Source : the age
He’s best known as the funkified bassist of rock band the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but for his debut solo album Honora, Flea fulfilled a lifelong dream: making a trumpet album, with cameos from Thom Yorke and Nick Cave (who sings on a jazz interpretation of Wichita Lineman).
Rather than a pivot, it’s unfinished business for the 63-year-old, who first played trumpet as a wayward child while growing up in New York City and Los Angeles with his bohemian stepfather, jazz musician Walter Urban Jr.
At a listening session in Sydney, gold-teeth shining and grey-hair poking from under a purple cap (the colour of his beloved Los Angeles Lakers), Flea – born in Melbourne, before he moved to the US at four – nodded methodically to the music, deep in reverie. “It’s a vulnerable feeling playing this for people,” he said, a few weeks later over Zoom. “It’s like, here it is, you guys, here’s my heart, raw and open.”
I appreciate you talking with me, since I know it’s the Lakers-Nuggets tip-off right now.
[laughs] How do you know that? Are you in Australia? When I was there, I went to a Sydney Kings game.
I was gonna ask you about that. As a courtside staple at Lakers games, how’d you find our league?
I just love basketball. I’ve always loved it. I sat with Luc Longley, who I know from when he was in the NBA winning championships on the Bulls. It was a good vibe, and the basketball was great.
I wanted to have the Lakers game on a split-screen right now so we could watch together, but the stream doesn’t let me.
When we’re done with the interview, I’ll be putting it right on. Unless I have to give my kid a bath, but I’m hoping my wife’s gonna do it.
I’m a Pistons fan from the Bad Boys era, so it’s a good time for me.
The Pistons are really good this year. And they’re kind of Bad Boy-ish, too. They have that guy Isaiah Stewart who’s always trying to fight everybody.
I love him. True Pistons spirit.
Some tough motherf—ers, man. I hated those motherf—ers.
How are you feeling about the Lakers?
It’s a strange year. LeBron and Luka kind of repeat one another, you know? They both need the ball in their hands to be effective, and the times when they have Luka run the show and LeBron playing off-ball, it doesn’t really work. And the defence isn’t good. I like Deandre Ayton, he’s a nice guy, but he’s a fumble fingers and spaces out a lot. When he’s good, he’s good. But he’s just not good all the time. I don’t know if he’s the kind of guy that wants to sacrifice his body and his general contentment to be good all the time.
Do you think LeBron is ending this year?
I get a pretty strong feeling that he’s ending on the Lakers this year. But whether or not he retires, I don’t know. He might go to the Warriors next year, I think.
Oh, I figured he’d go home to Cleveland and do the big farewell tour.
That could happen. But I think Draymond and Steph really want him.
Speaking of farewell tours, you famously played the national anthem at Kobe’s last game. Do you have memories of that, the 60-point game?
I did a pretty wild anthem, that was fun. But then the Chili Peppers had a gig that night – we were doing a fundraiser for food banks or something – so I had to leave. So I did the anthem, I watched the first half – Kobe hadn’t really gone off yet – and then jetted out and played a Chili Peppers concert, so I didn’t see it.
Damn. Were you at Kobe’s 81-point game?
No, I was in Australia! I remember I was in Sydney, listening to it on my phone or the computer or something.
I wanted to talk hoops with you because in your memoir, Acid for the Children, you wrote: “I had two life goals: to look cool and perfect a wicked jump shot.” I read that and was like, me too!
I was a good shooter, but I never learnt to shoot right when I was a kid. But over the pandemic I got a shooting coach and finally learnt how to shoot properly, with real form. My shot is better than it’s ever been in my life, and I’m an old f—ing man!
I saw a clip on Instagram where you swished like nine in a row.
And I’m way better now than when I did that post. I just shoot in the backyard. But I can shoot.
Are they still the life goals, to look cool and perfect a wicked jump shot?
I definitely want to look cool and have a good jump shot, but I would say my goals have evolved as I’ve become more conscious and grown-up. I want to be a good husband. I want to love myself because I’ve always struggled so hard with just feeling good about myself. I’m also working harder than I ever have at being a better musician. I practise bass and trumpet every day, really focused on technique and learning in a more cerebral way. I have an OK ear, a sense of aesthetics, and I’m good at being myself, and that’s carried me through my contributions to the Chili Peppers. But now I’m working hard on understanding the bebop language. I’m just at it every day.
That’s interesting because you started with technique, playing the trumpet in school, but along the way you discovered punk music, where technique is not as important as spirit.
Actually, in punk, technique is still pretty important. The really good punk bands like the Ramones? That shit is hard to play! It’s fast and it’s all downstrokes, and to get that sound you have to nurture that. But with jazz, it’s understanding the changes and the alt-chords and the intervals and all the math of that language. I should’ve been learning that stuff as a kid instead of being out in the street, robbing shit and doing drugs and starting a rock band with my crazy-ass friends.
I know your relationship with jazz goes back to your childhood, growing up with your stepdad Walter. I also remember watching Bruce Weber’s documentary Let’s Get Lost, and seeing you hang out with Chet Baker.
I’ve never seen it.
You’ve never seen it? That’s crazy. What do you remember about your time with Chet Baker?
I was doing a photo session with Bruce Weber, and he mentioned he was making a film about Chet Baker. And I said, “I love Chet Baker!” and explained I was a trumpet player before I started playing bass in a rock band and my whole world changed. He was like, “Oh, you should come be in the movie!” Chet was very striking and handsome, particularly as a young man, and so Bruce had all these models around him, really beautiful men and women, and then me who was not that! And so out of everyone filming, I was the only one who knew enough to talk with Chet about music.
