MusicRadar

Chad Smith behind the kit during the Red Hot Chili Peppers' appearance at Coachella in 2007.© Tim Mosenfelder/Corbis

"Things are good," says Chad Smith, drummer for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Chickenfoot and The Bombastic Meatbats. "If good means exceedingly crazy and busy, then they're very good.

"I just finished some great shows with the Foot, I'm making a Chili Peppers record, and now I've got the Meatbats' latest and greatest album ready to come out. I've said this before, but I either need to clone myself or grow another set of arms so I can keep up with all of my bands and projects. I can't believe I'm getting ready to go on a Meatbats tour in a few weeks."

When pressed, however, to explain how he can possibly been in three places (and bands) at once, Smith comes clean and says, "The truth is, we finished this new Meatbats record, More Meat, a year ago, before I left on the first Chickenfoot tour. We cut it in April of 2009, so it's been in the can for a while. There's your smoke and mirrors for you. Still, it's pretty fresh. I'd say it's a vast improvement over the first record."

A fun and altogether engaging affair, More Meat picks up where the band's debut, Meet The Meatbats, left off, finding Chad and his fellow 'bats (guitarist Jeff Kollman, keyboardist Ed Roth and bassist Kevin Chown) shifting gears seamlessly from smooth jazz to funk to rock on a dozen instrumentals. They even serve up an inventive, slow-groove take on Led Zeppelin's classic Moby Dick. "That was pretty daring of us," Smith says. "But we try to not place any restrictions on ourselves, so we'll take chances like that."

According to Smith, "We had more of a band chemistry going on with the new record. It felt like a real cohesive unit. We wrote the songs together, more or less, so there's more of a communal vibe. It's a real group thing. It's just more... well, it's More Meat!"

In the following interview with MusicRadar, Smith discusses the recording of The Bombastic Meatbats' More Meat. In addition, the triple-timing drummer talks candidly about his tenure in Chickenfoot and offers his thoughts on the progress of the upcoming Red Hot Chili Peppers record, their first with new guitarist Josh Klinghoffer.

Let's start with the most important question I could possibly ask you, Chad. The new album's title, More Meat - does it have any significance?

"Well, it means…I don't know. [laughs] No! No special meaning. We thought about calling it Second Helping, but Lynyrd Skynyrd already did that. So we decided, 'We gave you some meat, and now we've got…More Meat!' I don't know what the third one will be. It'll be protein-oriented, I'm sure."

Extra Meat?

"Extra Meat, sure. I like it. We're a simple band that's into grand statements. More Meat…one can take from that what one wants. I like the title, and the cover, too. Now we're like superheroes. We look like KISS on the Destroyer album or something."

But you're missing the girls on the bottom. They should be looking up at you lustfully.

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