This section was written by Leandro Cabo from rhcplivearchive.com

NIANDRA LADES

Dates: June 1990 - March 1991
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home (8505 Hollywood Blvd), Los Angeles, CA

• My Smile Is a Rifle

• Head (Beach Arab)

• Big Takeover

• Curtains

• Mascara

• Been Insane

• Skin Blues

• Ten to Butter Blood Voodoo

  Released on album “Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt”

• The Other

• Poppy Man

• I’m Always

• Femininity

• Breathe

• For Air

• Smile from the Streets You Hold [first half]

  Released on album “Smile From the Streets You Hold”

• Turn Around in a Circle

  Unreleased, but performed live

Most of the album was written at the same time the Chili Peppers were writing Blood Sugar Sex Magik, with a few exceptions listed below. All the songs were recorded in John’s living room onto a TASCAM Portastudio 424.

Head (Beach Arab) was originally written as a heavy metal song when John was 16 years old, but rearranged for this album. Big Takeover is a Bad Brains cover. At this time, he was in the habit of singing punk rock songs to himself in a melodic, sort of slow way while coming back home from rehearsals. Sailin’ On, another Bad Brains cover, was performed in a similar style during a fan-club interview recorded around June 1990.

John recalled recording Ten to Butter Blood Voodoo around this time, but he has also mentioned being on heroin while recording the guitar solo. But he tried heroin for the first time a few months after finishing recording Blood Sugar Sex Magik (this Jane's Addiction biography mentions September 1991). That could mean he got this song confused, or that the solo was overdubbed later.

Running Away Into You, Untitled #2 (with a poem read on top of it), Untitled #3 and an extended Untitled #5 cut were featured on the short movie Stuff, filmed by Johnny Depp and Gibby Haynes at John’s house, over a year and a half before the album was released. In fact, it was them who encouraged John to release his solo music.

Turn Around in a Circle, performed live a few times and fan-titled for easier recognition, was probably recorded during these sessions and may have appeared on an early advance copy of the album, as a few seconds can be heard during the VPRO 1994 documentary at 01:10:08. The album wouldn’t be released seven months after when the interview was aired, but an advance copy from American Recordings dated March 8, 1994 can be seen on one of the shots at John’s CD collection, that he probably gave to Bram Van Splunteren, as bits of other songs were also featured during the interview.

Dates: May - June 1991
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home (8505 Hollywood Blvd), Los Angeles, CA

• As Can Be

• Your Pussy’s Glued to a Building on Fire

  Released on album “Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt”

• Ants

  Released on the cassette version of “Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt” and the 7” single included with the deluxe vinyl reissue in 2017

• Outside Space

  Released on the “Estrus” 7” single in 1997

As the Chili Peppers entered The Mansion in May 1991, where they would start recording Blood Sugar Sex Magik, John would continue to write solo songs and later record them on weekends, when he went back to his own house.

Your Pussy’s Glued to a Building on Fire originally included an extra verse at the end, but was removed for unknown reasons. The cut can be heard at the exact last second of the song. However, it was performed live in this complete form twice: in 1997 and in 2001.

Dates: April 1992
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home (8505 Hollywood Blvd), Los Angeles, CA

• Blood on My Neck from Success

  Released on album “Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt”

On the Q&A recorded in March 2004 for his official website, John mentions writing and recording this song just before quitting the band, as a sort of “assault” on Lindy Goetz (band’s manager at the time) because John felt he was being pushed around and told what to do all the time.

Dates: June 1992
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home (8505 Hollywood Blvd), Los Angeles, CA

• Running Away into You

  Released on album “Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt”

On the same Q&A recording, he mentions that this might be the only song on the album recorded after leaving the band, about a month after he quit.

USUALLY JUST A T-SHIRT

Dates: June 1990 - April 1992
Musicians: John Frusciante
Additional Musicians: Randy Ruff, Abbie Rude, Toni Oswald
Recorded at: John’s Home (8505 Hollywood Blvd), Los Angeles, CA

• Usually Just a T-Shirt

  Released on the cassette version of “Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt” and the 7” single included with the deluxe vinyl reissue in 2017

• Untitled #1

• Untitled #2

• Untitled #3

• Untitled #4

• Untitled #5

• Untitled #6

• Untitled #7

• Untitled #8

• Untitled #9

• Untitled #10

• Untitled #11

• Untitled #12

• Untitled #13

  Released on album “Niandra LaDes and Usually Just a T-Shirt”

Originally Usually Just a T-Shirt existed as a completely separate project from the Niandra LaDes tracks, even if it was recorded around the same timeframe, exactly in the same order they appear on the tracklist. The last song was recorded a week before his friend Robert Hayes passed away (April 19, 1992).

SMILE FROM THE STREETS YOU HOLD

This album had no proper recording sessions as it’s basically an amalgamation of songs from various periods of time from 1988 to 1996.

John had the album removed from record stores in 1998 after rejoining the band because he felt uncomfortable with it being available to the public, as he’s been quoted saying that it was released for drug money. Later in March 2005, on a post on his official website, he talked about changing his mind about the album and having plans to make all the copies he had sitting in a warehouse available by selling them directly through his store, but it didn’t end up happening.

