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Rabu, 10 Maret 2010

Geddy lee - Rush


Geddy Lee OC (born Gary Lee Weinrib; July 29, 1953) is a Canadian musician, best known as the lead vocalist, bassist, and keyboardist for the Canadian rock group Rush. Lee joined Rush in September 1968 at the request of his childhood friend Alex Lifeson in order to replace frontman Jeff Jones.

An award-winning musician, Lee's style, technique, and skill on the bass guitar have proven very influential in the rock and heavy metal genres, inspiring such players as Steve Harris of Iron Maiden,[3] John Myung of Dream Theater, Les Claypool of Primus, and Cliff Burton of Metallica.

Early life

Geddy Lee was born Gary Lee Weinrib on July 29, 1953 in Willowdale, Toronto.Lee's stage name, Geddy, was inspired by his mother's heavily-accented pronunciation of his given first name, Gary, and it later became his high school nickname before he adopted it as his stage name. Lee's parents were Jewish refugees from Poland who had been survivors of Nazi concentration camps Dachau and Bergen-Belsen during World War II. In 2004, Canadian Jewish News featured Lee's reflections on his mother's experiences as a refugee, and of his own Jewish heritage.

Lee married Nancy Young in 1976. They have a son and a daughter . Lee attended the same elementary school as the well-known comedian Rick Moranis, of SCTV fame.

Body of work

The bulk of Lee's work in music has been with Rush (see Rush discography). However, Lee has also contributed to a body of work outside of his involvement with the band through guest appearances and album production. In 1981, Lee was the featured guest for the hit song "Take Off" and its included comedic commentary with Bob and Doug McKenzie (played by Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, respectively) for the McKenzie Brothers' comedy album Great White North. The following year, Lee produced the debut (and only) album from Toronto new wave band Boys Brigade. On the 1985 album We Are the World, by humanitarian consortium USA for Africa, Lee recorded guest vocals for the song "Tears Are Not Enough".[13] Apart from band contributions, Lee sang the Canadian National Anthem in front of a full crowd at Camden Yards for the 1993 All-Star Game.

Another version of "O Canada" in rock format was recorded by Lee and Lifeson on the accompanying soundtrack CD for the Trey Parker and Matt Stone film South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut released in 1999.

My Favourite Headache, Lee's first solo album, was released in November 2000 while Rush was on a hiatus due to tragedies in drummer Neil Peart's life. Lee appeared in Broken Social Scene's music video for their 2006 single "Fire Eye'd Boy", judging the band while they perform various musical tasks, and in 2006, Lee joined Lifeson's supergroup the Big Dirty Band, to provide songs accompanying Trailer Park Boys: The Movie.

Vocal style

Lee's voice has been referred to as a high tenor.[15] During Rush's early period, Lee's voice was described as a "Robert Plant-esque wail."[16] By the recording of the Permanent Waves album in 1979, Lee gradually changed his vocal style to a more restrained sound.[16] Lee as of late still has much of his range left, though the song "2112"("Overture" and "The Temples of Syrinx") is played one whole step (two semitones) lower[17].

Equipment used

Lee has varied his equipment list continually throughout his career.
Bass guitars
Geddy Lee playing his Fender jazz bass at a 2008 live performance at the Xcel Energy Center

For his first local gigs in the early 1970s and Rush's debut album, Lee used a Fender Precision Bass. From Fly By Night onward, Lee favored Rickenbacker basses, particularly the 4001 model, and a Fender Jazz Bass which is heard on Permanent Waves, Moving Pictures, Signals and the supporting tours. In 1981, Lee began using the compact, headless Steinberger bass, which he used occasionally on the supporting tour for Signals and for many tracks on their follow-up, Grace Under Pressure and Power Windows. From 1985 to 1992, Lee used British Wal basses. He switched back to Fender Jazz Basses for the recording of Counterparts in 1993, and has been using them virtually exclusively since, heard on albums Test For Echo, Vapor Trails, Feedback and Snakes & Arrows. However, he used a Fender Jaco Pastorius Tribute fretless replica bass for the song "Malignant Narcissism" on Snakes & Arrows, and a Fender Custom Shop Jazz with an Alder Body and a Flamed Maple top in Transparent Red for songs in an alternate tuning during the last several tours. In 1998, Fender released the Geddy Lee Jazz Bass, available in Black and 3-Colour Sunburst (as of 2009). This signature model is a recreation of Lee's favorite bass, a 1973 Fender Jazz that he bought in a pawn shop in Kalamazoo, Michigan. On all of his basses, Lee uses Rotosound Swing Bass 66 Stainless Steel round-wound strings. Lee once again used his Rickenbacker 4001 for the performance of "A Passage To Bangkok" on the 2007 and 2008 Snakes & Arrows Tour.

Bass guitar amplification

Lee's amps in the early days were arena-ready Sunn and/or Ampeg models. By the late seventies, his backline had evolved into a configuration of Ashly preamps and BGW power amps, which were run in stereo with his 4001 bass. The neck pickup was sent to one amp and set for a clean, bass-heavy tone, while the bridge pickup was sent to the other amp which was set with an exaggerated treble boost, and extra gain in the preamp. This defined Lee's bass sound from 1977 to 1982. Though he would change basses, the amplifier setup remained constant through 1991. For the Roll the Bones tour (1991–1992), Lee switched to Gallien-Krueger amps, and later to Trace Elliots.

Beginning in 2002, Lee dispensed with using a single bass guitar amplifier in favor of a chain of amplifiers and DI units, which allow the bass guitar to be connected directly to the stage and front-of-house mixers without involving microphones. Lee began using in-ear monitors at this point.

At the beginning of the 2002 Vapor trails tour, Lee revised his previous setup. His bass signal is sent via a Samson wireless unit to an Avalon U5 DI. From there it is split between a Trace Elliot Quadravalve all-tube power amplifier and a SansAmp RBI rackmountable preamp. The speaker-level signal from the Quadravalve is sent to a Palmer PD-05 speaker emulator, which provides adequate load for the tube amplifier and attenuates the signal down to line level. The signals from the U5, Quadravalve/PD-05, and RBI are all sent to the monitor and front-of-house mixers and blends of the signals are changed on a song-by-song basis. Typically the Quadravalve/PD-05 signal makes up the low end while a balance of the U5 and RBI make up the high end, with the RBI providing the "top end" distortion in Lee's sound.

For the 2007 Snakes and Arrows tour, Lee swapped the SansAmp RBI for a new unit by Sansamp, the RPM. During preparation for this tour a feature on bassplayer.tv with his live bass tech, Russ Ryan, was filmed which detailed Lee's live signal path.

Keyboards and synthesizers

Over the years, Lee's keyboards have featured synthesizers from Oberheim (Eight-voice, OB-1, OB-X, OB-Xa), PPG (Wave 2.2 and 2.3), Roland (Jupiter 8, D-50, XV-5080, and most recently a Fantom X7 on the Snakes and Arrows tour), Moog (Minimoog, Taurus bass pedals, Moog Little Phatty[19]), and Yamaha (DX7, Yamaha KX76). Lee used sequencers early in their development and has continued to use similar innovations as they have developed over the years. Lee has also made use of digital samplers. Combined, these electronic devices have supplied many memorable keyboard sounds, such as the "growl" in "Tom Sawyer" and the melody featured in the chorus of "The Spirit of Radio".

With 1993's Counterparts, Rush reduced most keyboard- and synthesizer-derived sounds in their compositions, and they continued to do so with each successive album. In 2002, the band produced an album—Vapor Trails—that was completely free of keyboards and synthesizers, featuring only voice, guitar, bass guitar, drums and percussion. With the release of 2007's Snakes & Arrows, Lee sparingly adds a Mellotron to the instrument line-up. However, it does not mark a return to a "synth" sound for the band. Much like Vapor Trails, the music is primarily recorded with multiple layers of guitars, bass, drums and percussion.

Live performances: special equipment
Recreating unique sounds

Newer advances in synthesizer and sampler technology have allowed Lee to store familiar sounds from his old synthesizers alongside new ones in combination synthesizer/samplers, such as the Roland XV-5080. For live shows in 2002 and 2004, Lee and his keyboard technician used the playback capabilities of the XV-5080 to generate virtually all of Rush's keyboard sounds to date, as well as additional complex sound passages that previously required several machines at once to produce.

When playing live, Lee and his bandmates recreate their songs as accurately as possible with digital samplers. Using these samplers, the band members are able to recreate, in real-time, the sounds of non-traditional instruments, accompaniments, vocal harmonies, and other sound "events" that are familiar to those who have heard Rush songs from their albums.

To trigger these sounds in real-time, Lee uses MIDI controllers, placed at the locations on the stage where he has a microphone stand. Lee uses two types of MIDI controllers: one type resembles a traditional synthesizer keyboard on a stand (Yamaha KX76). The second type is a large foot-pedal keyboard, placed on the stage floor (Korg MPK-130, Roland PK-5). Combined, they enable Lee to use his free hands and feet to trigger sounds in electronic equipment that has been placed off-stage. It is with this technology that Lee and his bandmates are able to present their arrangements in a live setting with the level of complexity and fidelity that fans have come to expect, and without the need to resort to the use of backing tracks or employing an additional band member.

Lee's (and his bandmates') use of MIDI controllers to trigger sampled instruments and audio events is visible throughout the R30: 30th Anniversary World Tour concert DVD (2005).

In the Snakes and Arrows tour, Lee used a Roland Fantom X7 and a Moog Little Phatty synthesizer.

Unique stage equipment
Rush live in concert, with rotisseries and chef in background.

As of 1996, Lee no longer uses traditional bass amplifiers on stage, as he prefers to go direct into the venue's FOH console which helps the sound reinforcement during their concerts. Faced with the dilemma of what to do with the empty space left behind by the lack of large amplifier cabinets, Lee chose to fill the space in a unique way. For the 2002 Vapor Trails tour, Lee lined his side of the stage with three coin-operated Maytag dryers. Other large appliances would appear later in the same space. (Lee had earlier decorated his side of the stage with unusual items. For the 1996-1997 Test for Echo tour, Lee's side sported a fully-stocked old-fashioned household refrigerator.)

