Mother's Milk - Recording and Production

Recording and Production

Unlike the stop-start sessions for The Uplift Mofo Party Plan, where Kiedis would frequently disappear to seek drugs, pre-production for Mother's Milk went smoothly. Many of the songs were already written, some even recorded ("Taste the Pain" was recorded prior to Chad joining and featured Philip "Fish" Fisher on drums) by the time the band started pre-production in January 1989. The band recorded basic tracks at Hully Gully studios in Silver Lake; songs like "Knock Me Down" were formed from jam sessions without any input from returning producer Michael Beinhorn. According to Flea, the Hully Gully sessions bore fruit: "We played hard and fast more than any other time in our career, I think. A lot of chops were going down we played constantly, got to know each other, and came up with a record." Kiedis and Flea recognized that Frusciante's presence had become a significant influence on the band's new material as the Hully Gully sessions were proving to be extremely productive; Flea recalled that " was an immense new element to the sound of our band and a big opening up for us."

The band entered the Ocean Way Recording studio in Hollywood in February 1989 to record Mother's Milk. "It was weird when I first joined the band because we recorded the album after I'd been in the band for just a few months and Chad had actually been in for just two weeks", Frusciante recalled. "I was still a little bit confused about my position and we were just like four individuals. Music is all about welding people into a unit and with all the touring we've been doing we're now like an eight armed cosmic octopus!" Beinhorn pushed the Chili Peppers to produce the best possible takes for each of the record's thirteen tracks with the intent of the band obtaining a hit record.

Although there had been stress and conflict during the recording of other Chili Peppers albums, the Mother's Milk sessions were uncomfortable due to Beinhorn's incessant desire to create a hit. He recalled that he and the band were at odds: "Suffice to say that I had a very intense personal relationship and somewhere along the line I fell out with ." Beinhorn constantly clashed with Frusciante over guitar effects. According to Kiedis, " wanted John to have a big, crunching, almost metal-sounding guitar tone whereas before we always had some interesting acid-rock guitar tones as well as a lot of slinky, sexy, funky guitar tones." Frusciante was frustrated with the producer's attitude and ultimately resented his playing on the record, feeling it was too "macho". Kiedis recalled that, in the end, "I couldn't tolerate his direction any longer. He was trying to squeeze something out of me that I wasn't feeling, and we got in a fight and I knew that I was done with him."

In March 1989, the Chili Peppers embarked on a two month tour to break-in the new lineup. The "Positive Mental Octopus tour" saw the band play small venues throughout the United States, including several concerts on the East and West Coast. During this period, Frusciante began to assert more energy and his ego "got a little swollen", according to Flea, "He was running around being rude to girls and getting them pissed off. But that's to be expected, I mean, shit, you're 18 years old and you want to get laid really bad and all of a sudden you're in a band, the girls want to fuck. You're bound to go crazy." Another incident, following a performance at the George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia, caused legal repercussions; a student accused Kiedis of engaging in sexual misconduct and indecent exposure. The vocalist was subsequently arrested and released on bail pending a trial that was to be set for a later date.