There are two different mixes of the album - one features lower sound quality and has frequent hiss and hum on most tracks. Originally, we thought they came from two different pressings but according to Larry (Birdman Records' engineer at the time), when they were putting the record together, John came in with a brown paper bag full of unlabeled cassette tapes and just sorted through them finding the songs he wanted on the album. Right after the CDs were pressed, John found the master tapes for most of them, so they had to press new copies. That first batch ended up as advance copies to give away, and the infamous Russian bootleg also used this master, so that’s why it’s so widely circulating today.

It’s very likely that any other unreleased songs recorded up until this point are now lost forever. Around this time, John had to leave the house he was renting at the time, as the owner threated to send the cops on him due to his lifestyle at the time. Later, he sent a friend to pick up all of his stuff but his master tapes were hidden, and when he realized that, the house owner had already thrown them away.

Dates: Early 1988
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Apartment, Los Angeles, CA

• A Fall Thru the Ground

  Released on album “Smile from the Streets You Hold”

Recorded when John was 17 years old, a few months before joining the band. The song was originally a bit longer but was shortened for release. He mentioned three more songs were recorded during this period.

Dates: Spring 1993
Musicians: John Frusciante, River Phoenix
Recorded at: John’s Home (8505 Hollywood Blvd), Los Angeles, CA

• Well, I’ve Been

• Height Down

  Released on album “Smile from the Streets You Hold”

The songs were recorded on two different nights. Originally meant to be released on Niandra LaDes under the titles Bought Her Soul and Soul Removal respectively, as seen on advance copies of the album, but removed at last minute due to River’s family preventing them from being released.

Dates: Late 1993
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: Unknown, Los Angeles, CA

• Life’s a Bath

  Released on album “Smile from the Streets You Hold”

Recorded during a very short period living at a rented house in Laurel Canyon while his Hollywood Blvd. home was being repaired from a fire caused by electrical malfunction. 

Dates: Late 1994
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Apartment, New York, NY

• Enter a Uh

• I May Again Know John

• Nigger Song

• Smile from the Streets You Hold [second half]

  Released on album “Smile from the Streets You Hold”

Sometime in 1994 he moves to New York with Toni Oswald, his girlfriend at the time, and records these songs.

Dates: 1996
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: Unknown, Los Angeles, CA

• More

• I Can’t See Until I Can See Your Eyes

• Estress

  Released on album “Smile from the Streets You Hold”

THIRD ALBUM SESSIONS

Dates: June - July 1997
Musicians: John Frusciante, Norwood Fisher, Chris Warren
Recorded at: Jimmy Boyle’s Studio, Los Angeles, CA

• Circles of You

• Dust Bin

• Elemental

• What It Tastes Like

• Water Fall Through

• Strangers

  and more songs

After the Nuttstalk ‘97 tour was over, John entered the studio to record some songs he’d been playing live at those shows which apparently, were written when he was 15 and 16 years old. Their original names are unknown but were fan-titled for easier recognition. All the information about this session comes from two magazine interviews he gave that year:

“Frusciante is planning to record and release with a band tentatively featuring close friends Chris Warren of Thelonius Monster and Fishbone's Norwood Fisher (the duo that made up John's supporting band on the recent Nuttstalk '97 tour)” – Bikini, August 1997 issue

“The recent release of Smile, new sessions in producer Jimmy Boyle’s L.A. studio, an interest in releasing tapes of 3 Amoebas (his improve trio with Flea and Jane’s Addiction drummer Stephen Perkins) and his participation in this summer’s Nuttsalk tour with members of P-Funk and Fishbone represent Frusciante’s first forays back into the land of the living” – Guitar Player, November 1997 issue

In 2004, he mentioned them again: “Around 1997, I had made a couple of attempts at recording music that failed miserably. I expected to be able to do music just because I was me and because I had written these songs.”

So it would seem that the sessions weren’t completed as John wasn’t happy with the result.

TO RECORD ONLY WATER FOR TEN DAYS

Dates: 1998
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home, Silverlake, CA

• Untitled 2000

• Back and Forth (To the Sun)

  Leaked to the internet in September 2000

• Saturation

• Fallout

  Released on album “To Record Only Water for Ten Days”

• So Would’ve I

• Beginning Again

• The Last Hymn

  Released on the “Going Inside” single on March 5, 2001

• Three Thoughts

• I Go Through These Walls

• Murmur

• Innerstate Sex

• Dying (I Don't Mind)

• The Battle of Time

• With Love

• Beat Down

• Fallout [alternate take]

• Low Birds

• Slow Down

• Nature Falls

• Leave All the Days Behind

• Place to Drive

• How High

• Leaving You

• Sailing Outdoors

  Released on “From the Sounds Inside” on John’s official website through late 2001

Everything during this period was born without a commercial release in mind. The first two songs to be heard from these sessions were aired during radio interviews with John and started circulating among fans: Fallout on KROQ in December 1999 and So Would’ve I on 99X in June 2000. A few months later, in September 2000, ten songs leaked in a fansite called Yell'O' in Zbras, sourced from a cassette tape John had given to some friends. Danny Lohner from NIN picked these leaked demos as one of his top 10 favorite albums of 2000.

