Red Hot and Renewed : For Chili Peppers bassist Flea, the road to success was paved with physical and emotional burnout. But these days he’s feeling rejuvenated as the band returns from its long layoff with a new album.

The kitchen walls in Flea’s Los Feliz home are decorated with photos of musicians and athletes and drawings by his 6-year-old daughter Clara. One message in crayon reads: “To Papa I Am Sorry That You Are Feeling Sad.”

She wrote it after the 1993 death of Flea’s friend River Phoenix--one more incident in an avalanche of pressures that befell the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ animated bassist during the period.

The Los Angeles band had finally made its commercial breakthrough with the

3.5-million-selling 1991 album “Blood Sugar Sex Magik,” but after two years on the road, the Peppers’ principals were in no position to enjoy it--especially Flea, who collapsed under the accumulated strain of years of touring, recreational drug use and generally manic metabolism.

The ordeal contributed to the long gap between “Blood” and the new “One Hot Minute” album, which comes out Tuesday ( see review, Page 86 ). It also colored the music with a dark, introspective tone--a radical change for a band known for its frantic antics and driving mix of funk and punk.

As the band--Flea, singer Anthony Kiedis, drummer Chad Smith and new guitarist Dave Navarro, formerly of Jane’s Addiction--gears up for its return, Flea feels renewed, having turned to meditation and self-discipline to reverse his fortunes.

Sitting in his kitchen recently, the musician, who was born Michael Balzary in Australia 32 years ago, reflected on bottoming out and on the Chili Peppers’ new direction.

Question: What happened to you after the last album? Why has it been four years until another record?

Answer: After we made the last record, we toured for about two years, and after we got off the tour I completely crashed, like spiritually, emotionally, physically. I got really really sick, I got bitter, distrustful, lonely. They said I had chronic fatigue, whatever. I was just depleted. I went through a lot of freaking out on the tour. I had gotten divorced from my wife, I was lonely, the band was not getting along well, things were just taking their toll.

It’s strange--we won a Grammy, all of a sudden we’re big stars, we finally had a hit record after 10 years of touring our asses off and working like crazy, and I’m miserabler than I’ve ever been in my life. It’s kind of a lesson that those material things that you chase after really mean nothing. I feel lucky now to have gone through that time. Because if I wouldn’t have hit bottom I wouldn’t have learned a lot of things about myself.

*

Q: What kind of effect did all that have on the new album?

A: I think if we hadn’t taken the time to work out our problems and to deal with what we had to deal with, we wouldn’t have been able to write the music and play the stuff that we did. This record is definitely the first record we’ve ever made that comes from more interior things than exterior things. It’s more reflective, more looking inward and confronting and dealing with personal issues, fears and insecurities and pain and stuff like that.

*

Q: What will people think of a darker Chili Peppers?

A: I don’t know what people will think. I think any artist in any kind of art, as soon as they start thinking about what other people are gonna think about their art, they’re finished. I think you have to embrace what you love and go for it and be honest and just try to express what you’re going through.

*

Q: Do you think the Chili Peppers are finally being taken seriously, or are they still seen as a novelty, a cartoon band?

A: I think there’s definitely a misperception about those wacky zany guys. . . . I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being wacky or zany. I’ve always thought we’ve had a good, soulful time doing that. As far as what people think of what we do, there’s no controlling that.

I think a lot of times people don’t look past the first glance of the band. We’ve done a lot of heartfelt things over the years that were very close to us. But it’s never been paid attention to by the media. It’s hard to know what the media’s gonna think. I think the media in general likes people that are miserable. It’s much more dramatic.

Like if Louis Armstrong was around today, one of the greatest musicians ever, playing this uplifting, beautiful music, it wouldn’t be press-worthy, because he was playing happy music. It was for people to have a good time to listen to. But he could imply more in one note than 10,000 angst-ridden guys could imply in their lives.

*

Q: Speaking of angst, why do you think that Nirvana and the bands that followed have been embraced by the alternative-rock generation?

A: I’m sure that kids are growing up with a rougher lot in America these days, and the music reflects that. Kids have less opportunity, it’s harder to make out and be a free, happy person. It’s harder to get to that place everybody wants to get to.

Any great artist from any generation is a vehicle for what’s going on around him--that’s what makes him great. And we’re going through hard times, especially in the city. I mean look at this city. It’s just becoming more crowded, more dirty, more crime, more fear, more hostility. It’s a hostile, scarier time in the world. I grew up in Hollywood, I grew up in the city, and when I was a kid I walked around in the city, I walked wherever I wanted. I’m a father now. I wouldn’t let my daughter out of my sight for a second in this town.

*

Q: Are the Chili Peppers’ goals the same? You’ve always stood for liberation, freedom from inhibition and convention.

A: Isn’t all rock music about that? Definitely for us it is. That’s definitely our thing. To inspire people to be free and not be tied down to any social convention, not to live by a program.

*

Q: Do you think the new album is more mature?

A: People have been saying that. I don’t know. I feel like we’re growing, but to me it’s like we’re growing and becoming babies again. That’s what it’s all about.

*

Q: What do you mean?

A: I think that people are born whole and as they start getting older their spiritual self and their physical self become separated because they get hurt or they become interested in things that aren’t important. Material things, power, fame, things like that. And I think it’s a courageous person that can get whole again like they were when they were a baby. That’s the trick in life, I guess.

*

Q: Why do you think the Chili Peppers’ last album sold so much more than the others?

A: For one thing, [producer] Rick Rubin helped us a lot. He’s the first producer who didn’t try to change what we did. It was the first time we captured the natural energy of the band on the record. It was also the first time we had the same lineup for two records in a row.

Obviously we sold a lot of records because “Under the Bridge” was a huge hit song. It was expressing a really honest, sincere, lonely feeling. Anthony really captured a feeling of being a lonely person in Los Angeles, and this is such a big city with so many people, I think a lot of people could relate to it. Especially the time that the riots happened. It was about being in Los Angeles and feeling totally alienated. I think a lot of people felt that way when the riots happened. I don’t know--it just hit a nerve. It was an honest, sincere song.

*

Q: You started in punk-rock bands. What do you think of the current punk revival?

A: For me, what punk rock meant in 1978 was this new, innovative music that was spitting in the face of corporate rock music. The music that is considered punk rock today is doing something that was already done 15 years ago note for note exactly, and that’s not punk rock.

That’s not to say that I don’t like some of the bands. Some of them are OK at doing something that was done 15 years ago, and some of them are terrible. But it’s not punk rock to me. Punk rock is something new and exciting and ferocious and innovating, thinking for yourself and doing your own thing.

When punk rock happened it was a movement as great as the Surrealists or the Beat poets. It meant something. It was a serious thing happening in popular culture. And today this is not a serious thing. This is not a movement. Nothing’s happening. Not to say there’s not some good music going on.

*

Q: How does your band fit into all this?

A: I don’t know. We do what we do. The Red Hot Chili Peppers have never been a part of any particular clique of bands or any movement. We just do our thing, and we try to be as honest as we can. We’re trying to learn to be more honest, to find more creative means of expressing ourselves.