Perry Farrell’s next musical project won’t be a follow-up to Jane’s Addiction’s 2011 album, The Great Escape Artist, or a Porno for Pyros reunion, but rather an actual musical, one involving Jane’s Addiction.
“My next project is that I’m working on a play, it’s a musical,” the “Just Because” singer tells Prefix. “But it’s going to be immersive theater. It’s not going to be in a theater, I’m going to create an environment and the music will be within that environment, and Jane’s Addiction will be within that environment.”
Light on other details, the Stefan-sounding frontman says that “the whole idea of music” may be headed for the Great White Way. “There are going to be different environments for people to play music,” Farrell said. “Musicals! Musicals make more sense because they’re telling stories and they have costumes and something to look at. But it’s going to turn into something else. It already is turning into something else. The agony and the frustration is that it’s not developed yet.”
The 53-year-old spends much of the Q&A frustrated himself, railing against the music industry and the general public’s perceived apathy toward good ol’ rock’n’roll. “There is no scene to speak of,” he says. “There was a moratorium placed on rock and roll probably 7-10 years ago. Some of these record labels? I know the inside of them. I know what they were saying to each other, that they weren’t going to sign any more rock music.”
The Lollapalooza leader continues: “I do notice that the way people go out these days and are entertained is changing, and what you have to do is be aware of it, and you have to give them a different environment. That’s what I’m doing next year. I’m working on, right now, a project where I’m going to create a brand new environment, but it’s not going to be a club, and it’s not going to be a festival.” He may be referring to his interactive “Been Caught Stealing” operation.
Farrell didn’t mention the more than 60 songs he told Rolling Stone he’d written for a potential Great Escape Artist successor (which RS reported he would begin planning around the start of this year), but did say that he and his wife-slash-business partner, Etty Lau Farrell, the “prima ballerina of Jane’s Addiction,” have performed and recorded dance music that will see release by the end of 2013.
