August 4, 2020

Me and My Friends #22 - Bram Van Splunteren interview + new rips of Lolapalusa, May 11 1994 and "Stuff"

Hello friends,

Something very fun happened last week!

Friend of the site Jack Bratt (who owns the world’s coolest shorts) let me know that he’d been speaking with the Dutch filmmaker and documentary maker Bram Van Splunteren.

You might not know Bram’s name, but you’ve probably seen his work involving the Chili Peppers; the 1988 documentary that featured some of the last available footage of Hillel, or this recording of a 1990 radio session. There’s also the 1991 “canal” interview, which is just superb, for many reasons:

What you probably know Bram best for, however, is his April 1994 documentary and interview with John. This is one of only two filmed interviews John gave during his time away from the band, and it’s obviously infamous for many reasons; his physical and mental state, his extolling of heroin use, his blase attitude to the death of his friend River Phoenix, and so on.

A lot of RHCP fans don’t like to look at this footage, and would rather remember John as a healthy, productive, functioning human being. That’s fair – John thinks that way too. And if he hadn’t survived this period, it would be a lot different for us to look back on it compared to the way we do now… I know I watch Hillel in that 1988 footage with a lump in my throat knowing how it all turned out five months later.

But it is what it is, and it was recorded and broadcast and is an important part of his story, so discomfort or not I think we should – at the least – acknowledge it as the low point of a wonderful career, and thank whoever you want to thank that he managed to get himself out of that hole.¹

Bram kindly offered Jack the chance to conduct an interview over Skype, and Jack jumped at the chance. Jack, in turn, offered me the exclusive rights to upload and share the interview.

And after days and days of wrangling iMovie and juggling huge files across the dregs of HD space on my computer and then finally dealing with Youtube’s automated copyright demon.... you can watch it right here.

The main focus is on the 1994 interview – which we also finally have the recording date (April 17) and location of – but all eras of the band are discussed. It’s a fascinating interview and Jack does a wonderful job considering it’s (I think) his first ever time doing something like this. Here’s that link again.

---

It gets even better. Not only did we get the interview, but Bram sent us a newly-made rip from the master tape of the May 11, 1994 episode of LOLAPALUSA - the show in which the interview first aired all those years ago. This has only floated around on the internet in pretty middling quality since it first aired, sourced from a VHS rip made at the time – hi Jochem - and re-encoded endlessly from there.²

Thankfully that’s now no longer the case, and you wont have to watch this interview spread out over 6 parts on Youtube anymore. It’s here in full, and even includes a high quality version of “Stuff” tacked onto the end. One of the most frustrating things about “Stuff” is how blurry and low-quality is was. No longer… and the interview footage is basically night and day (even if Youtube has crushed it a little).

Three in one. Not a bad deal!

---

Thank you to Jack Bratt for his tireless efforts in recording and supplying me (us) with this, and thanks as well to Bram van Splunteren for his generosity and kindness. This might be a sad and hard-to-watch part of John’s life, but it’s also a nice reminder of the wonderful gifts he’s given us in the years since he came back from his journey below.

---

Until next time,

Hamish.