The Red Hot Chili Peppers continued their late-career chart resurgence in 2006 with the double-disc Warner Bros. set "Stadium Arcadium," which opened at a career-best No. 1 on The Billboard 200. The project has spawned Grammy nominations for album of the year as well as best rock song for the hit single "Dani California," among others.

"We got together and our initial writing task was to write a short record: an old school, hit 'em and quit 'em, straight to the point record," frontman Anthony Kiedis told Billboard last January. "A record with only 11 or 12 songs instead of 17 songs, just for a change. Three months later, we had 38 songs, all of which were meaningful and worth recording and mixing."

At first, the idea of an album trilogy seemed "inspiring and appealing. But the more we thought about it, the more we realized it would be a nightmare," Kiedis admitted. "Even if you only release them six months apart, you're waiting two years until the final installment. Nobody had that kind of patience. By that time, we want to be writing new music and making another record. The best we could come up with is squeezing our favorite 25 onto one body."

Kiedis attributes the creative burst to the fact that "the chemistry when it comes to writing is better than ever. Always in the past, there was a little bit of struggle between Flea, John [Frusciante] or myself as contributing writers -- a struggle to dominate. But we are now confident enough in who we are, so everybody feels more comfortably contributing more and more valuable, quality stuff."

LINKS:
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