When John figured out these were leaking to the internet, he sent the webmaster of his official website a 21-song CD-R (containing eight of the ten songs previously featured on the cassette tape) to make it available for free on his website. His official website relaunched on August 9, 2001 and a few tracks from the release would be available at a time in rotation weekly. The whole release was finally made available at once on December 31, 2001.

This internet release was eventually given the title From the Sounds Inside in February 2002 from a poll with various choices suggested by fans, with a reminder that this was an unofficial release. John didn’t even recognize it when asked about it on the Q&A session in 2004. As stated in his website at the time, the winning title would not become official and would be solely used for identity purposes only. All the songs were originally untitled as well, but were titled by the webmaster for easier recognition. He answered some questions in a Facebook group in 2017, where he tried to clear this all up.

Dates: Late 1998 - 1999
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home, Silverlake, CA

• With No One

• The First Season

• Representing

• Moments Have You

• Someone’s

• Wind Up Space

  Released on album “To Record Only Water for Ten Days”

• Resolution

  Released as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of “To Record Only Water for Ten Days”

• Time Is Nothing

  Released on the “Going Inside” single on March 5, 2001

• All We Have

• Light Ahead

• Every Light Will Burn

• Fill My Nights

• Drift Down

  Leaked to the internet in early 2006

A few months later, he gave yet another CD-R with 13 songs to friends. Five of the songs remained unknown and unreleased until they leaked online.

Dates: November 1999 - April 2000
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home, Silverlake, CA

• Going Inside

• Away & Anywhere

• Remain

• Ramparts

• Murderers

• Invisible Movement

• In Rime

  Released on album “To Record Only Water for Ten Days”

Third and final batch of recordings. Further work was done during this period as well, as some edits, overdubs and backing vocals were performed for several songs from the earlier sessions. These songs were tracked on a digital 8-track recorder (Yamaha MD8) unlike the previous batchs of songs, done on a simple 4-track. The songs intended for commercial release were transfered onto a 2" analog tape to be mixed on a conventional 24-track console in a professional studio.

Guitars used for the recording were an acoustic Martin guitar (borrowed from Anthony Kiedis), a 1966 Fender Mustang and a 1961 Gibson SG, as all of his main guitars were on the road or in storage while the Chili Peppers were touring for Californication. A Korg M1 keyboard and a Akai MPC3000 drum machine were also used.

SESSIONS WITH MILLA JOVOVICH

Dates: 2000
Musicians: John Frusciante, Milla Jovovich
Recorded at: John’s Home, Silverlake, CA (unconfirmed)

• Bring It On

  Released on Milla's website on September 14, 2004

While the song was released without any accompanying info at all and John is not explicitly credited, the tags from the mp3 file state it comes from an album named "Milla/John Demos", which would imply more songs might exist. These sessions were recorded at either John’s or Milla’s home through 2000 while they were dating.

THE BROWN BUNNY OST

Dates: Early 2001 - Early 2002
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home, Silverlake, CA

• Forever Away

• Dying Song

• Prostitution Song

• Falling

  Released on “The Brown Bunny OST” on May 4, 2004

• Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World [Ramones]

  Released on “We're a Happy Family: A Tribute to Ramones” on February 11, 2003

• 'A Samurai Workout' Title Theme

  Featured on “A Samurai Workout”

Recording dates for these tracks are hard to narrow down as John's songs were not featured in the movie and rather served as an inspiration during filming, beginning in July 2002.

After being asked by Vincent Gallo to do the music and reading the script, John gave him a CD with about fourteen songs with the music he intended for the film. In September 2003, John wrote in the liner notes for the soundtrack release: "The songs we intended to be in the film are some of my favourite songs I have ever written. I am proud to say a few of them are included here. There are many others which I am sure will see daylight eventually and some which already have".

From his statement, we can speculate he was picking songs from his pile of previously recorded (the inclusion of Leave All the Things Behind from the 1998 sessions is a clear example) and newly written songs with the film in mind, supposedly at the same time as the songs for Shadows Collide with People. With all this info in mind, is safe to assume they were probably recorded between early 2001 and early 2002, with a good amount of leftover material that remains unreleased.

Today Your Love, Tomorrow the World was recorded during this period of time, especifically for inclusion on the Ramones’ tribute album. 'A Samurai Workout' Title Theme was also most likely recorded around this time. It was featured on a martial arts workout DVD, co-authored by John’s stepfather, Laurence Berkley. The full song was included as an extra MP3 on the DVD.

