Meanwhile, Hillel Slovak and Jack Irons were still members of What Is This?; Slovak in particular was not initially ready to cast his lot with Red Hot Chili Peppers. What Is This? was signed with MCA Records at about the same time that Red Hot Chili Peppers was jointly signed by EMI America Records and Enigma Records. The debut EP by What Is This?, Squeezed was released in 1984, with Chris Hutchinson playing bass; after that, Hillel Slovak went back to Red Hot Chili Peppers and played on their next two albums.
While What Is This? was working on their album, Alain Johannes met Natasha Shneider, and they immediately clicked musically. She joined What Is This? shortly thereafter. They then formed a duo called Walk the Moon – not the same band as the Cincinnati-based band Walk the Moon that formed in 2006 – and had other musical sounds besides rock on their album, Walk the Moon (1987). Jack Irons and Chris Hutchinson evidently played on several of the tracks, but on many, they used drum machines.
(April 2015/1)
