Since Perry Farrell broke into the music scene in the early 80s few people have had such an impact on modern music. In fact, his co-creation, Lollapalooza changed the face of American music festivals forever. But it is really the impact of bands like Janes Addiction and Porno for Pyros which has cemented Farrell into the worlds musical consciousness. His new collaboration, Satellite Party, is set to expand that world view. Satellite Party unites Farrell with cohorts such as producer/guitarist Nuno Bettencourt and collaborators like Flea of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Fergie, Thievery Corporation and even a spoken word appearance by the still dead Jim Morrison. I got a chance to talk with Farrell about this exciting new work on the phone while he was in Hong Kong.
Check out the official site for Perry Farrell
Daniel Robert Epstein: Hows it going in Hong Kong?
Perry Farrell: Im having a really good time. I just went to the Museum of Science. I bopped around there for a while and had a good time. I walked the streets this afternoon and discovered some cool SoHo-type of neighborhoods. The streets in Hong Kong are like a mini-version of New York in a way. I dont know if youve ever been here but there are lots of textiles, lots of clothing, lots of clothing stores, lots of cool parks to go and hang out in. So Im taking it all in. Also the food is really out there.
DRE: Do you eat sushi?
PF: Ill eat sushi. As a matter of fact, Im trying things for the first time here.
DRE: Are you trying all those crazy insides of animals?
PF: Yes. Exactly.
DRE: Do you have to close your eyes before you pop it in your mouth?
PF: I almost dont want to look, but I am looking. The city has a smell that you dont smell in New York so Im coming to find out what those smells are. Sometimes Im finding out that its a cows stomach lining or part of a duck. With some of these smells, you walk by the stores and youre just like Oh, man. But tonight, it was on my table.
DRE: Was it the duck vaginas?
PF: [laughs] At first I thought to myself, Wow. I dont really know if I want to go into this. But honestly, when I stop and think about it, the American Indian ate every part of the buffalo. They didnt leave anything behind. It was good thing they did that because they werent wasteful. So thats how Ive talked myself into trying everything, Well, Im not wasting the animal, so its more like an American Indian philosophy.
DRE: Is trying these foods for the first time different than when you were trying new drugs back in the day?
PF: Its a little bit like that. I guess you could say that [laughs].
DRE: To eat everything they have over there you would probably need drugs.
So what made you want to start Satellite Party?
PF: I was just loving the idea of putting together a themed party, almost like a sleepover party. We would dress an indoor location and just keep the party going. Like a rave but like the 92 raves, when things were really interesting and fresh. Over the years with the rave scene, and even the rock scene, the promoters got very lazy and were just turning one out after the next. As many as three to five days a week you were trying to turn your bar over and turn your night over so they just stopped putting details into things. I wanted to put the details back into this party. I thought that the theme should be as if we were going to have a space party on a satellite. We would dress up like it is an extra special occasion and do what the music would sound like and what would the party feel like. Thats what I started building. I got real excited about that because, you know me, with Lollapalooza it takes me all year to build those three days. I like the idea of always performing myself, so Satellite Party was for me to perform music in this theme.
DRE: Did you always plan to do an album with Satellite Party?
PF: Yeah, at one time I was just going to be programming electronic music because it was just going to be a DJ thing. Then maybe I would DJ it and at some point step it up. With electronic music, house music, there are very few lyrics involved. Its beat matched and you can play anybodys music so you can play music for two days straight. But it started to develop into a story as I was writing one song to the next, then I started putting more and more lyrics on it and then it started turning into something very different. It became a complete story. Very odd occurrences happened like getting the chance to produce a song that was written by Jim Morrison and The Doors, that happened to fit this story perfectly. Jims part is the Heavenly Host. In his storyline, hes looking at the world, as were all looking at the world, from the vantage point of the satellite. Hes singing about the world in a song called The Woman in the Window so I wanted to continue to develop it into a film for theatrical release. But theres a giant leap to get there. I needed to figure out if I wanted to get right there for a theatrical release or do it in another way. That was to make sure the music was really loved because you can go right to theatrical release but if the music isnt good or people dont appreciate the music, the film will bomb and no one will appreciate the music. So I wanted to take the longer, slower, but I think a better method, which would be to go out there and play the music live and develop this thing very stripped down and go out there and live it, live this story of the Solutionists, who are this collective of people that are an elite group who are excellent at the art form of public display and protest. Well demonstration, demonstration is a little bit less aggressive. But they are professional demonstrators and public assemblers. So were going to go out and actually put together some of these fun parties, as well as a straight tour, but all the time developing the performance.
