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\n<\/p>\nIn the summer of 2002, Red Hot Chili Peppers scored their first ever UK number one album with By The Way. In this archive interview, conducted later that same year, Anthony Kiedis, Flea and John Frusciante look back upon one of the most challenging, but beautiful, years of their storied career.<\/p>\n
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January 2002: Red Hot Chili Peppers are in Cello Studios in Hollywood with producer Rick Rubin, two months into the recording of their eighth studio album<\/p>\n Flea: \u201cThe real work on By The Way started in February 2001, when we first got together in a rehearsal room to write. We spent six months straight writing and arranging every day, so that by the time we get to the studio we\u2019re just laying the songs down. Cello is a great place to record, but sometimes recording can be exciting and beautiful, sometimes it\u2019s just another humdrum day at work. Writing is fun, it\u2019s boring, it\u2019s happy, it\u2019s miserable, it\u2019s always different. But we\u2019re disciplined and focused enough to go into the studio every day and work. It\u2019s not some champagne and caviar rock star party for us.\u201d<\/p>\n John Frusciante: \u201cI started recording most of my parts for By The Way in February. I actually probably enjoy being in the studio more than being onstage, just because you can take one moment and capture it for infinity just by pressing the \u2018Record\u2019 button. That\u2019s a wonderful powerful feeling for me. <\/p>\n \u201cIn the past, particularly when we were writing BloodSugarSexMagik, I\u2019d be writing to fit into the style of what the Chili Peppers \u2013 the band that Anthony and Jack (Irons, former RHCP drummer) and Hillel (Slovak, former RHCP guitarist) and Flea created – were like, but now I don\u2019t feel the need to make our music sound like the Chili Peppers, I don\u2019t feel the need to fit within the blueprint laid down by the early albums. More often that not now songs come from jams, and then Flea and I have what we call a \u2018face off\u2019 where we each try to write a part that\u2019ll be right for that song. One of us goes into the alley by the studio to write and the other stays inside and then we compare the two, and we did that on pretty much every song on the record. I\u2019d come up with a basic framework for songs like Cabron and Venice Queen but everyone writes their own parts so there are always alterations to be made.\u201d<\/p>\n Writing is fun, it\u2019s boring, it\u2019s happy, it\u2019s miserable, it\u2019s always different<\/p>\n Flea<\/p>\n Flea: \u201cThere are always differences in the studio with ideas and egos and being at different places in our lives, but our ability to connect with each other gets deeper over time. We know more about ourselves, more about each other, more about music and more about accessing the spiritual content of the songs.\u201d<\/p>\n Latest Videos From Louder<\/p>\n Anthony Kiedis: \u201cWhen we finish the completed basic tracks, we\u2019ll sit back in the studio and listen to them and smile at one another, knowing that all the hard work was worthwhile.\u201d<\/p>\n February 2002: Anthony Kiedis takes up residence at the Chateau Marmont on LA\u2019s Sunset Boulevard to record vocals for the album. On March 18 he’ll take a night off to induct Talking Heads into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame.<\/p>\n Anthony: \u201cThe Chateau Marmont is probably the most beautiful, soulful building in all of Hollywood. There\u2019s a good spirit in that building, and they treat us nice there. I had lived at the Chateau in the past, and John was living there at that time, and as he was doing a lot of harmony vocals we thought, \u2018Why hang out in an enormous recording studio that costs a ton of money when we could just check into a room, set up some microphones and do the vocals there.\u2019 So we rented a room on the seventh floor and moved in the Pro Tools computer gear and made it our own. It\u2019s always nice when you\u2019re doing vocals to find a space that you can call your own and decorate in your own way. I had a load of vintage film posters from the \u201830s and \u201840s all around my microphone, which helped me get into the vibe.<\/p>\n You may like<\/p>\n \u201cI thought I had written a lot of lyrics. I had lyrics for about twenty different songs, but my band had written about a thousand songs and they wanted to record about thirty of those. So each and every morning I\u2019d spend the first few hours writing before I went in to sing. I probably finished about 30 per cent of the lyrics in the Chateau. Sometimes I just have to listen to the music and start writing and the lyrics will be there, but other times it\u2019s painful and methodical, like figuring out your next move in a chess game.\u201d<\/p>\n \n (Image credit: Kevin Mazur\/WireImage)April 2020: Artist and film-maker Julian Schnabel, father of John Frusciante\u2019s girlfriend Stella Schnabel, turns his ideas for album artwork over to the band.<\/p>\n John: \u201cMy girlfriend\u2019s father offered to do the album art, and so we sent him rough mixes of eight songs and he got the vibe of the album from that. He said that he wouldn\u2019t be offended if we didn\u2019t like it, but we loved what he did. He\u2019s also given us great covers for all the singles. He\u2019s a true artist.\u201d<\/p>\n May 2020: The video for album title trasck By The Way is filmed in LA by award-winning video directors Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris, who have previously helmed the band\u2019s Otherside and Roadtrippin\u2019 videos.<\/p>\n Influenced by a car chase featured in the Mexican film Amores Perros, the video sees Anthony Kiedis kidnapped and taken for a ride by a lunatic taxi driver, played by comedian David Sheridan.