For every concert that featured the dryers, Rush's crew would load them with specially-designed Rush-themed T-shirts, different from the shirts on sale to the general public. At the close of each show, Lee and Lifeson would then toss these special T-shirts into the arms of lucky audience members.

For the band's R30 tour, one dryer was replaced with a rotating shelf-style vending machine. It too was fully stocked and operational during shows.

When asked about the purpose of the dryers in interviews, Lee was purposefully vague. The irony and non sequitur of placing such unusual items on a concert stage were Lee's way of expressing his sense of humor. He fed the mystery by responding to one interview question about the dryers, saying he chose to use them for their "warm, dry tone".[citation needed] The dryers can be seen on the Rush in Rio DVD and the R30 DVD. The vending machine can be seen on the R30 DVD.

To add to the humorous effect, Lee's dryers were, purely for visual effect "miked" by the sound crew, just as a real amplifier would be.

In interviews dated May 2007, Lee has stated that he is considering entirely new non-musical equipment to further his established comic effect for Rush's Snakes & Arrows tour. The tour commenced June 13, 2007, with a show at the Hi-Fi Buys Amphitheatre in Atlanta, Georgia. The show prominently featured 3 Henhouse brand rotisserie chicken ovens on stage complete with an attendant in a chef's hat and apron to "tend" the chickens during the show.[22] Such unorthodox stage equipment has been continuously seen thereafter.

Baseball

On June 5, 2008, Lee donated his entire collection of nearly 200 autographed Negro League baseballs to the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City, Missouri.[23] Bob Kendrick, a director at the museum stated "Some of these guys have been dead for some time, and we could not get these (signatures) before no matter what their significance was in the Negro Leagues".[24][dead link] At the time, Lee's gift was one of the largest single donations the NLBM had ever received.

Lee is also frequently seen at Toronto Blue Jays home games at the Rogers Center.

Awards
Rush portal

* Bass Hall of Fame – Guitar Player magazine
* 6 time winner: "Best Rock Bass" – Guitar Player magazine
* 1993 – "Best Rock Bass Player" Bass Player readers' poll
* 1994 – With Rush, inducted into the Juno Hall of Fame
* 1996 – Officer of the Order of Canada, along with fellow band mates Alex Lifeson and Neil Peart
* Best Album for Bass (Snakes & Arrows) – Bass Player magazine
* "Coolest Bass Line in a Song" (for "Malignant Narcissism") – Bass Player magazine
* "Best 2007 Cover Feature" for "Northern Warrior" – Bass Player magazine


In addition to his composing, arranging, and performing duties for Rush, Lee has produced albums for various other bands, including Rocket Science. Lee's first solo effort, My Favourite Headache, was released in 2000.

Along with his Rush bandmates—Lifeson and drummer Neil Peart—Lee was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on May 9, 1996. The trio was the first rock band to be so honored, as a group.

On May 1, 2007, Rush released Snakes & Arrows, their eighteenth full-length studio album. Lee and the rest of the band recently toured in support of Snakes & Arrows across North America, which began in Atlanta, GA on June 13, 2007 and ended its second leg on July 24, 2008.

Rabu, 03 Maret 2010

Freddie Mercury (queen)


Freddie Mercury (born Farrokh Bulsara (Gujarati: ફ્રારુક બુલ્સારા‌), 5 September 1946 – 24 November 1991), was a British musician, best known as the lead vocalist of the rock band Queen. As a performer, he was known for his powerful vocals and flamboyant performances.[1][2][3] As a songwriter, he composed many hits, including "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", "Barcelona", and "We Are the Champions". Led by Mercury, Queen had sold more than 300 million albums internationally by 2009.

In addition to his work with Queen, he also led a solo career and was occasionally a producer and guest musician (piano or vocals) for other artists. Mercury, who was a Parsi and grew up in India, has been referred to as "Britain's first Asian rock star".[8] He died of bronchopneumonia brought on by AIDS on 24 November 1991, only one day after publicly acknowledging he had the disease. In 2006, Time Asia named him as one of the most influential Asian heroes of the past 60 years,[9] and he continues to be voted as one of the greatest singers in the history of popular music. In 2005, a poll organised by Blender and MTV2 saw Mercury voted the greatest male singer of all time.[10] In 2009, a Classic Rock poll saw him voted the greatest rock singer of all time.[11] In 2008, Rolling Stone ranked him number 18 on their list of the 100 greatest singers of all time, reflecting the magazine's editorial opinion.[2] Allmusic has characterised Mercury as "one of the most dynamic and charismatic frontmen in rock history."
Early life
The house where Mercury lived in his early years

Mercury was born on the island of Zanzibar, now part of Tanzania. His parents, Bomi and Jer Bulsara,[a] were Parsis from the Gujarat region of the then province of Bombay Presidency in British India.[13][b] The family surname is derived from the town of Bulsar (also known as Valsad) in southern Gujarat. As Parsis, Freddie and his family practised the Zoroastrian religion and Freddie was proud of his Persian ancestry.[2] The Bulsara family had moved to Zanzibar in order for his father to continue his job as a cashier at the British Colonial Office. He had one younger sister, Kashmira.[14]

In 1954, at the age of eight, Mercury was sent to study at St. Peter's School,[15] a boarding school for boys in Panchgani near Mumbai, India.[16] At school, he formed a popular school band, called The Hectics, for which he played the piano. A friend from the time recalls that he had "an uncanny ability to listen to the radio and replay what he heard on piano".[17] It was also at St. Peter's where he began to call himself "Freddie". Mercury remained in India for most of his childhood, living with his grandmother and aunt. He completed his education in India at St. Mary's School, Mumbai.

At the age of 17, Mercury and his family fled from Zanzibar for safety reasons due to the 1964 Zanzibar Revolution.[8] The family moved into a small house in Feltham, Middlesex, England. Mercury enrolled at Isleworth Polytechnic (now West Thames College) in West London where he studied art. He ultimately earned a Diploma in Art and Graphic Design at Ealing Art College, later using these skills to design the Queen crest. Mercury remained a British citizen for the rest of his life.

Following graduation, Mercury joined a series of bands and sold second-hand clothes in the Kensington Market in London. He also held a job at Heathrow Airport. Friends from the time remember him as a quiet and shy young man who showed a great deal of interest in music.[19] In 1969 he formed the band Ibex, which was later renamed Wreckage. When this band failed to take off, he joined a second band called Sour Milk Sea. However, by early 1970, this group broke up as well.

In April 1970, Mercury joined with guitarist Brian May and drummer Roger Taylor who had previously been in a band called Smile. Despite reservations from the other members, Mercury chose the name "Queen" for the new band. He later said about the band's name, "I was certainly aware of the gay connotations, but that was just one facet of it".[21] At about the same time, Mercury also changed his own name.


As a child, Mercury listened to a considerable amount of Indian music, and one of his early influences was the Bollywood playback singer Lata Mangeshkar, whom he had the opportunity to see live in India.[22] After moving to England, Mercury became a fan of Aretha Franklin, The Who, Jim Croce, Elvis Presley, Led Zeppelin, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, and The Beatles.[23] Another one of Mercury's favourite performers was singer and actress Liza Minnelli. He once explained: "One of my early inspirations came from Cabaret. I absolutely adore Liza Minnelli. The way she delivers her songs — the sheer energy."[24]
Career
Singer

Although Mercury's speaking voice naturally fell in the baritone range, he delivered most songs in the tenor range.[25] Biographer David Bret described his voice as "escalating within a few bars from a deep, throaty rock-growl to tender, vibrant tenor, then on to a high-pitched, perfect coloratura, pure and crystalline in the upper reaches".[26] Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé, with whom Mercury recorded an album, expressed her opinion that "the difference between Freddie and almost all the other rock stars was that he was selling the voice".[27] As Queen's career progressed, he would increasingly alter the highest notes of their songs when live, often harmonising with seconds, thirds or fifths instead. Mercury suffered from vocal fold nodules and claimed never to have had any formal vocal training.
Songwriter

Mercury wrote 10 of the 17 songs on Queen's Greatest Hits album: "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Seven Seas of Rhye", "Killer Queen", "Somebody to Love", "Good Old-Fashioned Lover Boy", "We Are the Champions", "Bicycle Race", "Don't Stop Me Now", "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and "Play the Game".

The most notable aspect of his songwriting involved the wide range of genres that he used, which included, among other styles, rockabilly, progressive rock, heavy metal, gospel, and disco. As he explained in a 1986 interview, "I hate doing the same thing again and again and again. I like to see what's happening now in music, film and theatre and incorporate all of those things."[29] Compared to many popular songwriters, Mercury also tended to write musically complex material. For example, "Bohemian Rhapsody" is acyclic in structure and comprises dozens of chords.[30][31] "Crazy Little Thing Called Love", on the other hand, contains only a few chords. Despite the fact that Mercury often wrote very intricate harmonies, he also claimed that he could barely read music.[32] He wrote most of his songs on the piano and used a wide variety of different key signatures.[30]
[edit] Live performer
Mercury, performing live with his bottomless microphone stand

Mercury is noted for his live performances, which were often delivered to stadium audiences around the world. He displayed a highly theatrical style that often evoked a great deal of participation from the crowd. A writer for The Spectator described him as "a performer out to tease, shock and ultimately charm his audience with various extravagant versions of himself".[33] David Bowie, who performed at the Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert and recorded the song "Under Pressure" with Queen, praised Mercury's performance style, saying: "Of all the more theatrical rock performers, Freddie took it further than the rest... he took it over the edge. And of course, I always admired a man who wears tights. I only saw him in concert once and as they say, he was definitely a man who could hold an audience in the palm of his hand."

One of Mercury's most notable performances with Queen took place at Live Aid in 1985, during which the entire stadium audience of 72,000 people clapped, sang, and swayed in unison. Queen's performance at the event has since been voted by a group of music executives as the greatest live performance in the history of rock music. The results were aired on a television program called "The World's Greatest Gigs".[35][36] In reviewing Live Aid in 2005, one critic wrote, "Those who compile lists of Great Rock Frontmen and award the top spots to Mick Jagger, Robert Plant, etc all are guilty of a terrible oversight. Freddie, as evidenced by his Dionysian Live Aid performance, was easily the most godlike of them all."