FOURTH ALBUM DEMOS

Dates: December 2000 - Early 2001
Musicians: John Frusciante, Josh Klinghoffer
Recorded at: Jimmy Boyle’s Studio, Los Angeles, CA

• The Slaughter

• Ricky

• Cut-Out

• In Relief

• Every Person

• Time Goes Back

• Regret

• Carvel

  Released on his official website in March 2004

Recorded on Josh’s Tascam 8-track cassette recorder. He mentioned these sessions in interviews promoting To Record Only Water for Ten Days:

“The equipment Jimmy Boyle has at his place is analogue and the sound is excellent. A few days ago, we recorded two new songs with my other friend, Josh, on drums, and the sound we got was fabulous. We still haven't recorded the overdubs, but just the guitar and drum tracks together sound incredibly good.” – Guitar & Bass, March 2001 (interview from December 2000)

“I'm working for the Chili Peppers in the first place but when there's time left – so when Anthony is not in town or Flea's spending time with his daughter on the weekends – then I can go to the studio with Josh and work on new songs.” – Gitare & Bass, March 2001 (interview from December 2000)

“I’ll also be simultaneously recording my next record, which my manager said I’m not allowed to release another record for a year so I’ve got to wait a year, but I’ve already started recording it and I’m very excited about it. I have a drummer who plays drums the way I would play drums if I played drums.” – VIVA Zwei 2 Rock, January 2001

“As soon as I finish this promotional tour in Europe, I'm going back to Los Angeles to record the next Red Hot Chili Peppers album. I will also continue to work with Josh on my own music whenever I get the chance.” - Rock Mag (France), March 2001 (interview from February 2001)

Dates: May 2002
Musicians: John Frusciante, Josh Klinghoffer
Recorded at: Swing House Rehearsal & Studio, Los Angeles, CA

• Omission

  Released on his official website in March 2004

Recorded at the studio the Chili Peppers were rehearsing at the time for the By the Way tour, which can be seen here. It’s likely more songs were worked and recorded during this time.

SHADOWS COLLIDE WITH PEOPLE

Dates: December 2002 - January 2003
Musicians: John Frusciante, Josh Klinghoffer, Chad Smith
Additional Musicians: Flea, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Greg Kurstin, Charlie Clouser
Recorded at: Cello Studios, Los Angeles, CA

• Shadows Collide with People

• Carvel

• Omission

• Regret

• Ricky

• Second Walk

• Every Person

• -00Ghost27

• Wednesday's Song

• This Cold

• Failure33Object

• Song to Sing When I'm Lonely

• Time Goes Back

• In Relief

• Water

• Cut-Out

• Chances

• 23 Go in to End

• The Slaughter

  Released on album “Shadows Collide with People”

• Of Before

  Released as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of “Shadows Collide with People”

Up to this point, the songs on this album were the only ones recorded at an actual studio with the idea of them being eventually released to the public, as previous albums were basically a collection of demos done at home for personal listening.

The album was originally conceived as collaboration between John & Josh and planned to be issued under a band name. Josh was meant to record the drum parts (among many other instruments) but Chad Smith was called at last minute to do the job. A list of who played what on each track can be found here.

Most of the guitar parts were recorded with his '62 Fender Stratocaster and '66 Telecaster, but he also used his 60's Gibson SG Custom for overdubs and his 50's Martin for acoustic parts. The album was mixed and mastered by late April 2003 but took 10 months to release and it’s considered his most expensive album to date, costing a total of around $150,000.

OMAR RODRIGUEZ-LOPEZ & JOHN FRUSCIANTE

Dates: April 2003
Musicians: John Frusciante, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez
Recorded at: Omar’s Home, Los Angeles, CA

• 4:17 am

• 0=2

• LOE

• ZIM

• VTA

• 0

• 5:45 am

  Released on album “Omar Rodriguez-Lopez & John Frusciante”

Recorded on a 1-inch tape machine in Omar’s bedroom with no idea of releasing it at the time. 0 and 0=2 were first featured on a limited 7” single released in November 2005 as part of a singles series by label Gold Standard Laboratories. For a limited period of time, the album was released as a digital free download with the option to donate to the Keep Music in Schools charity program.

SESSIONS WITH EKKEHARD EHLERS

Dates: August 2003
Musicians: John Frusciante, Ekkehard Ehlers
Recorded at: ?, Berlin, Germany

• Grisaisse 1

  Released on the various artists compilation “Tempo Technik Teamwork” on October 20, 2004

It’s actually unknown exactly where and when this song was recorded, but the Chili Peppers performed in Berlin, where Ehlers lives, on August 19, 2003 where he joined them for the outro jam (released as “Tuesday Night in Berlin” on the second “Fortune Faded” single, which also includes his “Californication” remix). John talks about these sessions on the Q&A recorded for his website in March 2004, so it’s a safe bet to pinpoint them happening around this timeframe. It’s believed they recorded more music together, but only one piece has been released.

ACOUSTIC RENDITIONS OF SHADOWS COLLIDE WITH PEOPLE

Dates: January or February 2004
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home, Los Angeles, CA

• Carvel

• Omission

• Regret

• Ricky

• Second Walk

• Every Person

• Wednesday's Song

• This Cold

• Song to Sing When I'm Lonely

• Time Goes Back

• In Relief

• Water

• Cut-Out

• Chances

• The Slaughter

  Released on his official website in March 2004

John released an acoustic version of the album (sans the instrumental songs) as an alternative to fans that prefer a more raw, stripped down sound. Recorded directly into a mini-disc recorder in his living room.

DEMO SESSIONS FOR 2004 ALBUMS

Dates: 2003 - 2004
Musicians: John Frusciante, ?
Recorded at: ?

