Not gone just evolved....if we don't continue to grow as musicians we die as artists....his playing has changed on purpose....
Flea's bass playing has changed considerably throughout the years. When he joined Fear his technique centered largely around traditional punk rock bass lines, however he was to change this style when the Red Hot Chili Peppers formed. He began to incorporate a "slap" bass style that drew influence largely from Bootsy Collins. However, this technique caused Flea to receive attention from the music world and was often copied, and he therefore felt it necessary to completely remove slap-bass styles from his repertoire following Mother's Milk. Consequently, Blood Sugar Sex Magik saw a notable shift in style as it featured none of his signature technique but rather styles that focused more on traditional and melodic roots. His intellectual beliefs on how to play the instrument was also altered: "I was trying to play simply on Blood Sugar Sex Magik because I had been playing too much prior to that, so I thought, 'I've really got to chill out and play half as many notes'. When you play less, it's more excitingthere's more room for everything. If I do play something busy, it stands out, instead of the bass being a constant onslaught of notes. Space is good." During the writing and recording of One Hot Minute, Flea integrated some use of slap-bass progressions, but continued to center his technique around the philosophy of "less is more" rather than complexity: "I can't even think of anything I played that was complex [on the record]; even the slapping stuff is simple. It's original-sounding, and I'm proud of thatbut what I played was more a matter of aesthetic choice." This led Flea to alter the way he wrote music by playing alone, instead of the jam sessions that would dictate how the band conceived songs: "[One Hot Minute] is the least jam-oriented record we've made. I mean, we definitely jammed on the ideas, but there's only one groove on the whole album that came from a jam, 'Deep Kick'. The rest of it came from my sitting down with a guitar or bass."
Flea became interested in electronica during the Californication era and he attempted to emulate the same atmosphere given off by synthsesizers into his bass playing: "I feel the most exciting music happening is electronica, without a doubt." He ultimately decided against this, acknowledging that, aside from Frusciante, the band was not moving in the same direction. Californication also saw him incorporate more funk-driven bass lines than he had on One Hot Minute. In By the Way, much of the bass-lines were entirely stripped of funk. Flea felt the chords Frusciante had written were not supportive of his typical technique; furthermore, he does not feel the musical direction of the record was specifically melodic, but instead "a result of each one of us being who we are. The way we [the band] compose music is a very communal thing."
Flea's stepfather was in a bebop band that frequently jammed in his presence; he, therefore, became fascinated with the trumpet soon after. Flea credits his continued interest in music to jazz performers like Miles Davis, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane and Dizzy Gillespie. After Kiedis introduced him to punk and rock, Flea became infatuated with artists like The Germs, Styx, David Bowie and Defunkt. Flea's early influences before Blood Sugar Sex Magik were mainly funk artists like Bootsy Collins, Parliament, Funkadelic, Sly & the Family Stone, and The Meters. They would become a notable aspect of the Red Hot Chili Peppers' sound up to Mother's Milk. Originally, Flea was given the impression by punk bands that one should play as hard and fast as they possibly could, but ultimately rejected this philosophy during Blood Sugar Sex Magik: "I was so into being raw it was all ********." On Californication and By the Way, Flea drew influence from electronica, gothic rock bands like The Cure and Siouxsie & the Banshees and New Wave music rather than funk. During Stadium Arcadium he experienced another shift in interest. Instead of the melodic music he had listened to during the two previous albums, he enjoyed the work of "flashy" guitar players like Jimi Hendrix, Eddie Van Halen, and Jimmy Page, exclusively.
