How the Red Hot Chili Pepper’s coaxed Gang of Four’s Andy Gill into producing
There’s a secret part of every musician who wants to meet and befriend their heroes. The only reason people make music in the first place is because there’s a band they like, and so they want to try and replicate their sound (or, at the very least, make original music based on their sound). As such, when Red Hot Chili Peppers started making music, they were keen on getting someone from their favourite band to help out.
Gang of Four was a punk band from England that was considered by many at the time to be one of the best punk bands on the planet. They had a massive influence on the scene as their refined and chaotic sound took what had been started in England in the 1970s and elevated it. Their debut album, Entertainment!, is said to be one of the best punk albums ever made, and the Red Hot Chili Peppers agree. Hence, they managed to coax band member Andy Gill to work with them by explaining that Gang of Four was why they got into making music in the first place.
“Flea and Anthony [Kiedis] told me the reason they formed was because Gang of Four was their all-time favourite band,” said Andy Gill. “Obviously, they wanted someone from the band. I was the one who was more production-inclined.”
Those early recording sessions were a hit-and-miss for the band, not only because there was tension between members but because Gill was a lot more hands-on than they were expecting. “We had our good days and our bad days. I think the drug thing didn’t help the situation. A lot of massive tension between Flea and guitarist Jack Sherman,” said Gill.
There were also problems with Gill’s involvement and attitude towards making music, “I think they thought, as their sort of hero, I suppose, I’d just hang out and befriend them. Somehow the music would come – we’d lay it down, and it would be great,” the band were surprised when their “hero” started telling them what to do. Gill laughs when he looks back, “Like I wasn’t going to get involved with, ‘You need to do this. Why don’t we do the bass and drums first? This is a drum machine; we’re going to use it to keep time for us’”.
It’s clear that what the band thought making a punk(ish) record was like was different to the actual process. The biggest shock came for Kiedis, who couldn’t believe that the loud and hectic vocals he heard on the likes of Entertainment! had been put through a compressor. “’We’re gonna put your voice through a compressor, Anthony’. ‘Compressor? But I want it bigger not smaller!’ I made him go and get some singing lessons.”
Despite the differences, the music that came out of those sessions is still considered to be some of the band’s best. Red Hot Chili Peppers had a unique sound, paired with Flea’s experimental approach to rhythm and Kiedis’s distinctive vocals; they made their mark as one of the most exciting new bands of the day.