DRE: With each thing you do thats connected to Satellite Party is it a different piece or is it a big continuing story or concept?
PF: Well, the songs all tell a story. But if you didnt know the story and you just listened to the music, you would be able to appreciate it for what it is. But when you get the CD, the packaging of the CD will tell the story and our online, which is very close to being up, will help people begin to understand who we are and what were about, the Solutionists that is. Were going to go out and actuate this story, actuate this myth. This myth really is about new renaissance artists taking responsibility and taking the Earth and beautifying the Earth and taking over through the media. We take over through the art of public display and demonstration. With a good website, like the very compelling one you guys have that Im looking at right now, you can do a lot, you can say a lot even though I know its silly because youre basically selling sex and cheesecake even though its not as perverse as some of these other sites, but still you can draw people in with this and you can do a lot. You can have a good time changing the world.
DRE: I read an older interview of yours from about 1998 about how you wanted to get into broadband and hit the new mediums that were coming up. Youve been doing things like that since you started. You even did it when your life was going through some pretty heavy things. How do you keep yourself up to date on that stuff so well?
PF: Sometimes I think that its not so easy because being an artist, you put your head into your art, and the next thing you know, theres five things that you dont know that came up, that youre not aware of. You feel like Oh my god, I cant believe I didnt know about that. But I think the world in general is taking on a lot of information. There are a lot of new avenues. If I can get spiritual for a minute, I feel that were able to access, if even through our dreamtime, dimensions that we werent able to access before. Im communicating with people right now from Hong Kong. I get updates on artwork and an update on the video within five seconds. As Im sitting here conversing, Im on Friday and you guys are on Thursday. It can be overwhelming. You almost just have to relax and say Well I will take in what I can, and concentrate on your own art and your own dreams and on your own art forms. If you have good allies, theyll be bringing you good ideas that you can check into. Then you can apply those to your life or not.
DRE: I believe your oldest kid is about five.
PF: Thats a yes.
DRE: Do they play music?
PF: Yes. All of my family loves music. My youngest boy was playing guitar to me this morning.
DRE: Over the Internet or is he with you?
PF: No, hes with me. Hes gonna be three. We have music in our house all day. We sing at night and all through the day. We rehearse all day. The boys know the songs, so we all sing together.
DRE: Thats great.
I read an interview with you where I think you were being a little facetious. You said that you would only do Janes Addiction if money started to rain from the sky. With a band as popular as Janes the amount of money you might get offered might feel like money was raining from the sky. Or were you basically saying you would never get Janes back together?
PF: Well, I guess youre smart because I was being facetious, although you never can tell whats going to happen. People can apologize or come together. There could be a greater evil that we all fight for, like Martians invading the world. You never can tell who might end up being friends again, right? [laughs] But I will just tell you this. I dont have any ambition to put Janes back together again. What Im very excited about it is Satellite Party. As we build this thing, and weve only started, but next year in June were going to be going to do Europe and staying there for two months performing in festivals and clubs and opening up for some legends. So Im excited about building Satellite Party because I think the musical potential that Ive got in front of me is everything Ive been looking for, for many years. Its a hybrid of sound and its still developing. As we speak my drummer [Kevin Figueiredo] is putting together a drum kit and is going to include his drum triggers. Thats something that Ive wanted from my drummer for many years. We are bringing more players in the group. We have now a second female vocalist/keyboard player so she can be playing some of the denser sounds we have on the record.
The record is a hybrid of sound. Its got female vocals as well as male, so its very unisex. Im really excited about developing this. As for Janes Addiction, Im an artist and I like the idea of painting new paintings. Although I appreciate the paintings that are hung now in the galleries, so to speak, but that music was sung and played and written at a certain time in life but Im very tied and involved in whats going on in the modern world and the future even. I have to put the brakes on in my mind most of the time to try to stay with the world as opposed to getting to far ahead of myself. So Im not really much interested in going to Janes Addiction, because Janes Addiction is reminiscing about the past. Thats fun but Im really much more excited about the future.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
Check out the official site for Perry Farrell
Daniel Robert Epstein: Hows it going in Hong Kong?