Over the course of his career, Mercury performed an estimated 700 concerts in countries around the world with Queen. A notable aspect of Queen concerts was the large scale involved.[29] He once explained, "We're the Cecil B. DeMille of rock and roll, always wanting to do things bigger and better."[29] The band were the first ever to play in South American stadiums, breaking worldwide records for concert attendance in the Morumbi Stadium in São Paulo in 1981.[38] In 1986, Queen also played behind the Iron Curtain, when they performed to a crowd of 80,000 in Budapest.[39] Mercury's final live performance with Queen took place on 9 August 1986 at Knebworth Park in England and drew an attendance estimated as high as 300,000.
Instrumentalist
Freddie Mercury playing guitar during a live concert with Queen in Frankfurt, 1984.

As a young boy in India, Mercury received formal piano training up to the age of nine. Later on, while living in London, he learned guitar. Much of the music he liked was guitar-oriented: his favourite artists at the time were The Who, the Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, David Bowie and Led Zeppelin. He was often self-deprecating about his own skills on both instruments and from the early 1980s onwards began extensively using guest keyboardists for both Queen and his solo career. Most notably, he enlisted Fred Mandel (an American musician who also worked for Pink Floyd, Elton John, and Supertramp) for his first solo project, and from 1985 onwards collaborated extensively with Mike Moran, leaving most of the keyboard work exclusively to him.

Mercury played the piano in many of Queen's most popular songs, including "Killer Queen", "Bohemian Rhapsody", "Good Old Fashioned Lover Boy", "We Are the Champions", "Somebody To Love" and "Don't Stop Me Now". He used concert grand pianos and, occasionally, other keyboard instruments such as the harpsichord. From 1980 onwards, he also made extensive use of synthesisers in the studio. Queen guitarist Brian May claims that Mercury was unimpressed with his own abilities at the piano and used the instrument less over time because he wanted to walk around onstage and entertain the audience.[41] Although he wrote many lines for guitar, Mercury possessed only rudimentary skills on the instrument. Songs like "Ogre Battle" and "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" were composed on guitar; the latter famously featured Mercury playing acoustic guitar both on stage and in the studio.
Solo career

In addition to his work with Queen, Mercury put out two solo albums and several singles. Although his solo work was not as commercially successful as most Queen albums, the two off-Queen albums and several of the singles debuted in the top 10 of the UK Album Charts. His first solo effort involved the contribution to the song Love Kills on the 1984 album and new soundtrack to the 1926 Fritz Lang film Metropolis. The song, which was produced by Giorgio Moroder, debuted at the number 10 position in the UK charts.

Mercury's two full albums outside the band were Mr. Bad Guy (1985) and Barcelona (1988). The former is a pop-oriented album that emphasises disco and dance music. "Barcelona" was recorded with the opera singer Montserrat Caballé, whom he had long admired. Mr. Bad Guy debuted in the top ten of the UK Album Charts.[42] In 1993, a remix of "Living on My Own", a single from the album, reached the #1 position on the UK Singles Charts.[43] The song also garnered Mercury a posthumous Ivor Novello Award. Allmusic critic Eduardo Rivadavia describes Mr. Bad Guy as "outstanding from start to finish" and expressed his view that Mercury "did a commendable job of stretching into uncharted territory".[44] In particular, the album is heavily synthesiser-driven in a way that is not characteristic of previous Queen albums.

Barcelona, recorded with Spanish soprano Montserrat Caballé, combines elements of popular music and opera. Many critics were uncertain what to make of the album; one referred to it as "the most bizarre CD of the year".[45] Caballé, on the other hand, considered the album to have been one of the great successes of her career. The title song from the album debuted at the #8 position in the UK charts and was a hit in Spain,[46] where the song received massive air play as the official hymn of the 1992 Summer Olympics (held in Barcelona one year after Mercury's death). Ms. Caballé sang it live at the opening of the Olympics with Mercury's part played on a screen.

In addition to the two solo albums, Mercury released several singles, including his own version of the hit The Great Pretender by The Platters, which debuted at number five in the UK in 1987.[42] In September 2006, a compilation album featuring Mercury's solo work was released in the UK in honour of what would have been his 60th birthday. The album debuted in the top 10 of the UK Album Charts.

In 1981-1983, Mercury recorded several tracks with Michael Jackson, including a demo of "State of Shock", "Victory" and "There Must Be More to Life Than This"; none of these collaborations were officially released, although bootleg recordings exist. Jackson went on to record the former song with Mick Jagger for The Jacksons, and Mercury included the solo version of the latter song on his Mr. Bad Guy album.
Personal life

In the early 1970s Mercury had a long-term relationship with Mary Austin, whom he had met through guitarist Brian May. He lived with Austin for several years in West Kensington. By the mid-1970s, however, the singer had begun an affair with a male American record executive at Elektra Records, which ultimately resulted in the end of his relationship with Austin.[48] Mercury and Austin nevertheless remained close friends through the years, with Mercury often referring to her as his only true friend. In a 1985 interview, Mercury said of Austin, "All my lovers asked me why they couldn't replace Mary [Austin], but it's simply impossible. The only friend I've got is Mary and I don't want anybody else. To me, she was my common-law wife. To me, it was a marriage. We believe in each other, that's enough for me."[49] He also wrote several songs about Austin, the most notable of which is "Love of My Life". Mercury was also the godfather of Mary's eldest son, Richard.
By 1979, Mercury began to frequently visit gay bathhouses and clubs where he met many short-term partners.[50] By 1985, he began another long-term relationship with a hairdresser named Jim Hutton. Hutton, who himself was tested HIV-positive in 1990,[51] lived with Mercury for the last six years of his life, nursed him during his illness and was present at his bedside when he died. Hutton also claims that Mercury died wearing a wedding band that Hutton had given him.[51] Hutton passed away 1 January 2010 due to complications of a smoking-related illness.

Although he cultivated a very flamboyant stage personality, Mercury was a very shy and retiring man in person, particularly around people he didn't know well.[14][17][27] He also granted very few interviews. Mercury once said of himself: "When I'm performing I'm an extrovert, yet inside I'm a completely different man."

Death

According to his partner Jim Hutton, Mercury was diagnosed with AIDS shortly after Easter of 1987.[54] Around that time, Mercury claimed in an interview to have tested negative for the virus.[27] Despite the denials, the British press pursued the rampant rumours over the next few years, fuelled by Mercury's increasingly gaunt appearance, Queen's absence from touring, and reports from former lovers to various tabloid journals.[55] Toward the end of his life, he was routinely stalked by photographers, while the daily tabloid newspaper The Sun featured a series of articles claiming that he was seriously ill.

On 22 November 1991, Mercury called Queen's manager Jim Beach over to his Kensington home, to discuss a public statement. The next day, 23 November, the following announcement was made to the press on behalf of Mercury

Following the enormous conjecture in the press over the last two weeks, I wish to confirm that I have been tested HIV positive and have AIDS. I felt it correct to keep this information private to date to protect the privacy of those around me. However, the time has come now for my friends and fans around the world to know the truth and I hope that everyone will join with me, my doctors, and all those worldwide in the fight against this terrible disease. My privacy has always been very special to me and I am famous for my lack of interviews. Please understand this policy will continue.

A little over 24 hours after issuing that statement, Mercury died on 24 November 1991 at the age of 45. The official cause of death was bronchial pneumonia resulting from AIDS.[57] Although he had not attended religious services in years, Mercury's funeral was conducted by a Zoroastrian priest. Elton John, David Bowie, and the remaining members of Queen attended the funeral. He was cremated at Kensal Green Cemetery and his ashes scattered on the shores of Lake Geneva, near Montreux, Switzerland, where Mercury lived his last years and where there is his commemorative monument.

In his will, Mercury left the vast majority of his wealth, including his home and recording royalties, to Mary Austin, and the remainder to his parents and sister. He further left £500,000 to his chef Joe Fanelli, £500,000 to his personal assistant Peter Freestone, £100,000 to his driver Terry Giddings, and £500,000 to Jim Hutton.[58] Mary Austin continues to live at Mercury's home, Garden Lodge, Kensington, with her family.[58] Hutton moved back to the Republic of Ireland in 1995, where he died on 1 January 2010. He was involved in a 2000 biography of Mercury, Freddie Mercury, the Untold Story, and also gave an interview for The Times for what would have been Mercury's 60th birthday.cf.
Criticism and controversy
HIV status and sexual orientation

Mercury hid his HIV status from the public for many years, and it has been suggested that he could have raised a great deal of money and awareness earlier by speaking truthfully about his situation and his fight against the disease.[34][59] While some critics have also suggested that Mercury hid his sexual orientation from the public,[8][27][60] other sources refer to the singer as having been "openly gay".[9][61] Mercury referred to himself as "gay" in a 1974 interview with NME magazine.[62] He also referred to himself as "bisexual" on occasion.[63][64] On the other hand, he would often distance himself from partner, Jim Hutton, during public events in the 1980s.[51] A writer for a gay online newspaper felt that audiences may have been overly naive about the matter: "While in many respects he was overtly queer his whole career ("I am as gay as a daffodil, my dear" being one of his most famous quotes), his sexual orientation seemed to pass over the heads of scrutinising audiences and pundits (both gay and straight) for decades".[65] John Marshall of Gay Times expressed the following opinion in 1992: "He [Mercury] was a 'scene-queen', not afraid to publicly express his gayness but unwilling to analyse or justify his 'lifestyle' ... It was as if Freddie Mercury was saying to the world, "I am what I am. So what?" And that in itself for some was a statement."
Other controversies

Members of Queen were widely criticised in the 1980s for the fact that they broke a United Nations cultural boycott by performing a series of shows at Sun City in 1984, an entertainment complex in Bophuthatswana, a homeland of (then) apartheid South Africa. As a result of these shows, Queen was placed on a United Nations list of artists who broke the boycott and was widely criticised in magazines such as the NME.

