something evil. If you were a rock star, you were trying to put people on. I don't see it that way anymore." With Frusciante, the Red Hot Chili Peppers began brainstorming ideas for a new album. Flea suggested the group record an album with electronic influences, akin to Zooropa by U2. When the band was turned down by multiple electronic music producers (including David Bowie), they decided to instead pursue an alternative rock direction with throwbacks to their roots. Writing and recording The majority of the music for Californication was written at Flea's makeshift garage studio in the summer of 1998. It took Frusciante several weeks to readjust to playing with bandmates, especially while recovering from drug addiction. Singer Anthony Kiedis noted that as a result of this readjustment period, Frusciante took on a more minimalist approach to guitar playing. According to biographer Jeff Apter, the Red Hot Chili Peppers wrote between 30 and 40 songs for the album, which would eventually get distilled to 15 for the release. The band members took on a laid-back approach to writing music. As Kiedis said: "Everyone was having fun. It was as if we had nothing to lose, nothing to gain. We didn't care; we were making music for the sake of making music." Californication was recorded at Cello Studios in Los Angeles, and took a little over three weeks to complete. The band chose Rick Rubin to produce the album. Rubin had worked with the Red Hot Chili Peppers on their two previous albums, and Kiedis noted that there was some hesitation to reenlist him. "We thought that maybe it was time to get a new producer. Every time you make a record, it doesn't matter how good it was working with a producer, and even if you know you're going to end up making a record with that same person again, there's always a day when someone says, 'Do we want to get a new producer?'" About a week into the recording sessions, Jim Scott was brought in as a replacement audio engineer, as the band was not happy with the original production. The band was timely and professional, in comparison to what Rubin described as the "day-long pot sessions or sexual indulgences" that had plagued the recording sessions for previous albums. Recording the songs took five days. All four band members recorded their instruments at the same time within