According to Chili Peppers bassist Flea, the Chili Peppers are still together and working. It looked as if the Chili Peppers would never come out with anything new, after Flea and guitarist dave Navarro joined the Jane's Addiction reunion. Flea says it isn't so. "We were just in the studio last week," he said recently, also saying that he is committed to the band and its future projects. The band plans to start working on a new album in December, and are also working on another project.
In between lots of rehearsals for the Jane's Addiction tour, the Chili Peppers' are running in and out of an L.A. studio to work on a song currently titled "Circle of the Noose," to appear on a tribute to the late Pakistani singer Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan. Also, the band is said to be working on about 20 new songs for a new seventh album, which is still unscheduled for release. Navarro said that the Chili Peppers have 20 ideas for songs recorded in rough form. "A lot of the writing in progress takes place in the studio," he said. "So the songs aren't done until they're done. There might be songs that (singer) Anthony (Kiedis) has lyrics for but we don't have grooves for, or it might be the other way around."
Another project is going on between Navarro and Chad Smith, Chili Peppers drummer. They formed a side band called "Spread" after some free time after the last Chili Peppers' tour. "We had a lot of down time, after the last Chili Peppers tour," Navarro said, "with Flea working on some movie things and Anthony in India. So Chad and I were hanging tight, sitting around in L.A. When I do that I tend to write sappy, depressing songs, where I'm real honest about my fears as a human being." Navarro said the two of them "just ended up having some songs" they worked on together, so they went into a studio with Dave Schiffman, who engineered and co-produced it, which is still not scheduled for release. "It was a real low-budget, self-made thing that we want to put out on Warner [Brothers label] just for fun. Neither of us are really necessarily interested in getting it out there to have more product on the shelf," Navarro said. Navarro added that it was a "challenge for me and Chad to completely have the reins in the studio."
Red Hot Chili Peppers - October 25, 1997
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