• Drill

• Become

• Time Tonight

  Released as bonus tracks on the digital download included with the Curtains 2019 vinyl repress

These songs were released fifteen years after being recorded and were unknown until this point. It’s unspecified exactly when and where they were recorded and who else plays on them. Allegedly, they come from demo sessions for the 2004 albums, but I don’t think that’s really the case.

Following the long and expensive recording process for Shadows Collide with People, John now intended to experiment with recording music in a quicker and minimalist fashion with Josh Klinghoffer as a collaborator. At this point, he had around 70 songs written and ready to be recorded, so he ended up doing an album every month, each one very different from one another.

During interviews for Dallas Music Guide and Amplifier Magazine, John mentions checking out a studio he was thinking of buying. To try it out, he did some recordings in a single day with her drummer friend Carla Azar. The end result were two perfect sounding songs, when the original intention was to make mistakes all over the place and make “screwed up” versions of the songs, as he was just testing the studio.

This revelation would be the cataclyst for all the albums that would come next - shorter, quicker and more productive sessions. In my opinion, having demos done beforehand would be the opposite of that. Therefore, Drill could very well be one of those songs recorded at this unknown studio (our guess would be sometime between April and July 2003) while Become and Time Tonight are indeed most likely demos recorded at home, once he decided to build his own studio instead.

THE WILL TO DEATH

Dates: December 18-19, 2003 and January 8-10, 2004
Musicians: John Frusciante, Josh Klinghoffer
Recorded at: Mad Dog Studios, Burbank, CA & Larrabee East Studios, North Hollywood, CA

• A Doubt

• An Exercise

• Time Runs Out

• Loss

• Unchanging

• The Mirror

• A Loop

• Wishing

• Far Away

• The Days Have Turned

• Helical

• The Will to Death

  Released on album "The Will to Death"

The album was done in two sessions at two different studios. According to John’s letter, the first resulted in three songs over the course of two days, while the second yielded nine songs in three days. Some of them were written just prior to the recording sessions and some were written as long as three years before.

The idea was to have the opposite experience of Shadows Collide with People and recreate the energy of albums from the 50’s and 60’s. It was recorded live onto 16-track tape and features very little backing vocals and minimal overdubs. The drums and guitar basic tracks were done in a maximum of two takes and the vocals were all done in the space of a few hours, without any reconsideration or backtracking. Every step of the recording was fully analogue without any use of computers, even the mixing and mastering process.

ATAXIA

Dates: Late January - Early February 2004
Musicians: John Frusciante, Josh Klinghoffer, Joe Lally
Recorded at: Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, CA

• Dust

• Another

• The Sides

• Addition

• Montreal

  Released on album “Automatic Writing”

• Attention

• Union

• Hands

• The Soldier

• The Empty’s Response

  Released on album “AWII”

Ataxia was born when John & Josh asked Joe Lally to join them for two live performances planned at The Knitting Factory. The original plan was to play songs from Shadows Collide with People and The Will to Death, which they eventually found a waste of an opportunity to create new music with someone they admired.

The basis was to do something inspired by early Public Image Ltd, based on repetitive and hypnotic bass lines, joined by exploratory drums and guitars. They ended up writing ten songs during the last two weeks of December 2003 and booked studio time shorly after, recording for two days, then trying out the songs live at those two performances booked for February 2 and 3, and finally two more days at the studio. Pretty much everything was tracked live to tape, and then a lot of overdubs were done treating the tracks through synthesizers.

According to Ryan Hewitt, engineer for the sessions, some editing was done during mixing to shorten some songs. Everything recorded during the sessions was released in the two albums, leaving no outtakes.

DC EP

Dates: February 9-10, 2004
Musicians: John Frusciante, Jerry Busher
Recorded at: Inner Ear Studios, Arlington, VA

• Dissolve

• Goals

• A Corner

• Repeating

  Released on "DC EP"

The session was born after Ian Mackaye encouraged John to record some music at the studio where Fugazi and most Dischord Records used to record their albums. Mackaye was the producer, which to date remains the only solo session not being produced by John himself.

The four songs were recorded and mixed in two days. John played every instrument except for drums, but none of his own equipment was used, so he would use what was available on the studio. For guitar solos, he borrowed Guy Picciotto's Les Paul Junior played through Mackaye's Marshall amp (the one pictured on the cover of Fugazi's Red Medicine).

SESSIONS WITH MICHAEL ROTHER

Dates: February 2004
Musicians: John Frusciante, Michael Rother
Recorded at: ?, Hamburg, Germany

Nothing from this session has been released. It was first mentioned during an in-person interview in February 2004 with Deutschlandfunk Radio, where the interviewer mentions learning (in German, to the audience) that Frusciante and Rother had been in the studio recording some songs together. John briefly mentioned having recorded something with Rother on the Q&A for his website in March 2004, but without going into further detail. He also did interviews with Fritz Radio and MTV Germany, although no mentions of this session was made.

The recording date is not confirmed but it’s a very safe guess, as there really was no other reason why John would be in Germany at this time. The Chili Peppers weren’t touring, and he had just recorded DC EP a few days ago in Washington DC and was about to start Inside of Emptiness in Los Angeles the next month.