A further controversy ensued in August 2006, when an organisation calling itself the Islamic Mobilization and Propagation petitioned the Zanzibar government's culture ministry, demanding that a large-scale celebration of what would have been Mercury's sixtieth birthday be cancelled. The organisation issued several complaints about the planned celebrations, including that Mercury was not a true Zanzibari and that he was gay, which is not in accordance with their interpretation of sharia. The organisation claimed that "associating Mercury with Zanzibar degrades our island as a place of Islam". The planned celebration was cancelled.
Legacy
Continued popularity

The extent to which Mercury's death may have enhanced Queen's popularity is not clear. In the United States, where Queen's popularity had lagged in the 1980s, sales of Queen albums went up dramatically in 1992, the year following his death.[66] In 1992 one American critic noted, "what cynics call the 'dead star' factor had come into play — Queen is in the middle of a major resurgence".[67] The movie Wayne's World, which featured "Bohemian Rhapsody", also came out in 1992. According to the Recording Industry Association of America, Queen have sold 32.5 million albums in the United States, about half of which have been sold since Mercury's death in 1991.
Estimates of Queen's total worldwide record sales to date have been set as high as 300 million.[69] In the UK, Queen have now spent more collective weeks on the UK Album Charts than any other musical act (including The Beatles),[70] and Queen's Greatest Hits is the highest selling album of all time in the UK.[71] Two of Mercury's songs, "We Are the Champions" and "Bohemian Rhapsody", have also each been voted as the greatest song of all time in major polls by Sony Ericsson[72] and Guinness World Records, respectively. The former poll was an attempt to determine the world's favourite song, while the Guinness poll took place in the UK. In October 2007, the video for "Bohemian Rhapsody" was voted the greatest of all time by readers of Q magazine.[74] Mercury was voted second to Mariah Carey in MTV's 22 Greatest Voices in Music.[9] Additionally, in May 2009, Classic Rock magazine voted Freddie Mercury as the greatest singer in rock.[citation needed]
Tributes


A statue in Montreux, Switzerland (by sculptor Irena Sedlecka) has been erected as a tribute to Mercury. It stands 3 metres high overlooking Lake Geneva and was unveiled on 25 November 1996 by Freddie's father and Montserrat Caballé. Beginning in 2003, fans from around the world gather in Switzerland annually to pay tribute to the singer as part of the "Freddie Mercury Montreux Memorial Day" on the first weekend of September.[75] A Royal Mail stamp was issued in honour of Mercury as part of the Millennium Stamp series. A plaque was also erected at the site of the family home in Feltham where Mercury and his family moved upon arriving in England in 1964.

A tribute to Queen has been on display at the Fremont Street Experience in downtown Las Vegas throughout 2009 on its video canopy. In December 2009 a large model of Mercury wearing tartan was put on display in the centre of Edinburgh as publicity for the run of We Will Rock You at the Playhouse Theatre.

In late 2009 a plaque was installed in Feltham High Street in memory of his achievements.

A statue of Mercury stands over the entrance to the Dominion Theatre in London where the main show, from May 2002, has been Ben Elton's We Will Rock You.
Importance in AIDS history

Freddie Mercury's death represented an important event in the history of AIDS.In April 1992, the remaining members of Queen founded The Mercury Phoenix Trust and organised The Freddie Mercury Tribute Concert for AIDS Awareness, which took place Easter Monday, 20 April 1992.[77] The Mercury Phoenix Trust has since raised millions of pounds for various AIDS charities. The tribute concert, which took place at Wembley Stadium for an audience of 72,000, featured a wide variety of guests including Robert Plant, Roger Daltrey, Extreme, Elton John, Metallica, David Bowie, Annie Lennox, Tony Iommi, Guns N' Roses, Elizabeth Taylor, George Michael, Def Leppard and Liza Minnelli. The concert was broadcast live to 76 countries and had an estimated viewing audience of 1 billion people.
Appearances in lists of influential individuals

Several popularity polls conducted over the past decade indicate that Freddie Mercury's reputation may in fact have been enhanced since his death. For instance, in 2002 he was ranked number 58 in the list of the 100 Greatest Britons, sponsored by the BBC and voted for by the public.[79] He was further listed at the 52nd spot in a 2007 Japanese national survey of the 100 most "influential heroes".[80] Despite the fact that he had been criticised by gay activists for hiding his HIV status, author Paul Russell included Mercury in his book "The Gay 100: A Ranking of the Most Influential Gay Men and Lesbians, Past and Present."[81] Other entertainers on Russell's list included Liberace and Rock Hudson. In 2006, Time Asia magazine named him as one of the most influential Asian heroes of the past 60 years: The article credited Mercury with having "duplicated in popular music what other Indians — such as Salman Rushdie and Vikram Seth — have done in literature: taking the coloniser's art form and representing it in a manner richer and more dazzling than many Anglophones thought possible."[9] Mercury was also included in Rolling Stone's list of the "Top 100 Singers Of All Time", falling at number 18.
Film

Speaking about rumours of a film of the life of Freddie Mercury, Brian May in 2007 said he was planning to make a film with Robert De Niro and other Queen band member Roger Taylor. In December 2007, the UK website filmstalker reported that the screenplay, entitled Somebody to Love and focusing on one week in Mercury's life, had been circulating in Hollywood. By September 2008, the predominant rumour held that the script drew no support from major studios, and little further was heard.[citation needed]
[edit] Discography
Queen (band) portal
Main article: Freddie Mercury discography
See also: Queen discography
Studio albums
Album information
Mr. Bad Guy

* Released: 29 April 1985
* Chart positions: United Kingdom #6; Germany #11; Norway #13; Switzerland #14; Japan, Netherlands; Sweden #20; Austria # 23.
* Singles: "I Was Born to Love You", "Made in Heaven", "Living on My Own", "Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow".

Barcelona

* Released: 10 October 1988
* Chart positions: Netherlands #9; United Kingdom #15; Switzerland #18; Austria #24; Sweden #37; Germany #41; Japan #93.
* Singles: "Barcelona", "The Golden Boy", "How Can I Go On".

Compilation albums
Album information
The Freddie Mercury Album

* Released: 16 November 1992
* Chart positions: #1: Italy; #2 Austria; #3 Germany; #4 UK; #5 France; #8 Netherlands, Switzerland; #12 Norway; #20 Netherland; #35 Sweden; #64 Japan.

Remixes

* Released: 1993
* Chart positions: #18 Switzerland; #22 Germany; #25 Austria.

The Great Pretender

* Released: 24 November 1992 (U.S.)
* Chart positions: #13 France; #14 Sweden; #15 Switzerland; #26 Austria.

Solo

* Released: 2000
* Chart positions: #13 UK; #21 Netherlands; #36 Austria; #42 Switzerland; #55 Germany.

Lover of Life, Singer of Songs — The Very Best of Freddie Mercury Solo

* Released: 4 September 2006
* Chart positions: #1: Italy 1; #6: Spain, United Kingdom (gold); #7 Austria; #8: Norway; #9: Hungary; #11: Portugal; #13: Germany; #14: France, Mexico, Sweden; #16 Switzerland; #26: Ireland; #30: Netherlands; #55: Finland; #60: Denmark; #65: Japan; #69: Belgium.

Box Set
Album information
The Solo Collection

* Released: 23 October 2000
* Chart positions:

Singles

* Love Kills (co-written with Giorgio Moroder; Used on the soundtrack for the 1984 reissue of Metropolis) (1984) UK #10
* I Was Born to Love You (1985) UK #11, US #76
* Made in Heaven (1985) UK #57
* Living on My Own (1985) UK #50
* Love Me Like There's No Tomorrow (1985) UK #76
* Time (1986) UK #32
* The Great Pretender (1987, re-released 1993) UK #4, France #16
* Barcelona (with Montserrat Caballé) (1987) UK #8
* The Golden Boy (with Montserrat Caballé) (1988) UK #86
* How Can I Go On (with Montserrat Caballé) (1989, re-released 1992) UK #95
* Barcelona (with Montserrat Caballé) (reissue) (1992) UK #2, France #10
* In My Defence (1992) UK #8, France #74
* The Great Pretender (reissue) (1993) UK #29
* Living on My Own (No More Brothers remix, 1993) UK #1 (2 weeks), France #1
* Love Kills (Sunshine People Remixes, 2006)
Collaborations and guest appearances

* 1973 "I Can Hear Music" / "Goin' Back" by Larry Lurex piano and lead vocals.
* 1975 All four members of Queen helped produce a session with the soul band Trax. Nothing was ever released.
* 1976 "Man From Manhattan" by Eddie Howell played piano and produced this track.
* 1976 "You Nearly Did Me In" by Ian Hunter backing vocals on this song, from the album "All-American Alien Boy".
* 1978 "This One's On Me" by Peter Straker backing vocals and co-produced this album with Roy Thomas Baker.
* 1982 "Emotions in Motion" by Billy Squier backing vocals on this song, from album of same name. Also on the 1996 Billy Squier anthology "Reach For The Sky".
* 1983 "Victory", "There Must Be More To Life Than This" and "State of Shock" were recorded by Freddie and Michael Jackson, but never released.
* 1986 "Love Is The Hero" by Billy Squier backing vocals on this song from the album "Enough Is Enough". Freddie sings the intro on the 12" single. also co-wrote and co-produced track "Lady With a Tenor Sax", from the same album Both also on the 1996 Billy Squier anthology "Reach For The Sky".
* 1986 "Hold On" duet with Jo Dare co-wrote this song from the German soundtrack of "Zabou".
* 1988 "Heaven For Everyone" by The Cross lead vocals on the LP version, backing vocals on the single version (or the version on the US album) from the album "Shove It".
* 1994 "Man From Manhattan" by Eddie Howell played piano and produced this re-released single from the album of the same name.

