Perry Farrell

Perry Farrell

It’s been four years since the formation of Porno For Pyros, the group that rose from the ashes of Jane’s Addiction, one of the most influential bands of the decade. In that time, PFP has earned its own reputation for extending the expressive and emotional horizons of modern music, first with an incendiary string of live performances, including appearances at Lollapalooza and Woodstock, then with the release of their debut Warner Bros. Records release, Porno For Pyros. The band most recently headlined Australia’s Big Day Out Festival in January.

In mid-1994, the group disappeared from public view to begin a long and sometimes arduous recording process at Shangri-La studios in Zuma Beach, CA (best known as the place The Band and Eric Clapton recorded some of their finest work in the early ’70s). This house/studio has ‘a very strong vibe,’ and the band believes that the ‘good spirits’ in the house made their presence known on Good God’s Urge, their current release. A seaside location was particularly appropriate, as much of the album was inspired by the band’s frequent surf trips to Bali, Fiji and Tahiti.

Some interesting guest musicians make appearances on Good God’s Urge, including Chili Peppers’ Flea and Dave Navarro (“Freeway”), all of Love & Rockets (“Porpoise Head”), and bassist Mike Watt, who plays on two tracks (“100 Ways”), and “Good Gods Urge!”). Watt, formerly of the Minutemen and firehose, replaced bassist Martyn LeNoble during this process of creating and recording. LeNoble lent his sexy bass playing to “Bali Eyes”, “Tahitian Moon”, “Dogs Rule The Night”, “Kimberly Austin”, “Thick Of It All” and “Wishing Well”.

Good God’s Urge, the new Porno For Pyros album, is the result of a year and a half of writing, fine-tuning and studio-crafting the new songs. In a recent interview, group members Perry Farrell, Peter DiStefano, Stephen Perkins and Mike Watt discussed the making of Good God’s Urge, as well as related matters of the heart, mind and soul.

Q: Why did you chose Malibu to record your new album, Good God’s Urge?

Peter: The surf, the scenery, the green Malibu means mountains by the ocean. We wanted to be in a place where we could get comfortable, live together and take our time recording the music. We also went through some amazing life changes out there, good and bad and everything in between, and we put that in the music, too.

Q: How long did it take to record the new album?

Steve: It ended up being close to a year-and-a-half. We learned a lot about each other, about making music and using the studio as an instrument. The tracks we did 12 months ago were a complete transformation from the tracks we did at the end of the process.

Q: Did working in an environment like Malibu affect how the album came out?

Perry: Yeah. The sounds of nature, birds singing and things like that, was the aesthetic we were surrounded
with. And there’s really nothing more awesome than nature, which I think we were missing a bit of on the last record. But we infused that with what we already do, so on the whole this is a more balanced record, I would say. Most bands, when they’ve got their songs together, set up their rhythm tracks, the bass and drums and do all the basic tracks at the same time, then go in and overdub. And it will all sound the same, because you’ve got the same basic set-up; you’re not moving anything around. What we
did over this long span of time was to tear everything down and then set it back up and finish one song at a time. That’s why every song has got a very different tone, presence and attitude.

Q: Did you have a specific approach in mind when you went into record the album or did it evolve over the time that you recorded it?

Perry: Don’t let anybody kid you when they tell you that their finished record was just the way they planned it. That happens more in the Hollywood film industry, because they don’t have time for miracles. We wait for miracles with open arms. I never know what we’re going to sound like, even though we always have one or two ideas about how we want to approach a song, and that keeps it fresh. The rest of it’s the miracle part, and that’s the reward you get for all the hard work you put in.

Steve: We didn’t spend a lot of time in preproduction, or rehearsing the songs. We went in there and kind of felt it out and let the miracles unfold.

Q: During the recording of the album you lost your bass player, Martyn LeNoble, who was replaced by Mike Watt. Was it difficult to remain focused on the recording under those circumstances?

Perry: Well it was sad that Martyn had to go, but it gave us the chance to work with Mike Watt, David J and Flea. So it actually became more focused because, at one time, we all were wondering if we were going to make it out of this alive.

Q: Mike, how did it feel to work with the band on material that was new to you?

Mike: Very adventurous. When you hear this record, you hear lots of different journeys. Sometimes it was very scary, but it made me stronger and I wouldn’t trade that for anything. It was the one of most exciting experiences in my life. Every time I played with them it was a new journey and not just in the licks, but in the feeling of the songs. Sometimes the bass parts came to me after hearing the song just once.

