Anthony Kiedis Interview on KROQ

Anthony Kiedis was interviewed a short while ago on KROQ’s Kevin and Bean Show.

 

Transcript: Anthony Kiedis on the Kevin and Bean Show May 2016

[One of the presenters talks about getting a bass boner because of the song in the pre-interview ramble]

Kevin & Bean Show: [Intro] Our old friend, Anthony Kiedis who joins us on the phone now. Anthony

Anthony Kiedis: Kevin, Bean

Kevin & Bean Show: Welcome, sir. How are ya?

Anthony Kiedis: Bass boner nice to see you [laughter]

Kevin & Bean Show: What was it like hearing that song over the telephone which is exactly the way you’d always envisioned you’d hear it, right?

Anthony Kiedis: You know what? I have the hugest smile on my face because I sort of pictured listening to it on the radio and I don’t know, it just still makes me happy

Kevin & Bean Show: [Presenter talking about playing Dark Necessities] … So congratulations. Welcome back .Why did it take so long? Is that a dumb question because you guys were all busy and doing lots of things because five years seems a long time even for you guys.

Anthony Kiedis: Was it five years?

Kevin & Bean Show: Yeah, that’s what they’re telling us.

Anthony Kiedis: We had an unusually difficult experience making this record where we wrote 20-30 songs and it was all ready to go and we thought it was happening, and then Flea went snowboarding and broke his arm real bad, which was a bit of a setback for the bass boner [laughs]. So we re-thought everything and then we didn’t have a producer and we were just sort of lost in space with all these songs. And lo and behold it was meant to be, as these things can be, and when all the dust settled Brian Burton, aka Danger Mouse, emerged and said, “Let’s go make a record.’ We were like ‘Great, we have all these songs’ and he was like ‘Leave those there, let’s go write new songs in the studio.’

Kevin & Bean Show: Oh, wow

Anthony Kiedis: So the process began over again.

Kevin & Bean Show: But he hadn’t listened to the 20-30 songs that you had?

Anthony Kiedis: He had. But he has very specific Brian taste. And he just wanted to see what would happen when we got in the studio and started something fresh.

Kevin & Bean Show: So how many of the 20 to 30 songs are on the album?

Anthony Kiedis: Umm… I’m guessing that ten of them are new out of the…

Kevin & Bean Show: Oh wow!

Anthony Kiedis: Foutreen that are on the record.

Kevin & Bean Show: So he knows what he’s doing?

Anthony Kiedis: He just knows what he likes

Kevin & Bean Show: Huh. Isn’t that interesting? So was your initial reaction, Anthony, to push back to that idea. You’re like, look, we’re a band who’s been around for a long time. We know how to write songs. We’ve already done that part or did you just trust him because of his track record.

Anthony Kiedis: Well, there was initially a push back; initially there was an affinity and a marriage to all these other songs, but the only way that we saw this working was to have trust in him and get rid of our old ideas and our old way of doing things and say ‘If this is going to work, we just have to throw ourselves off the cliff and see what happens.

Kevin & Bean Show: Fascinating. The thing that always surprises me whenever I hear about an artist writing songs in the studio is how much pressure there must be on the lyricist to come up with something in a few days that is going to last for the rest of his life. Did you feel that when you were rushing these songs? If that’s how it felt?

Anthony Kiedis: Thank you for noticing [laughter] Umm, you know what? The pressure is kinda the best sometimes. And especially when you have Flea and Josh and Chad leaving the studio one day with something brand new and beautiful and magical and melodic and just touching and then they send it to you and they’re like, OK, write lyrics and come and sing this tomorrow. Now it’s on. You have no choice

Kevin & Bean Show: Yeah

Anthony Kiedis: You have to get down inside yourself and feel what you’re feeling and think what you’re thinking and be what you’re being and let it flow. And by the way, sometimes you would just strike out miserably. I would show up and I would say, ‘I think I’ve got it!’ and I would do it and Brian would be like, ‘Umm… that’s not really working but let’s try this other thing.’

Kevin & Bean Show: A lot of rejection from Brian / Yeah, Brian, c’mon!

Anthony Kiedis: But then there are the days you show up and it all works

Kevin & Bean Show: Yeah, and that’s the magic of rock ‘n’ roll and that’s the magic of the chemistry that your band has from all these years that you’ve been together and the trust in one another and it sounds like a great marriage made in heaven with Brian. This is the voice of Anthony Kiedis on the Kevin and Bean show of course from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. We just debuted their brand new song for you and we’ll be playing it again in a few minutes. It’s called Dark Necessities. The album is coming out on June 17th. I just went o your website through Warner Bros. Records of the album called The Getaway and I’m looking at this album cover. We’ve got to tweet this out! This is insane what you’ve put on the cover of this record! Can you please describe and explain it for us please, Anthony?

