(antiMusic) antiMusic's Morley Seaver recently caught up with Chad Smith whom many fans already know from the Red Hot Chili Peppers and the supergroup Chickenfoot. Chad just released an album from another project called Chad Smith's Bombastic Meatbats and in the two excerpts below Chad fills Morley in on what that is about as well as the injury that sidelined Chickenfoot briefly this summer.antiMusic: Considering I would imagine when it's time for the Chili Peppers to do their thing, you spend a lot of time jamming out with Flea. What do you get from this band that is different than that kind of experience --- just less of a familiarity?
Chad: When you play with somebody for over 20 years, there's sometimes just no words needed. There's an unspoken connection, that's a very special chemistry. It's based on the same thing, you know. It's improvising, and jamming; that's how we came up with a lot of these songs. That's where a lot of Chili Peppers songs come from too. It's just a way of thinking where you can really inject your personality into the music when everyone is involved with the exception of a songwriting situation. You know instead of a guy brings his demo, he's all finished, and here, play this drum machine beat, you know whatever.
And you know, people who want you bring what you do to the table are smart-(laughs) because it's going to make it more unique. It's going to make it sound, you know, it just sounds better to me when everybody is involved. Because then everyone is encouraged to have their musical input and it's just going to make that sound more unique, when it has that chemistry of the different personalities coming out through the music. And that's really what we do. That's what's happening in the Meatbats. Everybody's doing their thing and together we have a certain sound and a chemistry and I just think that's the best way to make music. It's honest. It's real. It's from the heart. It's from your soul. And I think people connect with that. It's the kind of music I like to hear and so it's the kind of stuff I want to make.
antiMusic: I almost forgot to ask: how are you feeling?
Chad: Yeah, I tore my tendon in Paris. It was weird. I never had anything happen to me. But I am kind of physical. I play kind of hard. (laughs) I had a motorcycle crash a long time ago where I separated my shoulder. I had a lot of scar tissue in that area. The muscles in the shoulder and the tendon that connects the bicep to your shoulders is just a skinny little thing and with all the wear and tear of years of banging on the drums it just started to fray at that tendon a little bit. In Paris a little piece of the tendon came off and it really freaked me out. I was like ah shit, this is not good. I can't do my thing. Luckily it wasn't that bad. I just needed to rest it. So we did have to cancel some shows and I feel bad about that. But there was no way I was going to be able to play right away so I needed to take a little time off. So I got three weeks off and did some acupuncture and stuff and it's healing up and I'm fine right now thank goodness.
- Read the full interview right here!