Notes
a) ^ On Mercury's birth certificate,[13] his parents defined themselves with "Nationality: British Indian" and "Race: Parsi". The Parsis are an originally Persian ethnic group of the Indian subcontinent who follow Zoroastrianism.
b) ^ The Bulsara family gets its name from Bulsar, a city and district that is now in the Indian state of Gujarat and is today officially known as Valsad. In the 17th century, Bulsar was one of the five centres of the Zoroastrian religion (the other four were also in what is today Gujarat) and consequently "Bulsara" is a relatively common name amongst Zoroastrians.
c) ^ Mercury is also portrayed as himself in the animated show Cromartie High School as the character Freddie, and in the British Channel 4 show House Of Rock along with Marc Bolan, John Lennon, Notorious BIG, John Denver and Kurt Cobain.
References

1. ^ Dance: Deux the fandango.
2. ^ a b c RollingStone.com - 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
3. ^ The Great British Battle of the Bands.
4. ^ "'Queen: Absolute Greatest'". BBC. 6 November 2009. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/breakfast/8346221.stm. "...the group which formed back in the 1970s sold more than 300 million albums worldwide."
5. ^ Goldsmith, Johnny. "Freddie Mercury". Daily Mirror. http://blogs.mirror.co.uk/mirror-images/2009/11/one-from-the-daily-mirror-pict.html. Retrieved 2010-02-02.
6. ^ Chalk, Andy. "Brian May Says Queen: Rock Band "May Happen"". The Escapist. http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/95425-Brian-May-Says-Queen-Rock-Band-May-Happen. Retrieved 2010-02-02.
7. ^ Wickersham, Seth. "We will rock you". ESPN. http://insider.espn.go.com/insider/insider/news/story?id=4864482. Retrieved 2010-02-11.
8. ^ a b c Januszczak 1996.
9. ^ a b c d Fitzpatrick 2006.
10. ^ list of Blender and MTV2's "22 Greatest Voices" (archived at www.amiannoying.com).
11. ^ Classic Rock, "50 Greatest Singers in Rock", May 2009
12. ^ Allmusic: Queen biography
13. ^ a b "Linda B" 2000.
14. ^ a b Das 2000.
15. ^ Freddie Mercury India School Tour.
16. ^ Freddie Mercury Biography.
17. ^ a b O'Donnell 2005.
18. ^ "Tribute to King of “Queen” Freddie Mercury | NowPublic News Coverage". Nowpublic.com. http://www.nowpublic.com/culture/tribute-king-queen-freddie-mercury. Retrieved 22 November 2009.
19. ^ Davis 1996, pp. 1,10.
20. ^ Skala 2006.
21. ^ Highleyman 2005.
22. ^ Bret 1996, p. 7.
23. ^ Davis 1996, p. 2.
24. ^ Rush 1977a.
25. ^ Freddie Mercury: an intimate memoir ... - Google Books. Books.google.com. http://books.google.com/books?id=AH8zZsbmB98C&pg=PA100&dq=Freddie+Mercury+tenor&ei=URG_SqGSFp6SygTo4sW-Dw&client=safari#v=onepage&q=Freddie%20Mercury%20tenor&f=false. Retrieved 22 November 2009.
26. ^ Bret 1996, p. 26.
27. ^ a b c d Cain 2006.
28. ^ Rush 1977b.
29. ^ a b c Wenner 2001.
30. ^ a b Queen 1992.
31. ^ Aledort 2003.
32. ^ Coleman 1981.
33. ^ Blaikie 1996.
34. ^ a b Ressner 1992
35. ^ Minchin 2005.
36. ^ BBC News 2005b.
37. ^ a b Harris 2005.
38. ^ Bret 1996, p. 91.
39. ^ Pye 1986.
40. ^ Jones 1999.
41. ^ a b Longfellow 2006
42. ^ a b c Rees & Crampton 1999, p. 809.
43. ^ Rees & Crampton 1999, p. 811.
44. ^ Rivadavia .
45. ^ Bradley 1992.
46. ^ Rees & Crampton 1999, p. 810.
47. ^ ukmusic.com 2006
48. ^ Teckman 2004, part 2.
49. ^ Hauptfuhrer 1977.
50. ^ Teckman 2004, part 3.
51. ^ a b c Hutton 1994.
52. ^ http://www.brianmay.com/brian/brianssb/brianssb.html
53. ^ Myers 1991.
54. ^ a b Teeman 2006
55. ^ Bret 1996, p. 138
56. ^ Bret 1996, p. 179.
57. ^ Biography Channel 2007.
58. ^ a b Wigg 2000.
59. ^ Sky 1992, p. 163
60. ^ Landesman 2006
61. ^ a b BBC News 2006
62. ^ Webb 1974
63. ^ [1][dead link]
64. ^ Freddie Mercury bisexual
65. ^ a b Urban
66. ^ RIAA 2007.
67. ^ Brown 1992.
68. ^ "Gold & Platinum - 22 November 2009". RIAA. http://www.riaa.com/goldandplatinumdata.php?table=tblTopArt. Retrieved 22 November 2009.
69. ^ Cota 2006
70. ^ BBC 2005a.
71. ^ Brown 2006.
72. ^ Haines 2005
73. ^ CNN 2002
74. ^ BBC News 2007.
75. ^ Bishton 2004.
76. ^ National AIDS Trust 2006
77. ^ Stothard 1992
78. ^ ABC Television 2007
79. ^ BBC - 100 great British heroes
80. ^ "James" 2007
81. ^ Russell 2002

^ Notation done in Scientific Pitch, and thus is written one octave lower than what is displayed here.
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* WENN (9 April 2005), "Legend Freddie Mercury Honoured", Femalefirst.co.uk (Wigan, Lancs), http://www.femalefirst.co.uk/entertainment/Freddie+Mercury-3960.html .
* Wenner, Jann, et al. (2001), "Queen", Hall of Fame Inductees, Cleveland: Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, http://www.rockhall.com/inductee/queen .
* Wigg, David (22 January 2000), "Mercury Left Me His Millions", Daily Mail Weekend, http://www.freddie.ru/e/archives/daily_mail/ .

Kamis, 18 Februari 2010

Michael Balzary (flea)-RHCP


Michael Peter Balzary (born October 16, 1962), more commonly known by the stage name Flea, is an Australian-American bassist, trumpet player, and occasional actor. He is best known as the bassist and co-founding member of the alternative rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. His work with the band incorporates several musical styles, ranging from aggressive slap bass to more subdued and melodic techniques. Aside from the Red Hot Chili Peppers, he has collaborated with many artists, including Jane's Addiction, Thom Yorke, The Mars Volta, and Alanis Morissette. Drawing influences from funk music and punk rock, Flea centers his bass playing on simplicity and minimalism while viewing complexity as a device that should be used in moderation.

Originally a trumpet prodigy, Flea learned to play bass in high school from close friend and future Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Hillel Slovak, who required a bassist for his band Anthym. Flea joined the group, but quit several months later in order to play for the punk rock outfit Fear. He soon rejoined Slovak to form an intended one-off band along with fellow high school alumni Anthony Kiedis and Jack Irons; the impromptu collaboration would ultimately give birth to the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Flea has made numerous forays into acting, appearing in films that span many genres such as Back to the Future Part II (1989), My Own Private Idaho (1991), and The Big Lebowski (1998).Contents
1 Biography
1.1 Early life
1.2 1980–1984: Formation of the Red Hot Chili Peppers
1.3 1984–1990: First four albums
1.4 1990–1998: Mainstream success and side projects
1.5 1998–present: Californication, By the Way and Stadium Arcadium
2 Musical style
2.1 Technique
2.2 Influences
3 Film and television appearances
4 Discography
5 References
6 Notes
7 External links


Biography

Early life

Flea was born in Melbourne, Australia, on October 16, 1962. His father, Mick Balzary, was an avid fisherman who would often take him fishing.[1] When Flea was five, his family relocated to Rye, New York for his father's career.[2] In 1971, his parents divorced and his father returned to Australia. Flea and his siblings stayed with their mother Patricia, who soon remarried to a jazz musician.[2] Flea's stepfather frequently invited musicians to his house and jam sessions would often take place. The family relocated again to Los Angeles, California, and Flea became fascinated with the trumpet.[3][4] His teachers considered him to be a prodigy, paralleled only by musician Herb Alpert, who also attended Fairfax High.[5] Furthermore, he had no interest in rock music at the time and idolized jazz musicians like Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong and Dizzy Gillespie.[3]

His stepfather was an "aggressive alcoholic" who eventually became involved in shoot-outs with police. "I was raised in a very violent, alcoholic household," Flea later said, "I grew up being terrified of my parents, particularly my father figures. It caused [me] a lot of trouble later in life."[6] In order to cope with this situation, Flea started to experiment heavily with cannabis at the age of thirteen, which he started smoking on a daily basis.[7]

Flea attended Fairfax High School, and was somewhat of an outcast due to his taste in music.[7] However, he soon met Anthony Kiedis, and after a brief confrontation, the two became best friends.[8] Kiedis recalled: "We were drawn to each other by the forces of mischief and love and we became virtually inseparable. We were both social outcasts. We found each other and it turned out to be the longest-lasting friendship of my life."[9] Kiedis became a significant influence on Flea, turning him on to rock music, particularly punk rock.[9] Flea soon adopted his nickname, given to him on a skiing trip in reference to his jumpy and capricious nature.[9]

1980–1984: Formation of the Red Hot Chili Peppers

Flea was also close friends with Hillel Slovak, the guitarist of a local band called Anthym. The band's original bassist was deemed unsatisfactory, so Slovak began teaching Flea to play bass.[10] Following several months of commitment to the instrument, Flea developed proficiency and joined the group as a full fledged member. Shortly thereafter, Anthym entered a local Battle of the Bands contest and won second place.[10] During his tenure with the group, Flea began to develop a style of slap bass that would become prominent in future Red Hot Chili Peppers songs. Anthym started to play at local nightclubs, despite the fact that the members were all underage. Flea, Slovak, and Kiedis became best friends and often partook in the recreational use of LSD, heroin, cocaine, and speed.[10]

The threesome became fans of the growing punk rock movement that was occurring in Los Angeles at the time. Flea went from despising the genre to listening to it exclusively: "The beautiful thing about punk rock was the intensity, the energy. And punk deflated the whole bloated rock-star thing. I think that musicians who don't pay attention to punk have a gap in their knowledge that makes it difficult to communicate in this day and age."[10] Anthym changed their name to What Is This?, and rapidly became a local club favorite—frequently attracting more than thirty people per show. The band was faltering internally however, and Flea left the group to play bass for a well-established L.A. punk rock group called Fear.[11] Although Fear was a thriving act, Flea was discontented in the band and left shortly after joining.[11] He then successfully auditioned for the role of bassist in the British post-punk group Public Image Ltd., but rejected the offer; he later admitted that the only reason he auditioned was to jam with the band's front man John Lydon.[11]

