John Frusciante is heavily influenced by 80s British music

19 October 2022

John Frusciante is heavily influenced by 80s British music.

John Frusciante loves 80s music

The Red Hot Chilli Peppers star “has a lot of memories” of listening to the Human League when he and his band - which also currently includes Anthony Kiedis, Flea and Chad Smith - were working on their 2002 LP, 'By The Way'.

The 52-year-old guitarist told MixMag: "I have a lot of memories associated with [The Human League], especially by the time we were writing ‘By The Way’. I would blast ‘Reproduction’ to-and-from rehearsal every day. I especially love the first two albums and their early singles. And you have stuff like that all-instrumental ‘Dignity Of Labour’ EP, the basis for a lot of ambient music. Those guys were just going into the unknown!”

John also labelled himself a “huge fan of" new wave act Depeche Mode - who had an original line up of Dave Gahan, Martin Gore, Andy Fletcher, and Vince Clarke - and recalled buying all the ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’ hitmakers’ records on vinyl.

He said: “I'm a huge fan of Depeche Mode, when the Red Hot Chili Peppers started writing ‘Californication’ back in ‘98, I was 28 and had just restarted my life. When I came back into the world, I was a different person and Depeche Mode became my favourite band. I bought every 12” of theirs at a place near me called Vinyl Fetish that stocked a lot of UK imports. 'Master And Servant' is one of the weirder ones.”

John called being the band - that he rejoined in 2019 before releasing and touring the 2022 album ‘Unlimited Love - the only “real job” he has ever had in music despite his performing as a solo artist Trickfinger, where he makes “electronic music”.

He said: "I don't make a lot of money for my electronic music. I probably spend more on gear than I've ever made but I did nothing but electronic music for about 12 years before I rejoined the band [in 2019]. It's definitely a full-time job being in the Chili Peppers. Really, the Red Hot Chili Peppers is the only real ‘job’ I've ever had in music.”

The rocker - whose band is gearing up to release their second album of this year ‘Return of the Dream Canteen’ - also enthused about his love of Kraftwerk.

John said: “But synth-pop: to me, that really starts with Kraftwerk. It's a different sense of melody than regular pop music — It's more mechanical in a sense."