One is the king of stadium funk-rock, the other is the Mod master of blue-eyed soul, but Chad Smith and Steve White have been friends – as well as fans of each other’s playing – for years.

“We met at a drum show in 1999 when we were both presented with awards by Rhythm, presented by Kenney Jones,” says Steve. “Louise King [then Rhythm editor] had suggested we play together so we had a little run-through and then went and did it. I think Brian May joined us on guitar!”

In 2000 the two drummers joined forces for With Attitude, a clinic tour that broke attendance records around the UK. Eight years later, the sequel produced another sold-out run and now they meet again in a posh West London hotel to catch up, swap news about friends and family, and to talk about the Red Hot Chili Peppers’ new album.

The Getaway is the Peppers’ 11th studio album and their first record since Mother’s Milk in 1989 without producer Rick Rubin. Over breakfast – Steve has a bacon butty and tea, Chad the full English and coffee – they get stuck in, discussing influences, Elton John, and surviving a life in music.

We’re like, ‘We don’t know about this. We’re the Chili Peppers! We play live! That’s our thing!’

Steve: “I love the new record, I had it pumped up the other day, the kids were dancing about to it. Quite a departure for the 11th studio album. The change of producer from Rick Rubin to Brian Burton, was that something that you really felt, as a band, needed to happen, or was it circumstance? Because Flea had an accident, didn’t he? Quite a bad break in his arm, which is not good for a bass player.”

Chad: “We love Rick Rubin obviously, he’s an amazing producer and a great friend of ours, we’ve had great success with him but we really felt it was time to switch things. We felt we were in danger of going down the route of making another rock album, everybody on the floor cutting the songs and Rick’s going to do his thing but it was time for a change.

“We knew Brian Burton, we’d toured with him, he was in Gnarls Barkley among other things. He came down and heard some of our songs. This was before Flea broke his arm. We’d written our songs the normal way, we get in a room, bang out ideas. Flea breaks his arm snowboarding with Lars [Ulrich]. He broke it bad, his hand was numb, it was a really hard, emotional, spiritually challenging time for Flea and it took him six months to properly heal.

“During that time Brian was like, ‘I like the songs you guys have got but if you really want to get what I do and use my talent or forte, let’s go into my studio and we’ll just start cutting songs from scratch.’ We’re like, ‘What? What do you mean, start from scratch?’ He’s like, ‘Come in, Chad, you and me will work on some drum beats and we’ll layer stuff. Then Flea will come in and Josh will come in.’ He’s got a hip-hop background and that’s how that stuff is done, this is just a more organic way, obviously live drumming.

“We’re like, ‘We don’t know about this. We’re the Chili Peppers! We play live! That’s our thing!’ But because it was time for a change and to do something new, okay, let’s give it a shot. And that’s really what we did. We probably cut nine new things that way and right off the bat it was working. We’d sit down and listen to music and talk about stuff together and listen to old psychedelic, weird music, he’s got quite an interesting taste in music. We’d come up with music that inspired us, then I’m going to go in and play something in that vibe, not try to copy it...”

Steve: “Just take some influence.”

Chad: “Exactly. But I’m in there playing drums by myself in the studio.”