalist Nicole Turley. The project released its debut album Man Meat in 2010. That same year, Frusciante functioned as executive producer for Omar RodrÃguez-López's directorial film debut, The Sentimental Engine Slayer. The film debuted at the Rotterdam Film Festival in February 2010. Along with work on the film, Frusciante and RodrÃguez-López have released two collaborative records in May 2010. The first is the album Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & John Frusciante, an album with just the two of them, the other a quartet record, Sepulcros de Miel, consisting of Omar RodrÃguez-López, Juan Alderete, Marcel RodrÃguez-López, and Frusciante. Frusciante also contributed music to the documentary film, Little Joe, based upon Joe Dallesandro.
In 2011, Frusciante will appear in the documentary, Bob and the Monster. The film details the life and career of one of Frusciante's longtime friends and someone he considers a mentor, Bob Forrest.
Musical style
Frusciante's musical style has evolved over the course of his career. Although he received moderate recognition for his early guitar work, it was not until later in his career that music critics and guitarists alike began to fully recognize it: in October 2003, he was ranked eighteenth in Rolling Stone's list of the "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time". Frusciante attributes this recent recognition to his shift in focus, stating that he chose an approach based on rhythmic patterns inspired by the complexity of material Jimi Hendrix and Eddie Van Halen produced. On earlier records, however, much of his output was influenced by various underground punk and New Wave musicians. In general, his sound is also defined by an affinity for vintage guitars. All the guitars that he owns, records, and tours with were made before 1970. Frusciante will use the specific guitar that he finds appropriate for a certain song. All of the guitars he owned before quitting the band were destroyed when his house burned down in 1996.
The first guitar he bought after rejoining the Chili Peppers was a 1962 sunburst Fender Stratocaster, which is now his most-often used guitar, which he has played on every album since joining the Chili Peppers, and their ensuing tours. Frusciante's most prized instrument is a 1957 Gretsch White Falcon, which he used twice per show during the By the Way tour. He has since stopped using it, saying there was "no room for it". Virtually all of Frusciante's acoustic work is played with a 1950s Martin 0-15.
Frusciante uses a variety of vocal styles on his solo albums, ranging from the distressed screeches on Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt and Smile from the Streets You Hold to more conventional styles on later records. With the Chili Peppers, Frusciante provided backing vocals in a falsetto style, which he started using on Blood Sugar Sex Magik. He thoroughly enjoyed his role in the Chili Peppers as backup singer, and said that backing vocals are a "real art form".Despite his commitment to the Chili Peppers, he felt that his work with the band should remain separate from his solo projects. When he returned to the Chili Peppers in 1998, Kiedis wanted the band to record "Living in Hell", a song Frusciante had written several years before. Frusciante refused, feeling that the creative freedom he needs for his solo projects would conflict with his role in the band.
Technique
Frusciante's guitar playing employs melody and emotion rather than virtuosity. Although virtuoso influences can be heard throughout his career, he has said that he often minimizes this. He feels that in general, guitar mastery has not evolved much since the 1960s and considers the greatest players of that decade unsurpassed. When he was growing up in the 1980s, many mainstream guitarists focused on speed. Because of this, he thinks that the skills of many defiant New Wave and punk guitarists were largely overlooked. Therefore he accentuates the melodically-driven technique of players such as Matthew Ashman of Bow Wow Wow and Bernard Sumner of Joy Division as much as possible because he thinks that their style has been overlooked and consequently underexplored. Despite this, he considers himself a fan of technique-driven guitarists like Randy Rhoads and Steve Vai, but represses an urge to emulate their style: "People believe that by playing faster and creating new playing techniques you can progress forward, b
ut then they realize that emotionally they don't progress at all. They transmit nothing to the people listening and they stay at where Hendrix was three decades ago. Something like that happened to Vai in the 80s." Believing that focusing only on "clean tones" is negative, Frusciante developed an interest in playing with what he calls a "grimy" sound. As a result, he considers it beneficial to "mistreat" his guitar and employ various forms of distortion when soloing. He also tries to break as many "stylistic boundaries" as he can, in order to expand his musical horizons. He thinks that much of the output from today's guitarists is unoriginal, and that many of his contemporaries "follow the rules with no risk".
Frusciante's approach to album composition has changed. On his early recordings, he welcomed sonic imperfections, noting that "even on [To Record Only Water for Ten Days] there are off-pitch vocals and out-of-tune guitars." However, on later albums such as Shadows Collide With People, he pursued the opposite: "I just wanted everything to be perfect—I didn't want anything off pitch, or off time, or any unintentional this or that." Frusciante views songwriting as taking time, and does not force it: "If a song wants to come to me, I'm always ready to receive it, but I don't work at it." Much of his solo material is first written on an acoustic or unamplified electric guitar. He cultivates an atmosphere conducive to songwriting by constantly listening to the music of others and absorbing its creative influence. He also prefers to record his albums on analog tapes and other relatively primitive equipment. This preference stems from his belief that older equipment can actually speed up the recording process, and th
at modern computerized recording technology gives only an illusion of efficiency. Frusciante tries to streamline the recording process as much as possible, because he thinks "music comes alive when [you] are creating it fast". He also enjoys the challenge of having to record something in very few takes, and believes that when musicians are unable to handle the pressure of having to record something quickly they often get frustrated or bogged down by perfectionism.
Influences
Although Hendrix was arguably Frusciante's most profound influence, he was also inspired by glam rock artists David Bowie and T.Rex as well as avant-garde acts like Captain Beefheart, The Residents, The Velvet Underground, Neu!, Frank Zappa and Kraftwerk. He credits his inspiration for learning guitar to Greg Ginn, Pat Smear and Joe Strummer, among others. As an adolescent, he began focusing on Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, as well as other bands like Public Image Ltd., Siouxsie and the Banshees and The Smiths. During the recording of Blood Sugar Sex Magik, Captain Beefheart and the acoustic, one-man blues of Leadbelly and Robert Johnson, were among the most noteworthy influences. On Californication and By the Way, Frusciante derived the technique of creating tonal texture through chord patterns from post-punk guitarist Vini Reilly of The Durutti Column, and bands such as Fugazi and The Cure. He originally intended By the Way to be made up of "these punky, rough songs", drawing inspiration from early punk artists
such as The Germs and The Damned. However, this was discouraged by producer Rick Rubin, and he instead built upon Californication's melodically-driven style. During the recording of Stadium Arcadium, he moved away from his New Wave influences and concentrated on emulating flashier guitar players such as Hendrix and Van Halen. With his recent solo work, he has cited electronic music—in which the guitar is often completely absent—as an influence. His electronic music influences include Depeche Mode, New Order, The Human League, Ekkehard Ehlers, Peter Rehberg and Christian Fennesz.[5] His interests are constantly changing, as he believes that without change he will no longer have any interest in playing: "I'm always drawing inspiration from different kinds of music and playing guitar along with records, and I go into each new album project with a preconceived idea of what styles I want to combine."
Discography
Date of release Title Record label
March 8, 1994 Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt
American Recordings
August 26, 1997 Smile from the Streets You Hold
Birdman Records
February 13, 2001 To Record Only Water for Ten Days
Warner Music Group
2001 From the Sounds Inside
Internet self-release
February 24, 2004 Shadows Collide with People
Warner Bros. Records
June 22, 2004 The Will to Death
Record Collection
October 26, 2004 Inside of Emptiness
Record Collection
February 1, 2005 Curtains
Record Collection
January 20, 2009 The Empyrean
Record Collection
Posted in: Guitarists