Anthony Kiedis: Why do you call it insane [laughs]?

Kevin & Bean Show: Well, I don’t know. It’s a little girl walking down the street with a bear and a raccoon, that’s why.

Anthony Kiedis: Umm… I don’t know. Normally we get a little more high brow artsy, and this just felt extremely warm and human, even though it’s animals, it felt human. And it’s also us. Chad is the bear, Josh is the girl and Flea is the raccoon and me is the funny little raven out front.

Kevin & Bean Show: What just happened? /The racoon can play a mean bass. I’ll tell you that. Here’s what I love about Anthony! The sentence that just came out of his mouth makes sense to this man [laughter]

Anthony Kiedis: What? That doesn’t make sense to anyone else?

Kevin & Bean Show: No! It does! / Flea’s definitely a racoon! No, we’re with you Anthony. That sounds great. [Talks about the band touring]. You guys excited about getting back out there?

Anthony Kiedis: Very excited. Very excited to have a lot of new songs to play. This being our second record with Josh, it feels a lot more fulfilling. And, it’s always great to have a job as a musician. It’s great to be in this band. We love seeing the world. But to have all these new songs at our disposal for live shows makes it feel like ‘Let’s go. Let’s go. We have a mission now.’

Kevin & Bean Show: Some bands live in the studio, for the studio and then they go out and tour but they really want to get back into the studio. Is that the same with you? Or are you the opposite?

Anthony Kiedis: I love the cycle

Kevin & Bean Show: The cycle?

Anthony Kiedis: The cycle. You do this incredible thing in the studio and then you go practice and rehearse and make sure you can play this stuff live and then you go see the world. You know everywhere; from Asia to South America to Europe and Eastern Europe and hopefully the Middle East and Africa and you know, you give this music life to people far far away that it means something to and you have this communal experience together. And when you just can’t take it for another day and you’re beat and you’re haggard and you’re tired and you want to collapse and you come home and you gather some new life experience and start writing a little bit and  Flea sits down at the piano  and says, ‘Hey, I have these chords. What do you think about these chords? And I say, hmmm, I hear melody in there and you start it all over again.

Kevin & Bean Show: And Danger Mouse goes, nope [laughter]

Kevin & Bean Show: Well, it’s not a bad way to make a living, Anthony. One week from Saturday we’re gonna see you guys in person again at the KROQ Weenie Roast you’re going help us say goodbye at the last ever Weenie Roast down there at the Irvine Amphitheater. I bet you guys have played a lot of shows there throughout your career?

Anthony Kiedis: We have. We were talking about that at band practice yesterday. And isn’t it like the last show, period, for Irvine Meadows.

Kevin & Bean Show: No, they’re going through the summer.

Anthony Kiedis: Oh, they’re going through the summer

Kevin & Bean Show: And then they tear it all down for the folks who haven’t heard, for folks who need houses because that’s what we need [laughter]. You know we’ve done 23 out of the 24 Weenie Roasts down at the venue so it really has been our summer time home away from home. We’re so sad to lose that, you know especially a couple of years after we lost the Gibson where we always did the acoustic Christmas. It’s just crazy to see these venues go dark.

Anthony Kiedis: So where will you go from here?

Kevin & Bean Show: Your house.

Anthony Kiedis: My house? That’s fine!

Kevin & Bean Show: OK. Well, we couldn’t have been more excited when we made the announcement that you guys were headlining the KROQ Weenie Roast this year. And of course, it sold out in seconds making a lot of money for a lot of great charities. And there’s no better band to spend a sunny, summer afternoon than with the Red Hot Chili Peppers. We just so psyched to see you guys and congratulations on the new song and the new record Anthony. We love it.

Anthony Kiedis: Thanks for the support and look forward seeing you. Let’s go Weenie Roast!

Kevin & Bean Show: [Download details] Thank you, Anthony. Have a great day, sir.

Anthony Kiedis: Thank you. Yeah, you too. Bye bye.

 

Please note: I’ve tried to make this as accurate as I can but please don’t complain if I’ve got some details wrong as I’ve been working on this for nearly two hours!

 

This entry was posted in Anthony Kiedis, New RHCP Album, Red Hot Chili Peppers, RHCP, RHCP Tour 2016, The Getaway. Bookmark the permalink.

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