<\/p>\n Red Hot Chili Peppers – By The Way [Official Music Video] – YouTube Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n Anthony: \u201cThat video was funny. We got to do our own stunts and hang out with comic genius David Sheridan. He never broke character for the four days that we were shooting [May 17-20], and he never ran out of dialogue that wasn\u2019t side-splitting. I actually wanted Jim Carrey to be in the video, but Valerie, our director, said, \u2018I know someone who\u2019s better\u2019. I was like, Better than Jim Carrey? Are you sure? But he ended up being the best choice we could have made.\u201d<\/p>\n John: \u201cThe guy was really funny. I have an hour-long video tape of the improvised stuff he\u2019d be doing between takes, or during our lunch breaks, and it\u2019s just brilliant. Most of the time with videos you spend your time sitting around in the RV waiting to be called, but he actually made that one quite fun.\u201d<\/p>\n What to read next<\/p>\n On May 31, the Chili Peppers play The Garage in London, their first indoor UK show since December 1999.<\/p>\n John: \u201cThat show was a lot of fun. I love playing huge shows but playing little clubs is great. It\u2019s fun for me to be able to see people\u2019s faces close up, and feel like we\u2019re all one together.\u201d<\/p>\n Flea: \u201cBands always say they prefer little shows because they like the contact with the people, and I like that too ,but I also like the feeling of things moving and changing. We\u2019ve played a billion little clubs and I think that it makes sense for this band to be playing big places right now. I was kinda in a bad mood that night, I was having a little tantrum, so for me personally that show was a little weird.\u201d<\/p>\n Anthony: \u201cYou\u2019re kidding! I guess there\u2019s no accounting for a bad mood but personally I was in heaven, that was just about as much fun as you can have playing a show.\u201d<\/p>\n July 2002: By The Way is released as a single in the UK on July 1, entering the charts at number two. The following week, its parent album is released. Selling 134,000 copies in the UK in its first week on sale, the album debuts at number one. The album also tops the charts in 15 other countries.<\/p>\n Anthony: \u201cI thought that single was an uber-bombastic assault of non-commercialism. For it to be so well received over there was shocking to me, but thrilling at the same time. It\u2019s a good feeling when that island of yours embraces our band.\u201d<\/p>\n Flea: \u201cIn England you can be a great genius one minute and three minutes later you\u2019re the biggest asshole that ever lived, but I\u2019m not going to complain now that we\u2019re popular. I think people connect with the honesty and craftsmanship in our music. It\u2019s not like we\u2019ve had some overnight surge of popularity, but as time has gone by I think people have connected in a deeper way. I\u2019m happy with the way the public relate to what we do.\u201d<\/p>\n In England you can be a great genius one minute, and three minutes later you\u2019re the biggest asshole that ever lived<\/p>\n Flea<\/p>\n Anthony: \u201cFor us the true experience of an album is the days and weeks and months we spend throwing music around in the studio, so when the album is due for release, we\u2019re kinda like, the world can do with this what it will. When the mix is finished, we all get to drive around with copies in our cars, and we do swell up with a little bit of satisfaction, but after that we\u2019re kinda detached, but hoping for the best. Of course we get elated when we get a positive response to what we do. We feel like we\u2019re making a contribution to the positive energy of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n John: \u201cIt made me feel really good to read the reviews of this album and to see it doing so well in England. I\u2019m more proud of this album than anything I\u2019ve ever done.\u201d<\/p>\n July 2002: the quartet play a 90 minute show on Ellis Island in New York City for competition winners, family members of September 11 victims, and lower Manhattan businesses. The Ellis Island Immigration Station was the entry point to the United States for more than 12 million immigrants from 1892 to 1954.<\/p>\n Flea: \u201cThat was a trippy gig. It was raining and raining and we were out on this little island where the immigrants used to get totally fucked by the government, so the gig had this really bizarre energy. You could feel the history of what happened there.\u201d<\/p>\n John: \u201cMy girlfriend\u2019s mom and brother were in the audience which was fun, but it was kinda a rough show for me. Every time I stepped on my distortion pedal the volume would drop to half so I couldn\u2019t hear my guitar solos. It was one of our first shows and so we were stilling ironing out the kinks.\u201d<\/p>\n September 2002: The band team up with Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris once more to shoot the video for The Zephyr Song. <\/p>\n Red Hot Chili Peppers – The Zephyr Song [Official Music Video] – YouTube Watch On <\/a><\/p>\n Anthony: \u201cThe performing part of the video wasn\u2019t that exciting for us, but being there for the go-go girl dancing shooting was fun. We had this girl called Amy Christie dancing, and she was really beautiful and sexy and she danced very well and had that Russ Meyer\u2019s enthusiasm to her female form. And then we had the talented and lovely Tobey Torres dancing too. She\u2019s the girl whose crotch you actually stare into in the video. She\u2019s awesome, a great girl.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.loudersound.com\/media\/img\/Louder_logo_v1a_black_on_white.svg\"){kind=logo}
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