I'm with You is the tenth studio album by the American rock band Red Hot Chili Peppers. The album was released by Warner Bros. Records on August 26, 2011, in Europe and on August 29, 2011, in the United States. The album made its debut at number one in 18 countries including the United Kingdom, while reaching number two in the United States and Canada.
Produced by Rick Rubin, I'm with You was the band's first studio album after a five-year hiatus, and the first to feature guitarist Josh Klinghoffer, following the departure of John Frusciante in 2009. It is also the first album since 1989's Mother's Milk to not have a title track. The album received mixed reviews, with many praising newcomer Josh Klinghoffer for breathing new life into the veteran group, but also criticizing John's Frusciante's absence from the group. The album featured four singles, including alternative number-one hit, "The Adventures of Rain Dance Maggie", "Monarchy of Roses", "Look Around" and "Brendan's Death Song". "Did I Let You Know" was released exclusively in Brazil thanks to response from a poll voted on by the fans, though it was not considered a proper single. A Rolling Stone Reader's Poll named I'm with You the 8th best album of 2011 and the album was also nominated for the Grammy Award for Best Rock Album.
Background In August 2007, at the close of the band's world tour in support of Stadium Arcadium (2006), the Peppers began a one-year hiatus, which subsequently stretched to more than two years. Bassist Flea stated, "I talked everyone into it and some people were more prone to it than others. [...] I just felt like I wanted to take two years away just to really look and see if the band was something we should still be doing. Things had gotten dysfunctional and not fun." During this time, Flea studied music theory at the University of Southern California, drummer Chad Smith recorded and toured with hard rock supergroup Chickenfoot, while guitarist John Frusciante recorded and released his 10th solo album, The Empyrean. According to vocalist Anthony Kiedis, there was a collective decision "not [to] do anything Red Hot Chili Peppers-related for a minimum of one year. [...] We started in 1999, with the writing and the recording of Californication, and we didn't really stop until the tour ended last year. We were all emotionally and mentally zapped at the end of that run." During the band's self-imposed hiatus, Frusciante departed from the band for a second time, stating, "There was no drama or anger involved, and the other guys were very understanding. They are supportive of my doing whatever makes me happy and that goes both ways." Regarding Frusciante's departure, Flea stated, "he just didn't want to do [the Red Hot Chili Peppers] anymore. He really wanted to do what he wants to do, on his own, without having to deal with the band dynamic, our band dynamic." Kiedis notes that, "John had become disenchanted with being in a touring rock band, which is completely understandable. He's a driven person in the world of music and sound, and he wanted to change gears."
Following Frusciante's departure, Kiedis stated that both he and Flea "had this intuitive feeling. We're not really done. We wanted to maintain the Red Hot Chili Peppers if we could do it in a way that upheld historically what we had accomplished. [...] There were some interesting conversations about, do we try to find someone we don't know, or maybe there is somebody right in our own backyard who is the perfect solution?" Flea commented on the band's eventual return stating, "For me, the biggest thing during the time off, and what really made me want to continue doing the band, specifically after John decided he didn't want to continue, [was] I just realized, Anthony, man, he's my brother, I love him so much, and we started this band when we were kids. I wanted to keep that going, I never want to let that go."
Frusciante was subsequently replaced by friend and frequent collaborator Josh Klinghoffer, who had been performing alongside the band during the final legs of the Stadium Arcadium tour. Regarding Klinghoffer's entry into the band, Smith noted, "We've known him a long time. He's super-talented, smart, handsome. He fits in perfectly, which is a good thing," and later stated: "We couldn't have asked for a better person to play music with." Klinghoffer noted, "I've always been attracted to the idea of a tight-knit unit, a band of family, a brotherhood. Since my earliest memory, they always seemed like a band with a lot of love for each other."
Joining the band in late 2009, Klinghoffer began writing and jamming with the band on October 12; the same day that friend and autobiographer Brendan Mullen died. According to Flea, "it was a poignant moment for us. It was an emotional thing." Klinghoffer notes that: "It was sort of a sad hello. Everybody lost a good friend."
Klinghoffer subsequently made his live debut with the band on January 29, 2010, performing a cover of the Neil Young song, "A Man Needs a Maid", at MusiCares event honouring Young. Prior to the event, Chad Smith noted, "it's the first time we've played out with Josh, just the four of us, so it'll be an exciting night for him. [...] We're taking it slow. One song at a time." Flea commented on Josh's impact on the band, saying that "over time he really revealed himself to be just the best person we could've got. And John Frusciante's such a powerful musician and left such an imprint on our band and gave so much as a writer, as a player, a serious part of our band, that no one could ever replace John. No one's ever going to step in and do what John did. But Josh came in and does what Josh does and does it in a beautiful way."
Kiedis noted, "There is no question – this is a beginning," with Smith confirming that statement by adding, "this is a new band. Same name, but it's a new band."