Perry Farrell: Im having a really good time. I just went to the Museum of Science. I bopped around there for a while and had a good time. I walked the streets this afternoon and discovered some cool SoHo-type of neighborhoods. The streets in Hong Kong are like a mini-version of New York in a way. I dont know if youve ever been here but there are lots of textiles, lots of clothing, lots of clothing stores, lots of cool parks to go and hang out in. So Im taking it all in. Also the food is really out there.
DRE: Do you eat sushi?
PF: Ill eat sushi. As a matter of fact, Im trying things for the first time here.
DRE: Are you trying all those crazy insides of animals?
PF: Yes. Exactly.
DRE: Do you have to close your eyes before you pop it in your mouth?
PF: I almost dont want to look, but I am looking. The city has a smell that you dont smell in New York so Im coming to find out what those smells are. Sometimes Im finding out that its a cows stomach lining or part of a duck. With some of these smells, you walk by the stores and youre just like Oh, man. But tonight, it was on my table.
DRE: Was it the duck vaginas?
PF: [laughs] At first I thought to myself, Wow. I dont really know if I want to go into this. But honestly, when I stop and think about it, the American Indian ate every part of the buffalo. They didnt leave anything behind. It was good thing they did that because they werent wasteful. So thats how Ive talked myself into trying everything, Well, Im not wasting the animal, so its more like an American Indian philosophy.
DRE: Is trying these foods for the first time different than when you were trying new drugs back in the day?
PF: Its a little bit like that. I guess you could say that [laughs].
DRE: To eat everything they have over there you would probably need drugs.
So what made you want to start Satellite Party?
PF: I was just loving the idea of putting together a themed party, almost like a sleepover party. We would dress an indoor location and just keep the party going. Like a rave but like the 92 raves, when things were really interesting and fresh. Over the years with the rave scene, and even the rock scene, the promoters got very lazy and were just turning one out after the next. As many as three to five days a week you were trying to turn your bar over and turn your night over so they just stopped putting details into things. I wanted to put the details back into this party. I thought that the theme should be as if we were going to have a space party on a satellite. We would dress up like it is an extra special occasion and do what the music would sound like and what would the party feel like. Thats what I started building. I got real excited about that because, you know me, with Lollapalooza it takes me all year to build those three days. I like the idea of always performing myself, so Satellite Party was for me to perform music in this theme.
DRE: Did you always plan to do an album with Satellite Party?
PF: Yeah, at one time I was just going to be programming electronic music because it was just going to be a DJ thing. Then maybe I would DJ it and at some point step it up. With electronic music, house music, there are very few lyrics involved. Its beat matched and you can play anybodys music so you can play music for two days straight. But it started to develop into a story as I was writing one song to the next, then I started putting more and more lyrics on it and then it started turning into something very different. It became a complete story. Very odd occurrences happened like getting the chance to produce a song that was written by Jim Morrison and The Doors, that happened to fit this story perfectly. Jims part is the Heavenly Host. In his storyline, hes looking at the world, as were all looking at the world, from the vantage point of the satellite. Hes singing about the world in a song called The Woman in the Window so I wanted to continue to develop it into a film for theatrical release. But theres a giant leap to get there. I needed to figure out if I wanted to get right there for a theatrical release or do it in another way. That was to make sure the music was really loved because you can go right to theatrical release but if the music isnt good or people dont appreciate the music, the film will bomb and no one will appreciate the music. So I wanted to take the longer, slower, but I think a better method, which would be to go out there and play the music live and develop this thing very stripped down and go out there and live it, live this story of the Solutionists, who are this collective of people that are an elite group who are excellent at the art form of public display and protest. Well demonstration, demonstration is a little bit less aggressive. But they are professional demonstrators and public assemblers. So were going to go out and actually put together some of these fun parties, as well as a straight tour, but all the time developing the performance.
DRE: With each thing you do thats connected to Satellite Party is it a different piece or is it a big continuing story or concept?
PF: Well, the songs all tell a story. But if you didnt know the story and you just listened to the music, you would be able to appreciate it for what it is. But when you get the CD, the packaging of the CD will tell the story and our online, which is very close to being up, will help people begin to understand who we are and what were about, the Solutionists that is. Were going to go out and actuate this story, actuate this myth. This myth really is about new renaissance artists taking responsibility and taking the Earth and beautifying the Earth and taking over through the media. We take over through the art of public display and demonstration. With a good website, like the very compelling one you guys have that Im looking at right now, you can do a lot, you can say a lot even though I know its silly because youre basically selling sex and cheesecake even though its not as perverse as some of these other sites, but still you can draw people in with this and you can do a lot. You can have a good time changing the world.