Slovak, Kiedis, and Flea began to create their own music after finding inspiration in a punk-funk fusion band called Defunkt.[12] Flea, Slovak, Kiedis and former Anthym-drummer Jack Irons formed a band called Tony Flow and the Miraculously Majestic Masters of Mayhem. The band had only one song, entitled "Out in L.A.", and was formed for the purpose of playing the song once.[13] Following the group's first show at The Rhythm Lounge, the owner of the bar asked them to return, but with two songs instead of one. After several more shows, and the addition of several songs to their repertoire, the band's name was changed to Red Hot Chili Peppers.[5][14]
[edit]
1984–1990: First four albums

The band's concert repertoire grew to nine songs as a result of months of playing local nightclubs and bars.[15] The Red Hot Chili Peppers entered Bijou Studios to record a demo tape and subsequently secured a record deal with EMI.[5] Irons and Slovak however, decided to leave the Red Hot Chili Peppers in order to pursue a "more serious" future with What Is This?.[16] Flea ultimately respected the decision, but felt the band would be lost without them. He and Kiedis hired drummer Cliff Martinez and guitarist Jack Sherman to fill Iron's and Slovak's places, respectively.[16] Andy Gill, formerly of Gang of Four, agreed to produce their first album. Gill and Sherman clashed with Flea and Kiedis; they continuously argued over music style, sound, and the album's production.[17] Flea himself felt that the album was stiff and "a big mistake", but also admitted "we [he and Kiedis] were just disrespectful and obnoxious".[12] The band's eponymous debut album, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, was released on August 10, 1984 to largely poor critical and commercial review.[18] After a relatively unfruitful tour, Sherman was fired in early 1985. Slovak, who had been contemplating a return to the Chili Peppers, rejoined the group after being encouraged by Flea.[19]

Funk musician George Clinton was hired to produce the band's second album, Freaky Styley. The strong chemistry between Clinton and the Chili Peppers was felt instantly. Flea later referred to Clinton as "the warmest, kindest man in the world".[20] When Freaky Styley was released in August 1985, however, it received only a bit more attention than The Red Hot Chili Peppers with roughly 75,000 copies sold by year's end.[12] Flea was somewhat indifferent to the poor album sales as he had recently proposed to girlfriend Loesha Zeviar, who was pregnant with their child.[21] The band hired Michael Beinhorn, their last resort among potential producers, to work on their next album.[22] What Is This? had finally disbanded, and Irons returned to the Chili Peppers in mid 1986 after Martinez was fired. Flea, Slovak and Kiedis especially were involved in heavy drug use and their relationships became strained. Flea recalled that "it began to seem ugly to me and not fun; our communication was not healthy".[22] Kiedis became dependent on heroin, leaving Flea and Slovak to work on much of the album's material by themselves. Flea and Zeviar married, and she gave birth to their daughter, Clara. Kiedis was briefly kicked out of the band, and given a month to rehabilitate. Kiedis completed the rehab and rejoined the Red Hot Chili Peppers in Los Angeles to record their third album The Uplift Mofo Party Plan.[22] Flea has referred to the album as "the 'rockingest' record" the band has ever made.[22] The Uplift Mofo Party Plan proved to be far more successful, commercially and critically, than the Chili Peppers' preceding albums; registering at number 148 on the Billboard 200.[23] Following the Uplift tour, Slovak's drug use dramatically increased. Flea's relationship with Slovak faded, and Slovak became isolated and depressed.[12] On June 28, 1988, Slovak was found dead of a heroin overdose. Flea reflected: "I didn't really know how to deal with that sadness, and I don't think [Kiedis] knew how to deal with it either."[12] Irons, who was taking Slovak's death particularly hard, left the group.[5]

Flea and Kiedis took some time to collect themselves, but decided to keep the band together. Guitarist DeWayne "Blackbyrd" McKnight and drummer D.H. Peligro were added, and the band entered the studio to record a new album. McKnight soon began to create tension within the group, as his style did not mesh with the rest of the band.[24] Peligro, the former drummer of the punk rock band Dead Kennedys, was a friend of John Frusciante, an eighteen year old guitarist and avid Red Hot Chili Peppers fan.[25] Peligro introduced Frusciante to Flea, and the three jammed together on several occasions.[26] Flea was impressed with Frusciante's skill, and astonished by his knowledge of the Chili Peppers' repertoire. Flea realized that Frusciante could provide the spark McKnight was lacking.[27] McKnight was fired, and Frusciante accepted an invitation to join the band.[24] Peligro was fired shortly thereafter; the Chili Peppers brought in drummer Chad Smith as his replacement.[28] Flea and Zeviar started to grow apart, and he began trying to recreate the memories of his adolescence by smoking marijuana on a daily basis.[26] The Chili Peppers entered the studio, and completed recording of their fourth album, Mother's Milk, in early 1989. Upon release, the album was met with mixed reactions from critics, but received far more commercial attention, peaking at number fifty-eight on the Billboard 200.[23] After this, Flea made appearances playing the trumpet on Jane's Addiction's 1988 album Nothing's Shocking,[29] and bass on the critically acclaimed 1989 Young MC album Stone Cold Rhymin'. He would also appear in the video for "Bust a Move", the hit single from the same album.[30]

1990–1998: Mainstream success and side projects

The ensuing Mother's Milk tour put a strain on Flea's marriage. In order to make money, he needed to tour, and therefore spend time away from his family.[31] Furthermore, he and Smith were arrested on charges of battery and sexual harassment after a performance on MTV's coverage of spring break;[12] charges were eventually dropped.[31] The band was, however, attracting over three thousand people per show; Mother's Milk had been certified as a gold record in early 1990.[32][33] By the time Red Hot Chili Peppers returned to Los Angeles, Flea and Zeviar agreed to a separation.[31] He tried to put the separation out of his mind by smoking marijuana and having sex with willing fans.[31]

When the tour was over, the Red Hot Chili Peppers severed ties with EMI and signed with Warner Bros. Records.[34] Rick Rubin, who had rejected an opportunity to produce The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, agreed to produce their next album.[35] Flea had largely used the principal slap bass technique on the band's preceding four albums, and decided to downplay this style in favor of more conventional, melodic bass lines.[36] To record the album, Rubin suggested a mansion that once belonged to magician Harry Houdini. Flea felt it was "a creatively fertile situation", and decided to bring his daughter Clara with him.[35] He and the rest of the band, excluding Smith, remained inside the house for the entire recording process. When not writing or recording the album, Flea spent a large portion of his time with Frusciante smoking large quantities of marijuana.[35] The emotions Flea felt during the album's recording were like nothing he had ever experienced:[12]“ When we [the band] made Blood Sugar Sex Magik we spent a lot of time jamming—every day, for hours and hours. I remember during that time Anthony went off and made a movie, and for a long time it was just me, John and Chad, and we'd just go in there and play. Me and John were hitting the bong and we just rocked and grooved forever. It was the first time we went in to make a record where there wasn't this feeling of being sort of intimidated by what was going to happen. ”


When Blood Sugar Sex Magik was released on September 24, 1991, it received an overwhelmingly positive critical response. The album peaked at number three on the Billboard Hot 200, and went on to sell over seven million copies in the U.S. alone.[19][23] The album's ensuing tour was critically acclaimed—the Chili Peppers commonly performed shows with over twenty thousand in attendance.[37] Seattle-based grunge band Nirvana also toured with them during the West Coast leg of their United States tour.[37] The massive attention the Chili Peppers started receiving, however, caused Frusciante to feel extremely uncomfortable, and he abruptly quit the band during the Japanese leg of the album's tour.[38] The band hired guitarist Arik Marshall to complete the remaining tour dates.

Marshall was fired at the end of the tour, and the band added former Jane's Addiction guitarist Dave Navarro to record a new album. Kiedis was in the middle of a heroin relapse, which forced Flea to assume the role of lyricist, something he had not yet done. He wrote most of the song "Transcending", and the intro to "Deep Kick". Flea also wrote the lyrics to an entire song; "Pea", in which he both played bass and sang.[39] These three songs appeared on the Chili Peppers' sixth record One Hot Minute, which was released on September 12, 1995. The album received mixed reviews and was significantly less commercially successful than Blood Sugar Sex Magik.[19] The One Hot Minute tour was ultimately cut short due to various injuries Kiedis and Smith received, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers decided to go on hiatus.[40] Flea began to practice yoga, and slowly decreased his marijuana consumption.[40] Due to the Chili Peppers' inactivity, Flea joined Navarro in a Jane's Addiction reunion tour in 1997, filling in for ex-Jane's Addiction bassist Eric Avery. Rumors spread that the band was breaking up, until Navarro stated otherwise: "I want to clarify that the Chili Peppers are not breaking up ... Flea and I are more than happy to do both projects, time permitting."[40]

Flea also had plans to record a solo album. He asked Chili Peppers manager Lindy Goetz to help him promote the record and his future solo career.[40] Flea eventually abandoned the idea in favor of offering his bass services to other artists. He performed on over forty records from 1995 to 1998, ranging from Alanis Morissette's Jagged Little Pill to former Minutemen bassist Mike Watt's debut solo album Ball-Hog or Tugboat?. He also worked with Tori Amos and Michael Stipe on a track for the soundtrack to the 1995 Johnny Depp film Don Juan DeMarco.[41] Navarro was fired from the Chili Peppers in 1998, and Flea questioned whether or not the Red Hot Chili Peppers would stay together: "... the only way I could imagine carrying on is if we got John [Frusciante] back in the band."[42] Frusciante had completed drug rehabilitation in 1997 after a severe addiction to heroin and crack cocaine left him on the brink of death.[43] Flea visited Frusciante in early 1998, inviting him back to the Chili Peppers; an emotional Frusciante readily accepted.[44]
[edit]
1998–present: Californication, By the Way and Stadium Arcadium

The band, with Frusciante back on guitar, began writing new songs during the summer of 1998 in Flea's garage.[12] He and Kiedis were less confident in writing the album, after the disappointing results of One Hot Minute.[12] Flea had also recently broken up with his girlfriend of two years, Marissa Pouw, causing him to enter a state of depression,[45] which was only lifted when his daughter, Clara, comforted him after several weeks of crying.[12]

Flea was heavily influenced by electronica during the writing and recording of Californication and he attempted to emulate this when writing bass lines for the album.[45] Californication took less than two weeks to record; by contrast, One Hot Minute took over a year. When Californication was released on June 8, 1999 it received overwhelmingly positive critical reviews and sold fifteen million copies worldwide—more than Blood Sugar Sex Magik.[12] The Chili Peppers played Woodstock 1999, with Flea playing completely naked—something he would do again at the Reading and Leeds Festivals the same year as well as several other Californication tour concerts.[45]

Flea felt like the public school system was seriously lacking in exposing children to music by drastically reducing, and sometimes eliminating, art related programs.[46] He founded the Silverlake Conservatory of Music, a school dedicated to help youth progress in music, because of this.[46][47] "I just wanted to fill the void that public education has cut from their curriculum. They've dropped the ball by cutting out music programs," Flea laments, "I grew up in LA public schools and was in the music department. It was really an important thing for my life, it gave me something to hold onto, and it was an important access for me. Without music I would've gotten into a lot of trouble and there are a lot of kids like me out there. I just wanted to try to provide something like what I got."[46]

Flea performing with Red Hot Chili Peppers at the 2006 Oxegen Festival.