Recording and production The album was produced by Rick Rubin; in the same studio in which the band recorded Californication, and at Shangri La. The album's recording sessions took place from September 2010 to March 2011. According to Rubin, the band recorded enough material to release a second double album, following Stadium Arcadium (2006), but ultimately decided not to. Rubin notes, "it was painful not to share all of the material that we had, but we felt it would be too much. We really wanted it to be 12 songs but it ended up being 14 just because nobody could agree on which 12." Regarding the band's decision to work with Rubin once again, Chad Smith stated, "We have a great working relationship with him. He's been working with us for 20 years. We feel that he's the fifth Chili Pepper. He's someone that we love and trust."
I'm with You was claimed to be the first album specially mastered to optimize digital sound quality for iTunes Store customers who purchase the album through iTunes. The album was mastered using high-resolution sourced audio. Despite this, the mastering has been deemed extremely loud and over-compressed and therefore distorted, continuing the trend since One Hot Minute.
I'm with You sessions/album outtakes
In August 2012, the band began releasing additional songs from the I'm with You recording sessions. Nine singles featuring 17 songs were released, with the final coming out in July 2013. Each release contained two songs (except for one, "In Love Dying", which clocked in at 8:01) featuring an A-side and a B-side and were available on 7" vinyl and digital download. In late 2013, all 17 outtakes were released as a double LP titled I'm Beside You. Klinghoffer confirmed that some post session work was done as late as 2013 on the songs from I'm Beside You.
According to the band, around 50 songs were recorded during the album sessions. To date, 19 remain unreleased. Of those, Klinghoffer mentioned "Renaissance" as one of the titles and he even has teased it live. Alternate versions of songs also exist. "Look Around" is featured on Rock Band DLC with its original intro (which was also played live). An alternate version of "Ethiopia" that features a saxophone solo performed by Joshua Redman also exists and was mentioned in interviews prior to the album's release but that version remains unreleased. During recording process for the album, and as with every album, some of the songs had alternate working titles that were mentioned by the band in pre-release interviews. "Did I Let You Know" ("Take Me Home" and "Lagos"), "Police Station" ("Stolen Stone"), "Monarchy of Roses" ("Disco Sabbath"), "Goodbye Hooray" ("See You Around"), "Magpies on Fire" ("Magpies") and "Your Eyes Girl" ("Mormon Lover"). "Did I Let You Know" also had the suffix '(This I Know)' during some of the band's interviews.
Writing and composition
According to drummer Chad Smith, the band "wrote a lot of songs" during ten months, from October 12, 2009, to August 2010. Smith noted, "Every record is a real snapshot of where we're at during that time in our lives as a band and as a people. It's always been that way." Flea stated that the band wrote around 60–70 songs for the new album and writing took around nine months before they entered the studio with Rubin.
Regarding the departure of guitarist John Frusciante, and the arrival of Josh Klinghoffer, vocalist Anthony Kiedis stated, prior to the album's release, "it is always going to change the chemistry and feeling of the music when such a creative force as John Frusciante leaves. He was something unique that shaped our sound then, but now I think it's also something fresh and exciting to have a new, incredible musical mind working with us now. We are still the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but we also have to adapt and welcome new opportunities. After all, that is how we've survived all these years." Producer Rick Rubin commented on Klinghoffer's addition to the band, stating, "Josh is fantastic. He played with John Frusciante for many, many years and he actually toured with the Chili Peppers before, so he's sort of part of the extended family. He's stylistically very close to John but has a completely different trip. It sounds like the Red Hot Chili Peppers that you've never heard before." Flea remarked, "Josh is a very subtle musician and it's not so much about the big riff – it's more subtle, sublime, poetic texture type of playing. We're just reacting to him, and it makes us play different, so we're just going a different way, and it's great. We still sound like the Red Hot Chili Peppers, but it's really a lot different."
Kiedis commented on the overall writing process, noting, "this album has been one of evolution. Before, some of our jams were a bit hit-and-miss. On this record, a decent number of songs were actually thought out and planned in a way we had never done before. That is, with Flea's new knowledge of music theory, we explored the writing process with a bit more precision." During the band's hiatus, Flea studied musical theory classes at the University of Southern California, learning piano during his tenure. According to Kiedis, Flea's piano contributions to I'm With You added "a whole new dynamic" to the band's sound. According to Flea, Klinghoffer also wrote songs on piano for the album: "I started writing songs on piano for this record and Josh also wrote songs on piano, so a lot of the songs were written on the piano and then translated to [the] rock band. It has a different kind of feeling, kind of more of a liquid, poetic feeling is the best way I can describe it."
Flea said the three main things he was listening to during the creation of the album were underground kind of avant-garde electronic music, The Rolling Stones, and Johann Sebastian Bach.