I talked to him about Clifford Brown and Freddie Hubbard and the great trumpet players and asked him what he liked. He was relieved because I think, for him, he was just hanging out for a cheque, sitting at a table with all these kids like “What am I doing here?” As I recall, we sang Joy Spring together, which is one of my favourite songs, and he really loved it too.
Even at that time in my life when I was pretty wild – I was young, I was in my 20s, and I was out of my mind doing a lot of drugs – I remember feeling a lot of empathy for him because I knew he was really suffering in the throes of heroin addiction. There were days when he was high and he was feeling real up and happy and easy, and then I saw him kind of grumpy and cold, like obviously he hadn’t gotten any dope. I remember just thinking, man, that’s a tough position to be in. I really felt a lot for him.
You’ve had the desire to do a trumpet album for a long time. I think a lot of us have goals we abandon as we get older – the idea that it’s too late, we missed the boat. How did you overcome that?
I did the opposite. It was like, I’m getting older so I better f—ing do this now! I’d pick it up every couple of years and blow it a little, play it for a few weeks, but I wouldn’t keep it up. But it was about three years ago, I got really excited about this new jazz scene I was hearing in LA – Kamasi Washington, Thundercat, those guys. It had this revolutionary spirit I hadn’t heard in jazz in a long time.
So I decided I’m gonna play trumpet every day for two years, and at the end of the two years, I’m gonna make a record. I don’t know how good I’m gonna be at the end of two years, but I know I’m going on a two-year-long stadium tour with the Chili Peppers and I can play in my hotel room, and that’s what I’m gonna do, and that’s what I did. I practised every day for two years, and went and made my record.
I asked Josh Johnson to produce it because I knew him as a saxophone player and had been listening to The Omnichord Real Book by Meshell Ndegeocello, which he plays on and he produced. I thought, OK, if I’m to work with other musicians, I’m going to need some help. Being in the studio with all these sensitive musicians, it had such a dream-like quality. I was emotional all the way through.
Emotional because of stress or a lack of confidence?
I’d get worried with the trumpet playing because I got insecure that I wasn’t good enough. But it was more being moved to tears by how vulnerable it felt, like I’m baring my soul. I was prepared that it might not work, that it might suck. I was prepared to fail. But I read this thing by Neil Young where he goes, “I’ve made shitty records and I still put them out because failure is important.” When I read that by Neil Young, someone I admire so much, I was like, f— yeah! If I fail, great. It’s beautiful to take a risk. If I fail, I f—ing tried.
Has Frank Ocean heard your interpretation of Thinkin Bout You?
I’m assuming he has, but I don’t know, I haven’t spoken to him. We’ve met, but I don’t know him well. But my wife [Melody Ehsani] was part of that [Odd Future] scene. She’s a designer and her shop was right there on Fairfax where they all hung out, and she was always like, “Oh, they’re beautiful kids”. In the tradition of jazz artists taking pop songs and reinterpreting them, that’s what I wanted to do. Because it’s a great song and I love him.
When Channel Orange came out, I listened to it every day for months. Even now, I have a three-year-old boy, and we have his playlist we listen to – it has kids’ songs on there, like The Wheels on the Bus, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and shit – but the songs we listen to that he really loves are John Lennon songs, Stevie Wonder and Frank Ocean.
Your wife is of Iranian heritage [her mother, Shahin Badiyan, appears on Honora’s album cover]. I realise it’s complicated, but how is the war affecting you guys?
I don’t want to speak for her, but it’s very emotional for her and her family. Her family had to flee from Iran due to their religion – they’re Baha’i and the Baha’i were persecuted. But I think they would’ve been happier if the Ayatollah hadn’t just been killed, but if he’d had to go to court and face up to his crimes. In one way, it’s great if they could go back to Iran and see their home. But in another way, every time the United States has invaded a country in the Middle East, it’s been left in complete f—ing chaos. There’s a million outcomes that could happen from this, but right now it’s war and there’s a lot of sadness and chaos and tragedy.
I saw pictures of you at Bondi Beach recently. Are you still in Australia regularly?
Whenever I can. We were staying in North Bondi, so I got up every day and walked down to the beach, went swimming, got coffee. At one point people were taking pictures, so … [laughs].
Do you still have a house out here?
I had one for a long time down on the South Coast, but I don’t any more. My father was in NSW forever and I would always come be with him, but now most of my family is up around Brissie. I love Australia. I left when I was so young – I left when I was four – but I started going back a lot in the ’90s and something about it – the smell of the food, the air, the way the sky looks – I feel very comfortable and connected to it in a way I don’t know how to describe. It awakens something in me from when I was a little kid. It’s just part of me.
I still try to come at least once a year, and I love it: the people, the laid-back lifestyle, the healthy food. Australia really embraces health, which is cool. I mean, it gets a little ridiculous over in Bondi. I’ve never seen so many f—ing muscles in my life! It’s like, you guys, this isn’t sustainable. Lay off the f—ing protein shakes and the ’roids and the weights. You can be healthy and clean and light on your feet. You don’t need to be walking around like Arnold Schwarzenegger all the time. I’ve never seen so many buff people in my life. It’s f—ing crazy.
Flea’s trumpet album, Honora, is out on March 27.