Red Hot Chili Peppers spent most of 2001 writing their eighth studio album, By the Way. The entire band began listening to more melodic, textured music that would reflect heavily on the album.[12] Frusciante became the driving force behind By the Way, causing initial strife between him and Flea.[45] If the bassist introduced a funk rhythm into his bass lines, the guitarist would consequently disapprove.[45] By the Way was released on July 9, 2002 to positive critical reviews. Although not as successful as Californication or Blood Sugar Sex Magik, By the Way would go on to sell over nine million copies worldwide.[48] The ensuing tour, however, was extremely profitable; the Chili Peppers performed three concerts in London's Hyde Park to over 250,000 attendees and a total gross accumulation of $17.1 million.[49] It became the highest grossing concert at a single venue in history.[49]

After another two year world tour, the Chili Peppers wrote their ninth studio album Stadium Arcadium. In 2005, Flea became engaged to his girlfriend Frankie Rayder, and she bore his second daughter Sunny Bebop later the same year.[50] Unlike By the Way, both Flea and Frusciante were more musically conjoined when writing the record. They found inspiration in Jimi Hendrix, Jimmy Page, and Eddie Van Halen among others.[51] The double album was ultimately released on May 9, 2006 to generally positive reviews, selling over seven million copies in less than two years.[52] In November 2007, Flea's $4.8 million Corral Canyon home in Malibu was burnt down by a wildfire.[53] The location was not, however, his primary residence and had been vacated pending sales.[53]

After the band announced a long hiatus due to exhaustion, Flea enrolled into music classes at the University of Southern California. Beginning in the fall of 2008, the bassist is studying music theory, composition and jazz trumpet. Flea attributes his interest in attending such courses to a newfound desire to widen his appreciation and understanding of music: "it’s so much fun to learn this stuff because I never knew anything. I played trumpet in the school bands. I learned things I liked to play on my trumpet but I didn’t learn why this note goes with this note and why it produces that sound. Or how to create tension in the composition [...] Knowing the structure is really fun."[54] Flea also revealed plans to release a mainly instrumental solo record that was being recorded in his home; guest musicians include Patti Smith and a choir from the Silverlake Conservatory.[54]

Flea was also a part of Radiohead lead singer, Thom Yorke's, live band with Joey Waronker, Mauro Refosco and Nigel Godrich. The band performed two shows in Los Angeles in early October 2009, including the entirety of Yorke's 2006 solo album, The Eraser.[55][56]

Musical style"Any instrument is just a vehicle to express who you are and your relationship to the world. No matter what level you’re doing it on, playing music is an opportunity to give something to the world."
——Flea, Bass Player, June 2006[57]


Flea has displayed a wide variety of techniques throughout the years, ranging from his initial use of slapping and popping to the more traditional methods he has employed since Blood Sugar Sex Magik. Greg Prato of Allmusic has noted that "by combining funk-style bass with psychedelic, punk, and hard rock, Flea created an original playing style that has been copied numerous times".[4] Flea has been considered as one of the greatest bassists of all time, with Greg Tate of Rolling Stone saying "if there were a Most Valuable Bass Player award given out in rock, Flea could have laid claim to that bitch ten years running".[58] The Smashing Pumpkins front man Billy Corgan recalls that when he first saw the Chili Peppers in 1984, "Flea was playing so aggressively that he had worn a hole in his thumb and he was literally screaming in pain in-between songs because it hurt so bad. Someone kept coming out and pouring crazy glue into the hole."[5] Flea's sound is also determined by what type of instrument he plays. Before Californication, he did not believe the actual bass held much significance: "what mattered was how you hit them [basses] and your emotional intent, and I still think that's the bottom line."[57] Flea owns a 1961 Fender Jazz Bass, treasuring it for its "old wood sound".[57] He has contributed to the Red Hot Chili Peppers' sound not only with the bass but by playing trumpet, as well; it can be heard on several songs, such as "Subway to Venus" and "Taste The Pain" from their fourth album Mother's Milk or "Torture Me" from their ninth album Stadium Arcadium.

Technique

Flea's bass playing has changed considerably throughout the years. When he joined Fear his technique centered largely around traditional punk rock bass lines,[59] however he was to change this style when the Red Hot Chili Peppers formed. He began to incorporate a "slap" bass style that drew influence largely from Bootsy Collins.[16] However, this technique caused Flea to receive attention from the music world and was often copied, and he therefore felt it necessary to completely remove slap-bass styles from his repertoire following Mother's Milk.[4] Consequently, Blood Sugar Sex Magik saw a notable shift in style as it featured none of his signature technique but rather styles that focused more on traditional and melodic roots.[60] His intellectual beliefs on how to play the instrument were also altered: "I was trying to play simply on Blood Sugar Sex Magik because I had been playing too much prior to that, so I thought, 'I've really got to chill out and play half as many notes'. When you play less, it's more exciting—there's more room for everything. If I do play something busy, it stands out, instead of the bass being a constant onslaught of notes. Space is good."[60] During the writing and recording of One Hot Minute, Flea integrated some use of slap-bass progressions, but continued to center his technique around the philosophy of "less is more" rather than complexity: "I can't even think of anything I played that was complex [on the record]; even the slapping stuff is simple. It's original-sounding, and I'm proud of that—but what I played was more a matter of aesthetic choice."[60] This led Flea to alter the way he wrote music by playing alone, instead of the jam sessions that would dictate how the band conceived songs: "[One Hot Minute] is the least jam-oriented record we've made. I mean, we definitely jammed on the ideas, but there's only one groove on the whole album that came from a jam, 'Deep Kick'. The rest of it came from my sitting down with a guitar or bass."[60]

Flea became interested in electronica during the Californication era and he attempted to emulate the same atmosphere given off by synthesizers into his bass playing: "I feel the most exciting music happening is electronica, without a doubt."[45] He ultimately decided against this, acknowledging that, aside from Frusciante, the band was not moving in the same direction.[45] Californication also saw him incorporate more funk-driven bass lines than he had on One Hot Minute. In By the Way, much of the bass-lines were entirely stripped of funk. Flea felt the chords Frusciante had written were not supportive of his typical technique; furthermore, he does not feel the musical direction of the record was specifically melodic, but instead "... a result of each one of us being who we are. The way we [the band] compose music is a very communal thing."[61]

Influences

Flea's stepfather was in a bebop band that frequently jammed in his presence; he, therefore, became fascinated with the trumpet soon after.[4][5][12] Flea credits his continued interest in music to jazz performers like Miles Davis, Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie.[3] After Kiedis introduced him to punk and rock, Flea became infatuated with artists such as The Germs, Styx, David Bowie and Defunkt.[9][12] Flea's early influences before Blood Sugar Sex Magik were mainly funk artists like Bootsy Collins, Parliament Funkadelic, Sly & the Family Stone, and The Meters.[62] They would become a notable aspect of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' sound up to Mother's Milk. Originally, Flea was given the impression by punk bands that one should play as hard and fast as they possibly could, but ultimately rejected this philosophy during Blood Sugar Sex Magik: "I was so into being raw [...] it was all bullshit."[57] On Californication and By the Way, Flea drew influence from electronica, gothic rock bands like The Cure, Joy Division and Siouxsie and the Banshees and New Wave music rather than funk.[47] During Stadium Arcadium he experienced another shift in interest. Instead of the melodic music he had listened to during the two previous albums, he enjoyed the work of "flashy" guitar players like Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, and Jimmy Page, exclusively.[51]

Film and television appearances

Flea has pursued a minor acting career since the mid 1980s. His first role was as young punk Razzle in the Penelope Spheeris film Suburbia (1984). Shortly thereafter he starred alongside the Chili Peppers, who played themselves, in the skate drama Thrashin' (1986). He portrayed the character Needles in Back to the Future Part II (1989) and Back to the Future Part III (1990), though in an interview he referred to Part II as "a multi-million dollar piece of trash".[63] He played a minor role in the 1991 independent film My Own Private Idaho as the character Budd. He played a number of minor roles in films throughout the 1990s, including Son in Law (1993) as a tattoo artist, The Chase (1994) as a monster truck driver, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (1997) as a hippie, and The Big Lebowski (1998) as a German nihilist. He has also lent his voice to the animated series The Wild Thornberrys as the character Donnie.

