Profile: Monster Mosh, Guitar World, June 1998

Taken from Guitar World June ‘98 Profile: Monster Mosh, pg 33.

Rage Against the Machine’s Tom Morello discusses working with Jimmy Page on Puff Daddy’s stompin’ remake of “Kashmir”.

After a long break following their tour with Wu-Tang Clan last fall, Rage Against the Machine is now working on the successor to the hugely popular Evil Empire album. Guitar World recently caught up with guitarist Tom Morello, who worked with his idol, Jimmy Page, on Puff Daddy’s remake of Led Zeppelin’s “Kashmir”, which appears on the forthcoming Godzilla movie soundtrack.

Guitar World: You join Jimmy Page on guitar for Puff daddy’s new version of “Kashmir”. How did that come about?

Tom Morello: In February I got a four-word message from one of the folks at Epic Records: “Puff Daddy, Jimmy Page, ‘Kashmir’, 5 p.m.”. I figured, “Oh, I think I can make that.” So I hurriedly learned “Kashmir” which I had never played before. And the song’s exotic tuning [D A D G A D] threw me a bit. So I had to call up [producer[ Brendan O’Brien, my jukebox reference of Led Zeppelin riffs and overall Zeppelin aficionado. And he helped me learn it over the phone.

GW: What were your contributions to the song?

Morello: I played guitar and bass on the track, and had a great day and a half in the studio with Puffy, who has some pretty amazing musical ideas. Then, the day after I finished my stuff, Jimmy Page recorded his guitars via a satellite link. They rented satellite time in order to get the live, real-time hook-up that would allow to Page to play in London while Puffy recorded him in Los Angeles. Jimmy was apparently pretty psyched with what he had done, so he put his bit down, and the next day I came back in and heard it, and I was blown away.

GW: So you recorded the rhythms and Page did the leads?

Morello: I put down about three hours of crazy Tom Moreallo noises to DAT, in addition to playing the rhythm tracks all the way through. It’s not a straight cover of “Kashmir”. There are a couple of new parts that I came up with, which apparently Jimmy dug and was learning, which I can’t even fathom. He also did some amazing, crazy stuff with an Echoplex, and it just sounded awesome.

GW: Was Page a major idol for you growing up?

Morello: Oh, yeah. He was the guy, head and shoulders above the pack. He has always been one of the best as a songwriter, riff writer and lead player. As a dark guitar magician and conjurer, he was always my favorite. Unfortunately, the satellite link was an early morning thing, so we didn’t get to speak, but it was completely amazing to be involved in a project with him.

GW: There’s also a new Rage Against the Machine Song on the Godzilla soundtrack. What were you aiming for with that?

Morello: We wanted it to incorporate some different influences than the ones you hear on past Rage Against the Machine songs, but still have plenty of colossal, monster-sized riffing. In the past we’ve managed to conjure up a genuine hip-hop vibe in the context of a live punk rock band, and on this song there are spots where we try to capture almost a techno vibe, but, again, completely within the context of a punk rock band.

GW: How long did you approach your guitar parts on that song?

Morello: The figure that runs through the first two-thirds of the song swirls around an echoing bass figure, which is very different for us. It has a deep hip-hop groove, and a big Godzilla-would-be-proud riff. There’s also a guitar break where I did my best to impersonate some of the most horrible monsters to come out of the Japanese movies of the Fifties and Sixties.

Subjects: Music 音楽

Tags: Led Zeppelin, music, Puff Daddy, Tom Morello