Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer has revealed the band have already written “up to 28 or 30 songs” for their 11th studio album. He said the band have already begun demoing and that their I’m with You follow-up could be their first album without producer Rick Rubin in 23 years.
“The Chili Peppers are working every day writing,” Klinghoffer told Noise11. “We have produced a more elaborate demo stage into the writing, at least more than the band has before. Flea owns a really great studio now. I’ve been recording and writing with the Chili Peppers every day.”
“We’ve written musically 30 songs now. We sort of did this last time, which was my first album,” he added. “We piled a shitload of stuff on Anthony and he actually came through. He wrote lyrics to 50 songs in the end. We recorded 50 last time. We released an extra 17 that didn’t go on the album.”
“We are conscious to not do that again, but we are already up to 28 or 30 songs,” said Klinghoffer. The extra 17 songs that the band recorded during the I’m with You sessions were released as a group of nine 7″ and digital singles and then compiled in last year’s I’m Beside You double-LP.
Traditionally, Rick Rubin, who’s worked with the band since 1989’s Mother’s Milk, would be working with the band by this stage, but the bearded super-producer has not yet entered the picture, with no alternative producer yet confirmed. According to the guitarist, “That is sort of up in the air still.”
“Normally he becomes involved in the arranging process but he hasn’t yet been, which is good for me,” explains Klinghoffer. “I like it the way we are doing it so far. There has not been an official producer named yet so in the absence of that you never know what could happen.”
Back in May, drummer Chad Smith spoke enthusiastically of the band’s upcoming writing and demoing sessions. “This is my favourite time, being creative, coming up with ideas,” he said. The drummer also claimed the band’s new material is “gonna sound like us, but… different.”
Watch: Red Hot Chili Peppers – Monarchy of Roses