In 1991 the Red Hot Chili Peppers released a black and white film documenting the recording of Blood Sugar Sex Magik titled Funky Monks. They have released three video concerts, 'psychedelic sexfunk live from heaven' released in 1990, Off the Map in 2001 and Live at Slane Castle in 2003—the latter of which had over eighty thousand attendees.[64] Flea has also appeared in television broadcasts with Red Hot Chili Peppers on several occasions. Several months before Frusciante's departure in 1992, the band performed two songs on Saturday Night Live—Kiedis felt the show was an embarrassment due to the guitarist; he believed that Frusciante purposely played the song out of tune and incorrectly.[40][65] Later that year, the band appeared in the popular animated comedy The Simpsons on the episode "Krusty Gets Kancelled". At Woodstock 1994, Kiedis proposed the band perform the first few songs in metallic suits with giant light bulbs placed on their heads.[66] Flea was initially reluctant but eventually agreed: "... when we got to play, the energy of the whole thing took over."[67] In 1992, he guest starred on an episode of The Ben Stiller Show. On the episode, Flea beats Stiller in a game of basketball. For the 1999 Woodstock Festival, he played the concert naked.[45] The band has also performed on Late Night with David Letterman three times.

John Frusciante-RHCP


John Anthony Frusciante (pronounced [fruːˈʃɑːnteɪ] (help·info)) (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 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 at eighteen, 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 heroin addiction, during which he released his first recordings: Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt (1994) and Smile from the Streets You Hold (1997). In 1998, he successfully completed drug rehabilitation and rejoined the Red Hot Chili Peppers for their 1999 album Californication, recording two more albums with the band before departing again in 2009. 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.[1]Contents
1 Biography
1.1 1970-1987: Childhood and early life
1.2 1988–1992: Red Hot Chili Peppers
1.3 1992–1997: Drug addiction
1.4 1997–2002: Rehabilitation and return to the Chili Peppers
1.5 2002–2007: 2004 recordings and Stadium Arcadium
1.6 2007–present: Red Hot Chili Peppers departure, The Empyrean and further collaborations
2 Musical style
2.1 Technique
2.2 Influences
3 Discography
4 References
5 Notes
6 External links


Biography
[edit]
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.[2] Frusciante's family moved to Tucson, Arizona, and then Florida, where his father still serves as a Broward County judge. His parents separated, and he and his mother moved to Santa Monica, California.[2]

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."[2] 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.[2] Soon after, Frusciante began taking guitar lessons from an instructor who introduced him to the music of the Red Hot Chili Peppers.[3]

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.[2] 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.[4] He began taking classes at the Guitar Institute of Technology, but turned to punching in without actually attending and left shortly thereafter.[2]

1988–1992: Red Hot Chili Peppers

Frusciante first attended a Red Hot Chili Peppers performance at fifteen and he rapidly became a devoted fan.[4] 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:[5]“ ...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".[6] 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."[2]

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.[7] 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.[8] 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.[9] He was in the midst of signing a contract[vague] 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 prompted him to change his plans.[10]

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."[11] Several weeks into the band's new lineup, Peligro, whose performance was suffering due to extreme drug abuse, was fired.[12] 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.[13] 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 the studio.[13] 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."[14]

Frusciante (right) and Kiedis (left) performing as the Red Hot Chili Peppers during the Blood Sugar Sex Magik tour in 1991

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.[15] 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.[16] 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.[5]

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.[17][18] 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.'"[19] 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."[20] 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 hear voices in his head telling him "you won't make it during the tour, you have to go now."[21] 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."[22] 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;[9] 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."[23]
[edit]
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".[24] 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.[21] 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.[25] 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 time. I was never guilty—I was always really proud to be an addict."[26] Although he openly admitted to being a "junkie", his thinking had been fundamentally warped by the excessive drug use, believing 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."[27] "Your Pussy's Glued to a Building on Fire"

Sample of "Your Pussy's Glued to a Building on Fire", from Frusciante's first solo album, Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt


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,[28] Frusciante has said that "That album was not recorded when I was a heroin addict. It was released when I was a heroin addict.” [29]

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.[28] "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."[30] Frusciante further asserted that the album was meant to be experienced as a cohesive unit rather than separate entities or songs.[30] 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.[31]

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.[31] His arms became fiercely scarred from improperly shooting heroin and cocaine, leaving permanent abscesses.[22] He spent the next three years holed up in his Hollywood Hills home, the walls of which were badly damaged and covered in graffiti.[32] 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.[32] 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.[33]

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.[34] Yet Frusciante has stated that he believes the material on the record is of high quality and wishes to one day re-release it.[35]

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.[36] However, months later he was still unable to break addictions to crack cocaine and alcohol.[36] 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.[36] 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.[2] He also received skin grafts to help repair the abscesses on his ravaged arms.[32] About a month later, Frusciante checked out of Las Encinas and reentered society.[37]

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.[21] Through regular practice of vipassana and yoga, he discovered the effect self-discipline has on the body.[33] 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."[21] All of these changes in his life have led him to a complete change in his attitude toward drugs:[25]“ 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.[38] Frusciante has since stopped practicing yoga, due its effects on his back, but he still tries to meditate daily.[33]

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."[39] 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."[37] 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.[16] Frusciante has frequently stated that his work on Californication was his favorite.[16]

During the Californication world tour, Frusciante continued to write 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.[40] The songwriting and production of To Record Only Water for Ten Days were more efficient and straightforward than on his previous recordings.[40] 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.[41] In addition to his guitar work, Frusciante experimented with a variety of synthesizers, a distinctive feature of the record.[41]

In 2001, Frusciante began recording his fourth album with Red Hot Chili Peppers, By the Way; he considered the time to be among the happiest in his life.[16] He relished the chance the album gave him to "keep writing better songs".[16] 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.[42] 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".[16] 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.[16] By the Way was released in the U.S. on July 9, 2002.
[edit]
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.[43][44] 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.[44] Later that year, five songs provided by Frusciante appeared on The Brown Bunny soundtrack.[45] "The Past Recedes"

"The Past Recedes", from Frusciante's 2005 album Curtains, is a return to musical convention from the experimental ideas of his first recordings, Niandra Lades and Usually Just a T-Shirt and Smile from the Streets You Hold.


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.[46] In June 2004, he announced that he would be releasing six records over six months:[47] 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.[48]

Frusciante at Madejski Stadium in Reading, England in July 2006

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,[49] he began using a full twenty-four track mixer for maximum effect.[50] 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,[51] with Frusciante himself backing this up.[52] 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.[52]

Frusciante began a series of collaborations with friend Omar Rodriguez-Lopez and his band The Mars Volta, by contributing vocals and electronic instrumentation to their album De-Loused in the Comatorium.[53] He also contributed guitar solos on their 2005 album Frances the Mute.[54] In 2006, he helped The Mars Volta complete their third album Amputechture by playing guitar on seven of its eight tracks.[55] In return, Rodriguez-Lopez has played on several of Frusciante's solo albums, as well as made a guest appearance on Stadium Arcadium.[46][56][57]
[edit]
2007–present: Red Hot Chili Peppers departure, The Empyrean and further collaborations

After Ataxia released their second and final studio album, AW II, on May 29, 2007, Frusciante began a period of dormancy in respects to his solo career.[vague] Following the Stadium Arcadium tour (early May 2006 to late August 2007), the Red Hot Chili Peppers agreed to a hiatus of indefinite length.[58] In early 2008, Anthony Kiedis finally confirmed this, citing exhaustion from constant work since Californication as the main reason.[58] Frusciante quit the group during this period, but did not publicly announce his departure until December 2009.[59]

Frusciante's tenth solo album, The Empyrean, was released on January 20, 2009 through Record Collection.[60] The record—a concept album—was in production between December 2006 and March 2008.[60] The Empyrean features an array of musicians including Frusciante's 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 is "really happy with [the record] and I've listened to it a lot for the psychedelic experience it provides," suggesting the album "be played as loud as possible and it is suited to dark living rooms late at night."[60]

After the release of The Empyrean, 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.[61][62] They were to play a "live 303 & 808 analogue" acid show at the Bang Face Weekender event[63] but were unable to, citing equipment malfunctions as the cause. They were later scheduled to play the event in August 2009, but the event was canceled due to circumstances unknown. Although they've yet to release any music commercially or play any live shows, they have written somewhere around 80 songs.[64]

Along with Speed Dealer Moms, Frusciante also provided guitar for Swahili Blonde, a project of percussionist/vocalist Nicole Turley.[65] The project released its debut digital single Elixor Flixor on Manimal Vinyl in November, 2009.[65] More recently, Frusciante has been announced as the executive producer for Omar Rodriguez-Lopez's directorial film debut[66], The Sentimental Engine Slayer.[67] The film is set to debut at the 2010 Rotterdam Film Festival in February.[66]

Musical styleWhen the intellectual part of guitar playing overrides the spiritual, you don't get to extreme heights.
—John Frusciante (Rolling Stone, February 2007)[68]


Frusciante's musical style has evolved. Although he previously received moderate recognition for his guitar work, it was not until recently 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 Guitarist of All Time".[1][68] 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.[69] On earlier records, however, much of his output was influenced by various underground punk and New Wave musicians.[16] 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.[70] 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.[71] The first guitar he bought after rejoining the Chili Peppers was a 1967 red Fender Jaguar.[71] His most-often used guitar, however, is a 1962 Sunburst Fender Stratocaster which he has played on every album since joining the Chili Peppers, and their ensuing tours.[71][72] 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".[72] Virtually all of Frusciante's acoustic work is played with a 1950s Martin 0-15.[71][73]

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.[74] With the Chili Peppers, Frusciante provided backing vocals in a falsetto tenor, a style he started 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".[75] 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.[75]
[edit]
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.[76] He feels that in general, guitar mastery has not evolved much since the 1960s and considers the greatest players of that decade unsurpassed.[76] 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.[16] 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.[16] 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, but 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."[76] Believing that focusing only on "clean tones" is negative[vague], 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.[76] 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".[76]

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."[77] 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."[77] 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."[21] Much of his solo material is first written on an acoustic or unamplified electric guitar.[78] He cultivates an atmosphere conducive to songwriting by constantly listening to the music of others and absorbing its creative influence.[79] He also prefers to record his albums on analog tapes and other relatively primitive equipment.[80] This preference stems from his belief that older equipment can actually speed up the recording process, and that modern computerized recording technology gives only an illusion of efficiency.[48] 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.[80]

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.[2][3] He credits his inspiration for learning guitar to Greg Ginn, Pat Smear and Joe Strummer, among others.[68] 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.[3][16] 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.[81][82] 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.[16][81] 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.[83] 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.[69] 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.[3] 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."