Perry Farrell on new music from Porno For Pyros and Jane’s Addiction, and the return of Eric Avery

Perry Farrell has spoken to NME about recording new music for Porno For Pyros, reuniting with founding Jane’s Addiction bassist Eric Avery in the studio, both band’s upcoming touring plans, and expansion plans for his festival Lollapalooza.

• READ MORE: Lollapalooza 2022 review: the global festival transforms its hometown into a music utopia

In May, Pornos For Pyros reunited on stage for their first time in 26 years at Welcome To Rockville Festival, replacing Jane’s Addiction after the band pulled out due to Dave Navarro’s ongoing battle with COVID. Since then, the Jane’s offshoot have performed a headline set in Los Angeles, an intimate Lollapalooza after show, and a main stage set at the Farrell-founded festival.

“The idea of getting back with Porno was something we dreamed of for a long time,” Farrell told NME. “Especially to be working with Martyn LeNoble, our bassist again.”

Farrell had previously said he and LeNoble “had a bad falling out”, but reunited when he invited him to pick up the bass for the festival. “We all took that opportunity to not just kiss and make up, but to do some great work and we sounded really good. It’s true what they say about musicians,” he laughed. “They get better with age.”

Next year, Porno For Pyros celebrate the 30 year anniversary of their eponymous debut. Their last official release was ‘Hard Charger’, a non-album single recorded for the soundtrack of Howard Stern’s 1997 film Private Parts. Now, more than two decades later, Farrell confirms that the band have already recorded new material, and could be taking the road to celebrate three decades of making music.

“We’ve got three songs that the world hasn’t heard yet and they’re really good,” he told us. “I’ve got a good smile on my face thinking about those songs. We just recorded them and we’ll be finishing them in the next month or so.”

He added: “There’ll be music in the air and then we’ll appear. We have to figure out when we want to tour. You want to [release] those songs close to the tour.”

Farrell’s other band, Jane’s Addiction, are set to take the road supporting The Smashing Pumpkins in October. Last month, the band shared a clip on their Twitter account featuring founding bassist Eric Avery and Farrell in the studio, leading fans to believe he’d returned to the band after leaving in 2010. When asked if Avery was officially back, Farrell told us, “Yes, and we recorded three songs with him. That Jane’s rhythm section is back.”

This week also mark’s the anniversaries of Jane’s first two records, 1990’s ‘Ritual De Lo Habitual’ and 1988’s ‘Nothings Shocking’ – two records that Avery wrote and played on. When asked how Avery and Farrell came to reunite, the frontman pointed to his new label and his ability to create and share music how he wanted to, when he wanted to.

“I feel like making music, and I don’t want to wait around for anyone to tell me that I’m worth it so I’m just going to put it together,” he told us. Launched in July, Farrell’s Imprint Label is a tangent of his Heaven After Dark series, which focuses on dance music and emerging artists.

“I invited Eric to participate in songwriting, I went up to Johnny Depp’s place and laid down seven or eight songs,” he told NME. “Some of them are Kind Heaven Orchestra, some of them are Porno’s, some of them are Jane’s Addiction. Everybody contributed.”

He continued: “Now I have these songs, I hang on to them and to me they’re valuable. I don’t need anyone to tell me what they’re worth. I can put them out at a pace, and it could be six months or eight months or wait a year. If I want to, I can drop one next week, but I wouldn’t. You want to have a grand carriage for your songs. But, I don’t have 50 other things that I have to drop. I can really dress the window myself, because it’s my own store.”

The Jane’s frontman also revealed what fans could expect from the band’s upcoming tour with Smashing Pumpkins. “We’re building a really well-produced show,” he added. “A record is one thing but if you’re going to bother to appear then you’re performing, so the performance is going to be incredible. Wardrobe, video, dancers, it’s all going to be there.”

In July, Pumpkins’ frontman Billy Corgan joined Porno For Pyros for a surprise Led Zeppelin cover during the band’s Lollapalooza set. Farrell explained that the idea to play the track together came from the pair “passing around the guitar” backstage.

“The first Friday night [of Lollapalooza] I do a small founders party, and I invited him down to that,” he said. “While we were hanging out backstage just passing around the guitar, everybody was taking turns just having fun and we were thinking of things we might be able to do together.”

He continued: “I had done that song a year earlier at [the founder’s party] and I thought he might know it, so I was like, ‘Here, do [‘When the Levee Breaks’] and we got through it. Some parts weren’t right but it’s exciting when it kind of works out even halfway and you see the potential.”

After that night, Farrell invited him to play at Lollapalooza, telling Corgan that “it would be something the city of Chicago would really dig.” For the festival founder, having Corgan perform with him felt like a once in a lifetime experience.

“That’s what I love about live music and especially collaborations during live performances,” he said. “It may never happen again and you have something where you can say, ‘I was there for that moment.’”

Before this year’s festival kicked off, Farrell announced that the event would be expanding to India next year, taking place January 28-29 in Mumbai. Lollapalooza India will now be the festival’s eighth stop, with events already taking place in Chile, Brazil, Argentina, Germany, France and Sweden.

On the last day of this year’s festival, right before K-pop star J-Hope’s historic headline performance, Farrell joined Chicago mayor Lori Lightfoot on stage to announce that the festival would not only be expanding to another city, but would be back at its home base of Grant Park for at least another 10 years.

“I was legitimised by being able to announce that with the mayor to the city of Chicago,” he said to NME. “To decree that we’re going to bring music to the city on a large scale.”

Farrell added: “Think about the effort and what it took to get a show like Lollapalooza together and within that show I’m performing, and within that we bring Billy, and we’re performing for Chicago. It certainly is a magic moment when you pull it off. I live for those moments.”

Jane’s Addiction’s tour with The Smashing Pumpkins kicks off on October 2 in Dallas, Texas and runs until November 19 in Los Angeles, California. View the full itinerary and purchase tickets here.