INSIDE OF EMPTINESS

Dates: March 8-13, 2004
Musicians: John Frusciante, Josh Klinghoffer
Additional Musicians: Omar Rodriguez-Lopez
Recorded at: Sunset Sound, Los Angeles, CA

• What I Saw

• The World's Edge

• Inside a Break

• A Firm Kick

• Look on

• Emptiness

• I'm Around

• 666

• Interior Two

• Scratches

  Released on album "Inside of Emptiness"

A SPHERE IN THE HEART OF SILENCE

Dates: April 9-11 and 14-15, 2004
Musicians: John Frusciante, Josh Klinghoffer
Recorded at: Mad Dog Studios, Burbank, CA & Cello Studios, Los Angeles, CA

• Sphere

• The Afterglow

• Walls

• Communique

• At Your Enemies

• Surrogate People

• My Life

  Released on album “A Sphere in the Heart of Silence”

After a few months making raw and stripped down music, John and Josh decided to go back to making more layered and richly textured electronic music, but still recorded as if it were the ‘70s.

Sphere was originally written as a 30-minute piece meant to be performed live, but was later shortened for the purpose of fitting the record. It’s unknown if a longer version was recorded. The Afterglow, At Your Enemies and Surrogate People were originally intended for Shadows Collide with People but were left out that album due to the more experimental nature of the songs. They were previously mentioned during this early 2004 interview.

CURTAINS

Dates: May 8-14 and 19-23, 2004
Musicians: John Frusciante
Additional Musicians: Carla Azar, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez, Ken Wild
Recorded at: John’s Home, Los Angeles, CA

• The Past Recedes

• Lever Pulled

• Anne

• The Real

• A Name

• Control

• Your Warning

• Hope

• Ascension

• Time Tonight

• Leap Your Bar

  Released on album "Curtains"

The album was recorded live by John sitting on a pillow on his living room floor with his back leaning against his couch, strumming and singing simultaneously, with the exception of Hope and Time Tonight where the acoustic guitar was recorded first and then the vocals were overdubbed. He mainly used his Martin acoustic guitars: two 0-15s and an 0-18, with the exception of a 40's 12-string guitar on Ascension.

Bass and drums were also overdubbed later over the initial recordings. This is the first album recorded at John’s home studio, on which he installed an Ampex 8-track machine from the early 70’s, done over a period of two weeks, halfway interrupted for a live performance by the instrumental project with Flea and Omar Rodriguez-Lopez.

SESSIONS WITH FLEA & OMAR RODRIGUEZ-LOPEZ

Dates: May or October 2004
Musicians: John Frusciante, Flea, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez
Recorded at: ?

While the Chili Peppers and The Mars Volta were touring together between March - May 2003, John, Flea & Omar-Rodriguez Lopez wrote three instrumental progressive rock songs, one song each. They were first mentioned at two interviews with MTV2 Gonzo and MTV Spin in February 2004, when John was expecting to record them in studio during the next few months. He brought them up again during his Q&A recorded for his website in March 2004, saying that they would hopefully record them in May.

One of the songs was first perfomed live on May 18, while John was taking a week off in the middle of the Curtains recording sessions. It would make sense that these instrumental songs were recorded around this time, or perhaps a few months later, when they performed two of these songs live on October 16 out of the blue. Either way, there’s no confirmation at all that they did enter the studio to record these songs.

TRICKFINGER & TRICKFINGER II

Dates: September - December 2007
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home Studio, Los Angeles, CA

• After Below

• Before Above

• Rainover

• Sain

• 85h

• 4:30

• 100mc4

• Phurip

  Released on album “Trickfinger”

• Shift Sync

• Ruche

• Exlam

• Hasan

• Cuh

• Stall

  Released on album “Trickfinger II”

These songs were made when John was still in the middle of recording The Empyrean, strictly to learn how to operate electronic machines, with no intention of them being released. Everything was recorded live directly onto a Tascam CD burner through a 16-channel Mackie mixer with minimal guitar overdubs added later. Electronic instruments used during the sessions were a R8, a 303, a 606, a 808, a 101, a 202, an ARP 2500 and an EMT 250 reverb.

After learning how to use various synths and drum machines in hotel rooms and buses during the latter part of the Stadium Arcadium tour, he started recording these songs as soon as he got home. Around 22 tracks were recorded during this period and were gifted to friends for Christmas that year. Oliver Bristow from the Acid House label eventually heard them and asked John if he was interested to put them out on his label. Bristow picked the songs for each release.

THE EMPYREAN

Dates: December 2006 - March 2008
Musicians: John Frusciante, Josh Klinghoffer
Additional Musicians: Flea, Johnny Marr, Sonus Quartet, The New Dimension Singers
Recorded at: John’s Home Studio, Los Angeles, CA

• Before the Beginning

• Song to the Siren

• Unreachable

• God

• Dark/Light

• Heaven

• Enough of Me

• Central

• One More of Me

• After the Ending

  Released on album “The Empyrean”

• Today

• Ah Yom

  Released as bonus tracks on the Japanese edition of “The Empyrean”

• Here, Air

  Released on John’s website on June 2, 2010

Seventeen songs were written for the album but it’s uncertain if the remaining four songs to be released were recorded during the sessions, although demos might exist. It’s likely that one of those songs is Scratch, later reworked and recorded for Enclosure, as it was originally written for this album. The sessions only took about two months total, but were happening on and off between touring legs for Stadium Arcadium.