DRE: I read an older interview of yours from about 1998 about how you wanted to get into broadband and hit the new mediums that were coming up. Youve been doing things like that since you started. You even did it when your life was going through some pretty heavy things. How do you keep yourself up to date on that stuff so well?
PF: Sometimes I think that its not so easy because being an artist, you put your head into your art, and the next thing you know, theres five things that you dont know that came up, that youre not aware of. You feel like Oh my god, I cant believe I didnt know about that. But I think the world in general is taking on a lot of information. There are a lot of new avenues. If I can get spiritual for a minute, I feel that were able to access, if even through our dreamtime, dimensions that we werent able to access before. Im communicating with people right now from Hong Kong. I get updates on artwork and an update on the video within five seconds. As Im sitting here conversing, Im on Friday and you guys are on Thursday. It can be overwhelming. You almost just have to relax and say Well I will take in what I can, and concentrate on your own art and your own dreams and on your own art forms. If you have good allies, theyll be bringing you good ideas that you can check into. Then you can apply those to your life or not.
DRE: I believe your oldest kid is about five.
PF: Thats a yes.
DRE: Do they play music?
PF: Yes. All of my family loves music. My youngest boy was playing guitar to me this morning.
DRE: Over the Internet or is he with you?
PF: No, hes with me. Hes gonna be three. We have music in our house all day. We sing at night and all through the day. We rehearse all day. The boys know the songs, so we all sing together.
DRE: Thats great.
I read an interview with you where I think you were being a little facetious. You said that you would only do Janes Addiction if money started to rain from the sky. With a band as popular as Janes the amount of money you might get offered might feel like money was raining from the sky. Or were you basically saying you would never get Janes back together?
PF: Well, I guess youre smart because I was being facetious, although you never can tell whats going to happen. People can apologize or come together. There could be a greater evil that we all fight for, like Martians invading the world. You never can tell who might end up being friends again, right? [laughs] But I will just tell you this. I dont have any ambition to put Janes back together again. What Im very excited about it is Satellite Party. As we build this thing, and weve only started, but next year in June were going to be going to do Europe and staying there for two months performing in festivals and clubs and opening up for some legends. So Im excited about building Satellite Party because I think the musical potential that Ive got in front of me is everything Ive been looking for, for many years. Its a hybrid of sound and its still developing. As we speak my drummer [Kevin Figueiredo] is putting together a drum kit and is going to include his drum triggers. Thats something that Ive wanted from my drummer for many years. We are bringing more players in the group. We have now a second female vocalist/keyboard player so she can be playing some of the denser sounds we have on the record.
The record is a hybrid of sound. Its got female vocals as well as male, so its very unisex. Im really excited about developing this. As for Janes Addiction, Im an artist and I like the idea of painting new paintings. Although I appreciate the paintings that are hung now in the galleries, so to speak, but that music was sung and played and written at a certain time in life but Im very tied and involved in whats going on in the modern world and the future even. I have to put the brakes on in my mind most of the time to try to stay with the world as opposed to getting to far ahead of myself. So Im not really much interested in going to Janes Addiction, because Janes Addiction is reminiscing about the past. Thats fun but Im really much more excited about the future.
by Daniel Robert Epstein
SG Username: AndersWolleck
VIEW 7 of 7 COMMENTS
blackrosemd1:
And 2 years later, Trent Reznor talks Janes into reforming. 
needsum:
Been a fan of this man (and the band) since 1990. Janes was my High School awakening, the band just had that "thing" that you knew was so much over and above every other band out there. I have seen them many times over the years, and was right in front of the stage, in the pit, at the first Lollapalooza when it was at Waterloo Village in NJ. Being in their presence, that up close, was indescribable. I still get lost in the music whenever I put one of their albums on (yes, I STILL call them albums...) and I absolutely love their new stuff. Dave Navarro is an amazing gutar player, and I think that Steven Perkins is the single-greatest overlooked drummer ever. I could go on and on, but I'd be preaching to the choir.