Kiedis gives it all away for group’s new album

  Daily Bruin File Photo Anthony Kiedis
shows up at the 1992 MTV Video Music Awards.

By Mary Williams
Daily Bruin Senior Staff

Anthony Kiedis sits in the front of the classroom, looking at
the faces of each of the 15 eager UCLA students who are about to
interview him. He must be aware that the eyes he looks into as he
scans the room are taking him in carefully ““ those students
jotting down notes describing the red pants he is wearing, the way
his black hair falls across his forehead, and the tanned muscles
peeking out beneath his T-shirt. He seems undaunted by this.

After all, the Kiedis-fronted Red Hot Chili Peppers have been
around for nearly 20 years, and have survived drug addictions, a
seemingly endless string of lineup changes and other forms of
high-profile controversy. The group was reunited with guitarist
John Frusciante in 1998, and its 1999 album
“Californication” was a multi-platinum hit;
expectations for its next release, as yet untitled, are high.

Coming to UCLA for this interview is somewhat a return to the
past for Kiedis. He attended the university for one year, before
deciding it wasn’t for him and quitting.

“Coming back here gave me some creepy feelings,” he
said.

“I hated it here. I really did. My personal experience at
that time didn’t meld with any kind of conformity or
structured environment. But I also remembered the positive things.
I love certain ideas about school. I love what it does to your head
to be forced to read and write. I had a couple of cool teachers,
but the rest just terrified me.”

Earlier that day, Kiedis was recording vocals for the new album,
to be released in June. The band’s sound continues to evolve,
with Kiedis’ lyrics starting to delve into relationships and
Frusciante starting to play keyboards. When describing a few songs
off the album, Kiedis used words like “sparse” ““
a revolution considering the band’s roots in punk and
funk.

In another change in sound, Kiedis is incorporating more
harmonies into his vocals on this album than on the last,
describing the effect as something like “the Bee Gees meets
the Beach Boys.” He says he is also incorporating his
feelings about his ongoing breakup with his girlfriend of three
years into his lyrics.

“I’ve never felt comfortable writing “˜love
songs’ or “˜relationship songs,’ but it’s
sneaking in there and certainly not in a typical way,” Kiedis
said. “When I read through my lyrics I can see where
she’s kind of the initial point of inspiration.”

One song that Kiedis is particularly proud of off the new album
is “Don’t Forget Me,” which he describes as a
“painfully simple song.”

“It’s a cornerstone of our record, because no
one’s ever heard us play anything like this,” he said.
“This song is my ideal of what God is, and what life is, and
what this whole picture’s all about, and how it’s just
everything and everywhere, and the good and bad and the in between,
and the experiences of a lifetime. … I think it will be our
opening song for the next three years or so because it puts us in
such a good mood.”

As excited as Kiedis is about this album, he said he is still
nervous about it. The band has written 30 songs, from which they
plan to choose 15. The sheer number of tracks they are recording
makes him feel that he’s lost perspective.

“I can’t even tell if it’s good
anymore,” Kiedis said. “I mean, there are days I feel
like this is the greatest thing we’ve ever done, and there
are days that I’m like, “˜This is just going to die in
the water.'”

The fact that the band is still recording after 20 tumultuous
years is somewhat amazing. The Chili Peppers have made it through a
total of 14 lineup changes, as well as drug addictions that killed
the original guitarist, Hillel Slovak, and sent Kiedis to rehab
twice. Having spent more than half his life on drugs, Kiedis, at
age 39, is now clean, although he declined to say for how long.

His drug use began at age 11, when his father gave him
marijuana. By 18 he was injecting heroin. His father encouraged
Kiedis to use drugs, at the same time introducing him to art,
literature and sex, all at an early age.

This drug addiction, having taken root at an early age, was not
shaken by Slovak’s death, although the loss of a best friend
was a terrible blow to Kiedis and the band as a whole.

“People that aren’t alcoholics by nature or drug
addicts by nature, would think, “˜Hey, your best friend died
doing drugs, why don’t you just stop?’ It’s
really not a rational illness. It’s completely
irrational,” he said.

Drugs were not the only taboo subject that was tied to the Red
Hot Chili Peppers. One other source of controversy was the
group’s focus on sex. From the famous image of the band
members covering themselves only in tube socks, to Kiedis’
often explicit lyrics, the group has sometimes gotten more
attention for being shocking than for being musicians.

Kiedis said he never saw anything wrong with addressing human
sexuality, and that performing live is a feeling comparable to
sexual energy.

“Performing, especially songs that were inspired by sexual
energy, is definitely earthy,” he said. “You feel
really connected to Earth and that paganistic sensation of flesh
and touch and inside and wet. It’s great to be all
intellectual. It’s great to be ethereal, but let’s not
underestimate the beautiful feelings of our physical existence.
I’m not saying I get an erection while I’m playing, but
I definitely feel the spirit of sexual energy.”

Throughout all of the ups and downs, the band has clung to its
individuality.

Kiedis said he doesn’t listen to much modern music for the
fear that it might influence him and change his sound.

“I’ll listen to stuff that has nothing to do with
what I’m doing, like electronic music or hard-core hip
hop,” he said. “I don’t want to have
contemporary influences, and I don’t really want to have
obvious musical influences.”

Also, he hesitates to train his voice too much, even though he
has been criticized for having a lack of range. He takes voice
lessons only to protect his throat from permanent damage caused by
performing.

“I don’t want to learn and study so much that I
start sounding like somebody else. I don’t want to become a
classically trained-sounding guy because it really does affect your
tone,” Kiedis said.

There is a bit of a contradiction in Kiedis’ insistence on
individuality and his band’s participation in mainstream
music culture. He is happy to be played on radio stations that he
accuses of being too homogenized and won’t listen to. He
doesn’t watch MTV and called an interview on its hit show TRL
“robotic,” but said he doesn’t mind appearing on
the show himself in support of a new album.

“I don’t know what it is,” he said. “I
just can’t relate to MTV. I’m still going to make a
video and hope they play it. I don’t think that’s a
reason to not participate.”

Kiedis explained that as long as he puts out the best work he
can, he will be proud of it. It doesn’t matter where
it’s played as long as people hear it.

“I like throwing a little something different in the mix
for these kids that are used to getting soulless pap dribble on
their plate every day,” he said. “I like to play
something new ““ the best I have to offer them. I believe in
what we do and I’m all for shoving it down the throats of the
young kids out there.”