SPEED DEALER MOMS

Dates: March 2010
Musicians: John Frusciante, Aaron Funk, Chris McDonald
Recorded at: ?

• march_three-3

• march_four

  Released on their debut EP

John & Aaron met in 2008 and started doing music together right away, ocassionally being joined by Chris. Up to this point, they had recorded over 50 hours of music, without intention to publish them as they were just only "having a lot fun", and even the songs were so lenghty that wouldn't fit a vinyl record. They would gather a few times a year, whenever their busy schedules and different geographic locations allowed, and spend two weeks together doing these marathon recording sessions.

The recording process for these tracks was based on listening to each other's programming and reacting to that in the moment, recording live to stereo with no overdubs or edits. Each song title alludes to the date in which it was recorded and in how many takes.

4-TRACK GUITAR MUSIC

Dates: May 2010
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home Studio, Los Angeles, CA

• Untitled #1

• Untitled #2

• Untitled #3

• Untitled #4

• Untitled #5

• Venice May 1

  Released on the “4-Track Guitar Music” compilation on John’s Soundcloud

Similarly to Niandra LaDes, these songs were recorded on a 4-track cassette recorder using 3 guitars (Mosrite Ventures and two different Yamaha SGs) and an Elektron Machinedrum. One song also features a Roland TR 707.

ELECTRONIC MUSIC SESSIONS

PBX FUNICULAR INTAGLIO ZONE

Dates: March - Late 2011
Musicians: John Frusciante
Additional Musicians: Kinetic 9, Laena Geronimo
Recorded at: John’s Home Studio, Los Angeles, CA

• Intro/Sabam

• Hear Say

• Bike

• Ratiug

• Guitar

• Mistakes

• Uprane

• Sam

• Sum

  Released on album “PBX Funicular Intaglio Zone”

After four years spent on learning and expanding his knowledge of engineering electronic music, PBX was the first one conceived as an actual album with the intention of it to be released in mind. The songs were recorded in succession as they appear on the tracklist.

OUTSIDES

Dates: 2012
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home Studio, Los Angeles, CA

• Same

• Breathiac

• Shelf

  Released on the “Outsides” EP

• Sol

  Released as a pre-order bonus track on John’s website on July 14, 2013 (and later on the Japanese edition of “Outsides”)

For this EP, John intented to work along abstract lines and do forward moving full sounding music without resorting to any familiar musical relationships of harmony to serve as a basis, what he called his version of modern classical music.

THE BLACK KNIGHTS

The three Black Knights albums produced by John came from the same recording sessions, which happened for a little over a year. Crisis mentioned a few songs were taken off Excalibur at last minute, so some songs still remain unreleased.

Dates: Mid 2012 - Late 2013
Musicians: John Frusciante, Rugged Monk, Crisis
Recorded at: John’s Home Studio, Los Angeles, CA

• Never Let Go

  Released on John’s website on October 31, 2013

• Liquid Sky

  Released on John’s website on December 25, 2013

• Roundtable Discussion

  Released on John’s website on January 1, 2014

• Drawbridge

• The Joust

• Medieval Times

• Trickfingers’ Playhouse

• Sword in Stone

• Knighthood

• Déjà Vu

• Roundtable

• Keys to the Chastity Belt

• Camelot

  Released on album “Medieval Chamber”

• Wayne [Remix]

  Released as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of “Medieval Chamber”

• Gang Related

  Released on John’s website on December 29, 2014

• Shadows of a Panther

  Released on John’s website on January 2, 2015

• Boondocks

  Released on John’s website on February 20, 2015

• The Devil’s Pig

  Released on John’s website on April 13, 2015

• Venus Scroll

  Released on John’s website on June 2, 2015 (later re-released on album “Excalibur” as “Scroll of Excalibur”)

• The Truth

• Hood Liberator

• World Renowned

• New Day

• Understanding (They Got Love)

• Ahead of My Time

• Darts of War

• Non-Believers

• Reptables

• Highrising

• Techniques & Shockwaves

• Hard to Be

• Finish Line

• The Almighty

  Released on album “The Almighty”

• Royal Bloodline

• Head Above Water

• Pocket Full of Hollows

• Sir Lancelot’s Love

• Medieval Chronicles

• Mind Elevation

• Lab Rat

• Saturday’s Children

• Prince Valiant and the Scarlet

  Released on album “Excalibur”

ENCLOSURE

Dates: Early 2013
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home Studio, Los Angeles, CA

• Shining Desert

• Sleep

• Run

• Stage

• Fanfare

• Cinch

• Zone

• Crowded

• Excuses

  Released on album “Enclosure”

• Scratch

  Released on John’s website on February 18, 2014 (and later on the Japanese edition of “Enclosure”)

• Vesiou

  Released as a bonus track on the Japanese edition of “Enclosure”

• Zone [alternate take/guitar & vocal only]

  Released on John’s Soundcloud on November 24, 2015

This album was recorded simultaneously as the Black Knights' sessions and its completion represented the achievement of all the musical goals John had been aiming at for the previous 5 years.

