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Chapter 1: What inspired Flea to create his first solo album, Honora?
And thanks.
This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. My guest Flea co-founded the multiple Grammy-winning band the Red Hot Chili Peppers in 1982. He's a songwriter and the band's bass player, known for his fast percussive grooves. They started as an L.A. punk rock band when L.A. and New York were the punk capitals. Their lead singer initially rapped more than he sang.
Flea has just released his first solo album called Honora, and it's a big departure.
Chapter 2: How did Flea's childhood influence his music career?
Various styles of jazz figure into it. Flea's stepfather was a jazz musician, and listening to his music, starting when Flea was seven, changed Flea's life in ways he's still grateful for. But Flea's stepfather was also addicted to heroin and alcohol, and that made home life unpredictable and sometimes dangerous, leaving Flea afraid to go home.
He spent as much time as he could on the streets and with friends, often doing things that could have had serious consequences. On the new album, in addition to bass... Flea plays trumpet, the first instrument he learned to play. The album also reflects how Flea started studying music theory about 10 years ago.
Onora includes original compositions by Flea, as well as covers of songs by George Clinton and Frank Ocean. Tom Yorick of Radiohead sings on one track. Nick Cave sings Wichita Linemen.
Chapter 3: What challenges did Flea face growing up with a jazz musician stepfather?
The arrangements feature strings, brass, and woodwinds. When I recorded this interview with Flea last week, we talked about his childhood, his relationship with his stepfather, the chili peppers, being wild, and how Flea and his music have changed. He wrote a memoir in 2019 titled Acid for the Children. Flea, welcome to Fresh Air. Congratulations on the new album. So let's get to your music.
I want to compare where you started from in terms of your recordings and where you are now. So let's start by listening to a brief part of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' first demo record.
Well, cool.
And this is Nevermind.
Chapter 4: How did Flea's experiences on the streets shape his identity?
You're, of course, featured on bass.
Nevermind the Pac-Town Nevermind the Gap Band
Wow, Terry, good call on that one.
Okay, well, let's compare that to Frailed from your new album, Honora, with you featured on trumpet and bass.
Bye.
So what do you think the 20-year-old you would have thought of the music from your new album?
I would have been really happy with myself making music that I cared about, being a student of music, continuing to just love music.
And when I listened back to the song Nevermind that you played for my first demo tape, and the feeling that I had making it, and the feeling that I had when we went around with that tape, playing it for people with our cassette tape, trying to get booked into clubs to get gigs, It's a similar feeling that I have now with the record that I just made, Honora.
It's a feeling that I haven't really had since back then.
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Chapter 5: What led to the formation of the Red Hot Chili Peppers?
And it's a feeling of, I've made this music that is really... I mean, obviously, it's a collective. The Chili Peppers made the music, but we made music. And I had a feeling that we are filling this place, an empty place in the world...
that is hasn't been filled before we've created this thing that is ourselves purely so it can't be anybody else and we've we're filling this new place and it's a really a beautiful feeling and and that's how i feel about um the music that i've made with honor it's the same thing like i feel like uh I'm making music that occupies its own place in the world, and that feels good to me.
Does the change in music represent a change in you? You're older. You're not in your 20s. You're in your 60s.
Yep.
Chapter 6: How does Flea describe the bond with his bandmates?
Constantly, yeah. I mean, of course, even though back then, you know, when I made that music when I was 20, I think. I was 20 years old when we recorded that, 19 or 20. I was listening to ethereal jazz music all the time. I grew up with jazz music, and I was listening to jazz music back then. But of course I've changed, and thank God I've changed. I was a lunatic. You know what I mean?
Yeah, I know what you mean.
Yeah, I mean, I was a street kid and I was, you know, emotionally and in so many ways, you know, 19 going on 10, you know.
Chapter 7: What impact did addiction have on Flea and his band?
And I continue to try to grow as a human being in all the ways, you know, emotionally, spiritually, to be more considerate of my fellow human beings. I mean, in every way. So it all feeds into the music and it all feeds into the way that I interact with other people emotionally. And, yeah, I mean, I'm a different person.
And, you know, I think this is something I think about a lot in a way that just like as a parent, you know, I have three kids. One is 37. The other one is 20. And the other one is three. And I've been a different person for each one of them. You know, I've been a different kind of parent.
Chapter 8: How does Flea view his evolution as a musician over the years?
Oh, right, in a different stage of your life because their years are far apart.
Yeah, it's true. They're all 17 years apart. And 17 years, if one is willing to feel the pain and suffering of being a human being, you're going to grow. So I'm grateful for growth and I'm grateful for humility and I'm grateful to be a student.
So I want to play some more music from your new album, Honora. And this is called Morning Cry. And it's the track that's like most obviously jazz. You know, it's not like influenced by jazz. It's not jazz and funk or jazz and something. It's just jazz. And it sounds to me, tell me if I'm wrong, very influenced by Ornette Coleman.
Very much so. Yeah. And I, you know, I've had the great fortune to play with Ornette Coleman on a number of occasions. And he was very kind to me. And I've admired him since I was a very young man. You know, you think like, you know, when we started with Chili Peppers, we were listening to Ornette constantly.
And I still, you know, play whenever I get the chance with his son, Donardo, who's, you know, very welcoming and, you know, to me.
Do you want to say anything by way of introduction of the song and how you wrote it?
Sure, yeah, because it's actually something I remember quite clearly is waking up one morning and feeling an abundance of sadness and being moved to tears by circumstances in my life. And at the same time, I was lying there and I was just like crying. And at the same time, I was lying, you know, in that kind of ethereal state when you wake up kind of in between being asleep and being awake.
And I was to myself, you know, And I was just singing that to myself. And it's funny because it's not really a sad-sounding melody. Not at all. It's so energetic. But it's what, you know, there's the strange workings of my mind. I don't know. But it was, yeah, right in the morning, just woke up and was doing it. And that felt really, it felt nice.
And, you know, I went into my music, got up, went to my music room and scratched it down on a piece of paper. And there it was.
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