John Frusciante is heavily influenced by 80s British music.
The Red Hot Chilli Peppers star “has a lot of memories” of listening to the Human League when he and his band – which also currently includes Anthony Kiedis, Flea and Chad Smith – were working on their 2002 LP, ‘By The Way’.
The 52-year-old guitarist told MixMag: “I have a lot of memories associated with [The Human League], especially by the time we were writing ‘By The Way’. I would blast ‘Reproduction’ to-and-from rehearsal every day. I especially love the first two albums and their early singles. And you have stuff like that all-instrumental ‘Dignity Of Labour’ EP, the basis for a lot of ambient music. Those guys were just going into the unknown!”
John also labelled himself a “huge fan of” new wave act Depeche Mode – who had an original line up of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher, and Vince Clarke – and recalled buying all the ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ hitmakers’ records on vinyl.
He said: “I’m a huge fan of Depeche Mode, when the Red Hot Chili Peppers started writing ‘Californication’ back in ‘98, I was 28 and had just restarted my life. When I came back into the world, I was a different person and Depeche Mode became my favourite band. I bought every 12” of theirs at a place near me called Vinyl Fetish that stocked a lot of UK imports. ‘Master And Servant’ is one of the weirder ones.”
John called being the band – that he rejoined in 2019 before releasing and touring the 2022 album ‘Unlimited Love – the only “real job” he has ever had in music despite his performing as a solo artist Trickfinger, where he makes “electronic music”.
He said: “I don’t make a lot of money for my electronic music. I probably spend more on gear than I’ve ever made but I did nothing but electronic music for about 12 years before I rejoined the band [in 2019]. It’s definitely a full-time job being in the Chili Peppers. Really, the Red Hot Chili Peppers is the only real ‘job’ I’ve ever had in music.”
The rocker – whose band is gearing up to release their second album of this year ‘Return of the Dream Canteen’ – also enthused about his love of Kraftwerk.
John said: “But synth-pop: to me, that really starts with Kraftwerk. It’s a different sense of melody than regular pop music — It’s more mechanical in a sense.”