"WAYNE"

Dates: April 5, 2013
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home Studio, Los Angeles, CA

Especially written and recorded for his friend Wayne Forman, former road chef for the Chili Peppers, who passed away a few days before recording the song. It was released on April 7, 2013 as a tribute to his memory on John’s official website.

"FIGHT FOR LOVE"

Dates: November 2013
Musicians: John Frusciante, Omar Rodriguez-Lopez
Recorded at: ?

Interpretation of a song from the film Casa de Mi Padre. Uploaded to John’s Soundcloud on November 24, 2015.

"POEM"

Dates: July 2017
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home Studio, Los Angeles, CA

Uploaded to John’s Soundcloud on July 10, 2017 with no information or description at all, but it’s believed to be inspired by Pierre Henry, composer and pioneer in the musique concrète genre of electronic music, and released as a tribute as he passed away a few days before the song was released.

“A3T1IP”

Dates: Unknown
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home Studio, Los Angeles, CA

Uploaded to John’s Soundcloud on December 12, 2018, again without information or description, but the tags from the file state that it was originally named Pita 3.3 from Pita CD3, and was the third track from an eleven track collection of which no other tracks have been released.

SDM-LA8-441-114-211 & BIRTH CONTROL PILL

Dates: 2010 - 2020
Musicians: John Frusciante, Aaron Funk, Chris McDonald (only on songs from the 2021 release)
Recorded at: ?

• LA August 1

• April One 4

• April Two 11

  Released on the “SDM-LA8-441-114-211” EP

• April One 4 [alternate take]

• April Two 11 [alternate take]

  Released as digital bonus tracks with the preorder of the EP

• Birth Control Pill

• Benakis

  Released on the “Birth Control Pill” single

• Unknown #1

• Unknown #2

• Unknown #3

• Birth Control Pill [alternate take]

• April Two 11 [alternate take]

• Unknown #4

• Unknown #5

  Featured on a NTS episode on May 8, 2024

These two releases are grouped together as there's no information available about their recording dates, except that they "offer a glimpse into the treasure trove of Speed Dealer Moms unreleased material", meaning they were picked from their archive of all those years of experiments and could be from any sessions between 2010 and 2020.

MAYA

Dates: 2018
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home Studio, Los Angeles, CA

• Brand E

• Usbrup Pensul

• Flying

• Pleasure Explanation

• Blind Aim

• Reach Out

• Amethblowl

• Zillion

• Anja Motherless

  Released on album “Maya”

• Lyng Shake

  Released on the Music in Support of Black Mental Health Bandcamp compilation on July 3, 2020

• Discobong Flange

• Simplicity

  Released as digital bonus tracks with the purchase of any piece of the Evar Records’ Trickfinger clothes collection on May 22, 2023

These songs were recorded after a period of not making music for a few years (2015-2017). After his divorce, John came back to his main house, rebuilt his studio and started approaching music in a new way - not worrying about the result, just challenging himself to discover new things with the equipment in hand. This album is the result of spending a whole year writing songs.

Discobong Flange and Simplicity are believed to be from these sessions, as they were previously featured on two different Aura T-09 sets from June 2020 and May 2021. Some other sets from that timeframe also used songs from this album.

SHE SMILES BECAUSE SHE PRESSES THE BUTTON

Dates: 2018
Musicians: John Frusciante (Trickfinger)
Recorded at: John’s Home Studio, Los Angeles, CA

• Amb

• Brise

• Noice

• Plane

• Rhyme Four

• Sea YX6

  Released on album “She Smiles Because She Presses the Button”

Recorded just like the first two Trickfinger albums - live onto a Tascam CD burner through a 16-channel Mackie mixer, although not exactly using the same equipment used at that time.

LOOK DOWN, SEE US

Dates: 2019
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home Studio, Los Angeles, CA

• GR 8

• Meaning To

• Cymm Trace

• Look Down, See Us

  Released on the “Look Down, See Us” EP

These songs were the first being recorded in his new big studio with more gear and computers.

. I : I I .

Dates: Late 2021 - Early 2022
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home Studio, Los Angeles, CA

• Clank

• Sluice

• Firpln

• Unitiled

• Pyn

• MK 2.1

  Released on albums ". I :" and ": I I ."

• OFD

  Released on album ". I :", exclusive to vinyl

• Golpin

• Blesub Dot

• Frantay

• Galvation

  Released on album ": II .", exclusive to digital and compact disc

Much like the first two Trickfinger albums, all tracks were recorded live to a CD burner with no overdubs and executed using one or two machines. Recorded after the Chili Peppers’ sessions for albums Unlimited Love and Return of Dream Canteen but before and during the mixing process.

ROTATION

Dates: Late 2024 - 2025
Musicians: John Frusciante
Recorded at: John’s Home Studio, Los Angeles, CA

• Tsych

• Crane

• Now P-Pl

• Talking SH-7

• Rotation of Weight

  Released on album "Rotation"

After coming back home from the Chili Peppers’ Unlimited Love tour in late 2024, John started making live-to-stereo music to get used to his new mixing console, back again into his “not trying” mindset he had during the making of the first two Trickfinger records.