Flea – Traffic Lights (feat. Thom Yorke)
Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea announces “Honora”, his debut solo album, with new single “Traffic Lights” featuring Thom Yorke. The record drops March 27 via Nonesuch Records and marks Flea’s return to his first musical loves: jazz and trumpet.
Flea co-wrote “Traffic Lights” with Yorke and saxophonist Josh Johnson. Yorke contributes vocals, piano, and synth to the smooth mid-tempo groove. “Something about it reminded me of Atoms For Peace, so I sent it to Thom,” Flea says, referencing their side project from 2013. “Just knowing him, I thought it would be a rhythm and a sensibility that he would relate to. And I was right, he did.”
Yorke’s melody and lyrics address living in the “upside down”—how you make sense of things when you’re getting fake and real information mixed. “Everyone has their ways of dealing with the world,” Flea adds. “But he’s just the warmest, free flowing, jamming motherfucker.”
The album came together after Flea resolved to practice trumpet every day for two years—even while touring stadiums with Red Hot Chili Peppers and raising a newborn at home. At the end of those two years, he’d make the record regardless of where his skills ended up. The idea first came to him in 1991 while filming “My Own Private Idaho,” when he told a friend he wanted to make “an instrumental record with deep hypnotic grooves, trippy melodies layered on top.”
Flea assembled an elite crew of modern jazz musicians: producer and saxophonist Josh Johnson, guitarist Jeff Parker, bassist Anna Butterss, and drummer Deantoni Parks. “Sitting in a room and playing the music with them made me feel like I was on drugs,” he says. “I was buzzing, tripping and floating around the studio.”
“Honora” features six originals plus covers of Funkadelic’s “Maggot Brain,” Jimmy Webb’s “Wichita Lineman” (with Nick Cave on vocals), Franknone Ocean’s “Thinkin Bout You,” and Ann Ronell’s “Willow Weep for Me.” The record is named after a beloved family member.
Flea and the Honora Band will tour intimate venues this spring across North America and Europe.
Tracklist:
- Golden Wingship
- A Plea
- Traffic Lights
- Frailed
- Morning Cry
- Maggot Brain
- Wichita Lineman
- Thinkin Bout You
- Willow Weep for Me
- Free As I Want to Be
Tour Dates:
North America:
- May 7 – Thalia Hall, Chicago, IL
- May 9 – Opera House, Toronto, ON, Canada
- May 10 – Théâtre Beanfield, Montreal, QC, Canada
- May 12 – Webster Hall, New York, NY
- May 13 – Black Cat, Washington, DC
- May 16 – Fonda Theater, Los Angeles, CA
Europe:
- May 21 – Heimathafen, Berlin, Germany
- May 22 – Paradiso, Amsterdam, Netherlands
- May 26 – Koko, London, UK
- May 28 – Alhambra, Paris, France
