How Depeche Mode became John Frusciante’s favourite band
The Red Hot Chili Peppers have never been known as snobs regarding their favourite artists. From the sounds of early hip-hop to funk to old-school rock and roll, nothing was off the table when it came time for Chili Peppers to make a new song, often covering some of their favourite artists on record, like their version of Stevie Wonder’s ‘Higher Ground’, for example. In between the sounds of Jimi Hendrix and Parliament Funkadelic, John Frusciante had a well of musical influences that ran much deeper.
Before he even auditioned for the band, Frusciante was originally set to join Frank Zappa’s group but decided to try to be a rockstar in his own right. While it’s easy to decipher his guitar vocabulary from Hendrix on songs like ‘Under The Bridge’, Frusciante’s approach to songwriting also comes from the world of synth-pop.
When speaking with The Quietus, Frusciante mentioned his massive admiration for Depeche Mode, recalling, “When Red Hot Chili Peppers started writing Californication back in 1998, I was 28 years old and had just restarted my life. It sort of ended when I was 22, and I had a lot of near-death experiences in the ensuing five years. So when I came back into the world, I was a real different person, Depeche Mode became my favourite band, and I just bought every 12″ of theirs.”
By the time Frusciante became enamoured with songs like ‘Master and Servant’ though, he had already reached a personal low point. After leaving band for the first time, Frusciante admitted to being lost creatively and would stay in his house working on solo material while sinking deeper and deeper into heroin addiction.
Though Depeche Mode’s music has catered towards the dark side of life, that darkness actually helped Frusciante see the way out when he was asked to rejoin the band in the late ’90s. Frusciante went on to say that he would learn how to play some of their melodies on guitar. He continued: “I could play all the synth melodies to their songs on guitar. Their 12″s are so incredible because they’ve been a huge influence not only obviously on synth-pop, but almost every style of electronic music that means anything. It’s such an unusual thing for a pop group to have such a huge influence on the underground.”
Rather than using his next songs as an opportunity to shred, Frusciante often saw his guitar as an extension of the band’s collective voice. Since his motor skills had also been worn down due to his excesses, the minimalist approach that he brought to songs like ‘Californication’ had the same power as acts like Depeche Mode and The Cure.
The influence of Depeche Mode’s early material also developed into Frusciante appreciating fellow electronic acts like Nine Inch Nails and some of the Cure’s later work, later incorporating some of those sonic colours into his music in his solo catalogue. More than anything, Frusciante seemed to grasp the concept of serving the song much better when he listened to synth-pop sounds. The guitar was just a tool for making a great song, and it was up to him to put as much emotion into it as possible.
