New album, “I’m With You,†coming August 30. Check out the new video on the right.
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BONZAI: What did you learn from your years of working with Flea?
SMITH: Flea has his own universe and he is the first bass player that I played with who never relied on me for time. He had his own time. He listens to me, and I listen to him, but he is never waiting for that backbeat or timing. We count it off, and then just go.
Certainly back in the early days we had a lot of energy all the time, it was just a top energy, athletic style of music. It was all about burning as hard as you could all the time.
Later on, I also learned from him about being more musical, and playing with better dynamics. As a rhythm section we have been playing for 20 years together. But we rarely speak about how we are going to play. When we are writing songs, we will talk about parts and try things out, but in general, there is very little conversation about what we do on our instruments. It’s musical telepathy that only comes together from playing together for a long time. I don’t think you can manufacture that. We just do it, and we just know by looking at each other. I think that is very special, and I feel very lucky to have that kind of musical relationship with someone.
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