The Return of Jane's Addiction

When Jane's Addiction released The Great Escape Artist in September, it marked the first studio album released by the band since 2003. We recently got a chance to sit down with Dave Navarro to talk about the band's newest member Dave Sitek, what the title of the album means to him, and how the band vibes off of each other to produce a record.

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IGN: The Great Escape Artist: what does the title refer to?

Dave Navarro: I think we all tend to escape from life in different ways; as human beings and as artists, for sure. There's a multitude of ways to escape, and I don't think it's meant to be taken literally. It can be open to interpretation. For me, anything from film to books to sex to drugs to music—everything we love and do—is essentially one form of escape. I think we're ultimately implying that concept with the title.

IGN: Each of us is the great escape artist for our own lives?

Navarro: Hey, I'm not saying that. It's on you.


IGN: You're coming back to recording after a time away. What is the biggest difference between recording this album and recording the very first Jane's album?

Navarro:Well, for starters, it's a completely different batch of songs. So that's the first difference. You really don't compare things like that, to be honest with you. It's like comparing children. They're just different creations.

IGN: You spent some time doing other things. How did that influence what you brought to Jane's this time around?

Navarro: Actually, I'm more influenced by the other players in the band more than anything else. We all have our own collective interests and creative outlets out there, and when we come into the band, we're all inspired by one another in different ways and it pretty much just goes like that.

IGN: Dave Sitek came in and he's bringing something completely different to the table. What is his specific influence and how did you feel about his emergence in the band?

Navarro: Dave Sitek's a great guy; became a great friend. Certainly a great creative spirit to have in the studio. Having him there and having him not being a working member of the band from the standpoint of not going out on tour and having an outsider's perspective was pretty essential, I think, in terms of bouncing ideas off of one another. So I really appreciated his time, his energy and his creative spirit.

IGN: Tell me about the moment before you release an album. What are your feelings; what's going through your head?

Navarro: I've been living with this record for a year, so I don't have an outsiders perspective on it. As far as I'm concerned, it's been around for quite a while, so I'm just excited to go out and play shows. That's what I'm thinking about. I'm not thinking about the record anymore. I'm thinking about the shows to follow.

IGN: When you're writing songs, is there stuff that comes from way, way back? Are there riffs and things that you've been thinking about since the beginning, or is everything pretty fresh?

Navarro: It's been known to happen, but not so much on this record. Everything on this record is new.

IGN: What's your process for writing?

Navarro:Don't really have a process. The process is to remain open to different ideas and listening to one another. If Steven's playing something that's inspired, we'll work off that. If there's a vocal melody, we'll work off that. There is no process. I think that's one of the things that keeps this band interested in doing what we do, because if we had a formula, we'd probably get burned out on it.

IGN: How important do you think spectacle is to being a rock star?

Navarro: That's not for me to say. That's for the audience.

IGN: So as a fan of rock music, is that one of the things you appreciate most, or is it all about the music?

Navarro: It depends on the artist you're talking about, because the spectacle that Pink Floyd puts on is theatrical and it's not coming from the individual band members as much as it is from, say, Alice Cooper. The ultimate thing that matters is the emotional response, and however you dress up the spectacle is up to the entertainer.

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