11 replies to this topic

[lolz9989]

Did Omar do that solo all by himself? Or were Fru and Omar soloing at the same time?

awesome song btw

[i love JF]

It says on the sleeve that it was Omar but I'd have to listen to it again to hear it.

John probally told him what to do on it anyway.

[bobthecow]

i love JF, on 08 March 2011 - 03:20 PM, said:

It says on the sleeve that it was Omar but I'd have to listen to it again to hear it.

John probally told him what to do on it anyway.

Are we talking about the lyon 6.6.06? Cause that was john all the way.

[Amyb]

bobthecow, on 09 March 2011 - 01:26 AM, said:

Are we talking about the lyon 6.6.06? Cause that was john all the way.

I assume it's '666' from the album Inside of Emptiness?

My understanding was Omar plays lead and John plays bass on the track.

Kick ass song either way




EDIT:

Just to add to the above, got this from wiki (not the most reliable of sources but whatever)

Personnel

John Frusciante – Lead and Backing Vocals, Guitar, Synthesizer, Keyboard, Bass on "The World's Edge" and "666", Producer, Design
Omar Rodríguez-López – Lead Guitar on "666"

Edited by Amyb, 09 March 2011 - 03:11 AM.

[Iva]

It says the same in the album's credits, so that's one thing they got right on Wiki.

[jmoog]

i love JF, on 08 March 2011 - 03:20 PM, said:

It says on the sleeve that it was Omar but I'd have to listen to it again to hear it.

John probally told him what to do on it anyway.

I doubt very much that John would tell a musician of Omar's caliber what to play.

[Iva]

Well, the opposite occurred when they were recording The Mars Volta's Amputechture together, back in 2006.

[Iva]

Mike Watt: Like, uh, Omar...

John Frusciante: Mmhmm.

Mike Watt:..had you be a guitar player for him.

John Frusciante: Yeah, I’ve played on all their albums, except their first EP. I just did another one in August.

Mike Watt: Does he play on it? I mean, there was one where he didn’t play, right?

John Frusciante: Well, no. He played, but he played, like, overdubs. Like, I played..there’s two where I played all...most of the written guitar parts and then he did additional parts on top of that, like, tracking with the drummer or, umm...I guess there was just one where for the whole album I played all those parts. But even on the next one I did after that, the last one that was released, I did pretty similar, you know, where I’m playing uh, a lot of written parts.

Mike Watt: I think, that’s really righteous that you would say, ‘Yeah, guide me.’

John Frusciante: Oh, it’s fun! Yeah, cuz, uh, I’ve spent so much time concentrating on practicing guitar, just learning things of records, and things like that, that uh, to be able to apply that skill that I have of being able to learn something and then play and just have being, like, how hard I’m hitting the guitar, how I’m expressing myself through the part, rather than thinking of the notes and the rhythms. It’s just fun. When I was kid, I thought I would be in Frank Zappa’s band when I grew up, you know.
(Laughing)

John Frusciante: So I kinda wanted to have a situation like that where I’m playing some, like, uh, you know, sort of difficult to play music and odd time signatures and stuff, and just like, locking into it and stuff.

Mike Watt: Like the challenge of it.

John Frusciante: Yeah, it’s fun! And the one we just did, I guess they’re probably about to mix it right now, that came out really cool. They’re going in a new direction, and it’s exciting.

Mike Watt: Mars Volta.

John Frusciante: Mmhmm.

[Automatic Writing]

I think it definitely has to do with the personality of the two and the specific projects they're working on. I know with The Mars Volta, Omar is very much the director and has specific ideas about what he wants out of the music he makes. Like you so aptly quoted, John is perfectly fine with being guided.

We know on SCWP that John came into the studio just with an acoustic progression, lyrics and the ideas for songs that exist in his head. It would seem possible that he would bring Omar in, maybe talk to him about what he wants the track to be/feel like and let him do his thing.

Of course none of us know for sure, but my feeling was always that Omar came up with the solo.

[Iva]

I didn't put the link simply because the site's not back yet, but I thought I'd note that it's from that Watt From Pedro podcast, done in January 2009.

This concept is totally normal to me, by the way. In every art, sometimes you do the so-called art direction yourself, sometimes you're just executing what someone else made up. A simple example from production: I'm currently doing one entire site design myself and coding up another that was laid out by another person. And there's no much difference.

[jmoog]

Automatic Writing, on 26 December 2011 - 07:28 AM, said:

I think it definitely has to do with the personality of the two and the specific projects they're working on. I know with The Mars Volta, Omar is very much the director and has specific ideas about what he wants out of the music he makes. Like you so aptly quoted, John is perfectly fine with being guided.

We know on SCWP that John came into the studio just with an acoustic progression, lyrics and the ideas for songs that exist in his head. It would seem possible that he would bring Omar in, maybe talk to him about what he wants the track to be/feel like and let him do his thing.

Of course none of us know for sure, but my feeling was always that Omar came up with the solo.

My point exactly. There is a big difference between playing pre-written rhythm guitar parts and playing a guitar solo. I can understand Omar guiding John in his recordings of Mars Volta rhythm tracks as he was the composer of the parts in question. At the same time there is a lot more personal expression in the playing of a guitar solo. I can't imagine any guitar player telling another guitar player what to play in a solo.

[MrFrooshontay]

jmoog, on 04 January 2012 - 02:31 PM, said:

Automatic Writing, on 26 December 2011 - 07:28 AM, said:

I think it definitely has to do with the personality of the two and the specific projects they're working on. I know with The Mars Volta, Omar is very much the director and has specific ideas about what he wants out of the music he makes. Like you so aptly quoted, John is perfectly fine with being guided.

We know on SCWP that John came into the studio just with an acoustic progression, lyrics and the ideas for songs that exist in his head. It would seem possible that he would bring Omar in, maybe talk to him about what he wants the track to be/feel like and let him do his thing.

Of course none of us know for sure, but my feeling was always that Omar came up with the solo.

My point exactly. There is a big difference between playing pre-written rhythm guitar parts and playing a guitar solo. I can understand Omar guiding John in his recordings of Mars Volta rhythm tracks as he was the composer of the parts in question. At the same time there is a lot more personal expression in the playing of a guitar solo. I can't imagine any guitar player telling another guitar player what to play in a solo.

generally i agree with you; you're not wrong. however what you've said about personal expression in a solo doesn't cover all the bases. a guitar solo is just melody that *often* is come up with on the spot. nothing says it can't be pre-written and nothing says it can't be played by someone with better finesse and technique.

furthermore, guiding the solo could just mean saying things like "well start slow, then speed up, then get more chromatic, and finish with a lot of fast legato runs" or something arbitrary like that. It's not writing the solo note for note for the musician performing it, but rather guiding the shape of it so to speak so that it fits with what the songwriter had in mind. i can tell you as both a guitar player and a producer that i've either been guided in improvisation like that or been the guide for someone else in many sessions.