Perry: And some of them were weird parts too, man! But that’s what we wanted and we wouldn’t have gotten it if I’d just said, ‘Look Mike, you’re the new guy, this is your part, here’s what we want you to do.’ It probably wouldn’t sound very good and you want to know why? Because everyone has a certain intonation in their body. People vibrate at certain frequencies. And Mike vibrates at a very different frequency than the rest of us. It was so exciting to play with him because we’re all so different. It becomes syncopated, omnipresent and multidimensional. And, ultimately, that’s much more interesting.

Mike: And bass guitar always has a weird role. It’s kind of a musical floor. But if you’ve got guys who are sensitive, they just don’t walk on you like a floor. They let you also become part of the wall and the couch. That’s what happens with these guys.

Q: What is the writing process within the band?

Perry: It’s not like we say, ‘Okay, look, these are the rules. There’s four ways to write a song.’ It doesn’t work that way at all. We might be hanging out and all of a sudden, I’ll realize that crickets and insects have their own orchestras, just like we do. Then we’ll start thinking about crickets, and making cricket noises and jamming and I’ll start singing about what I think about crickets and we go from there. We hang out an awful lot together. We’re pals, and I mean that sincerely. We travel together to islands and learn more there in natural surroundings than we do in the city, and it’s keeping me very balanced. I enjoy their company very much; they’re very deep cats.

Q: Who produced the album?

Perry: We did, with this cat named TJ – Tom Johnson. He’s a big guy, a giant and he vibrates very differently from us. I mean, if I produced it by myself it would sound like a skinny record. But with me handling the tweedle-dee-dees and Tom handling the tweedle-dee-dums, it works out really nice.

Q: Were there times when you felt like you were getting too into the music and you couldn’t detach yourself enough to be objective about what you were recording?

Peter: We went through everything making this record, from throwing chairs to almost dying, to saying ‘Man, life is just the best it’s ever been.’ In order to make any thing great you have to work and suffer, and it was worth it all.

Q: How do you feel about Good God’s Urge now that it’s done?

Steve: The last time I listened to it as a full record, it was very enlightening. I was inspired. I took myself out of the being a band member and was able to listen to the music fresh.

Perry: I don’t have enough distance yet. It’s tough, because people are always asking us to top ourselves and sometimes you say to yourself, ‘They’re not going to like this as much as what I used to do.’ But then I think about what a fool I’d be if I just tried to keep doing what I used to do. I’d be ashamed of myself right now. In the end you really hurt yourself trying to repeat what you’ve done, and no one’s doing you a favor by giving you that advice. I recently listened to the first Porno record and I really liked it. But I remember at the time people said, ‘Man, why did you break up Jane’s Addiction?’ And that made me feel so terrible. But people are like that, they just don’t want what they like to change, but if they really thought about it, they wouldn’t wish that on their worst enemy. Everybody needs to change and grow.

Q: How do you feel about the fact that Jane’s Addiction was such an important influence on so many
people?

Perry: Well, when the first Jane’s album came out, people said we sucked. So I don’t listen to what people
say now. What you’ve got to do is listen to your heart, and you’ll never be embarrassed, you’ll never feel like you sold yourself short. I think Good God’s Urge is some of the best music I’ve ever done, because I know how much work I put into it. So I’m confident we haven’t missed it this time or fooled anybody. I just made sure that this record is what I wanted to hear for myself. And if it’s different from what we’ve done before, thank God.

Q: What was it like going out as a brand new band after Jane’s Addiction?

Perry: We had swinginest things going on, fire shooting everywhere and dancers, but people turned on us and didn’t believe in us. All the great theatrics were overlooked. I don’t know what it was, but there was no faith in what we were doing. So, we just said, ‘Look, we’re gonna’ do this, we’re going to start off as a new band.’ I didn’t want any ads for shows saying, ‘Ex-Jane’s Addiction members,’ or anything like that. We wanted to start from the ground up and do it like everyone else does, as a brand new band. But, at the same time, I think what I wanted was extra attention paid to strange detail. And that’s very hard to come by. Most people follow established routes, but I’m not content doing that. My heart’s just not content. There’s so much more in store. I have so many dreams and wishes to make people open their eyes and hearts and I think that’s what this album is going to do.


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