This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2006, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.

When a band has been around for 23 years, toured the globe multiple times, cycled through numerous drummers and guitarists due to death and defection, and dominated the popular-music landscape for a spell, it's hard to think of any new ground to cover.

The Red Hot Chili Peppers, though, managed to come up with a couple of firsts in 2006. "Stadium Arcadium," a sprawling new set of 28 songs, is the band's first double album. In its first week of release in early May, "Stadium" became the Chili Peppers' first album to reach No. 1 on Billboard's album-sales chart.

In an interview from his Los Angeles home, drummer Chad Smith said the band wasn't exactly "shocked" to debut in a spot no previous album ever reached, even massive past albums such as1991's "BloodSugarSexMagik" and 1999's "comeback," "Californication."

"It wasn't a shock, but it's always a pleasant surprise," Smith said of the album's chart success. "You never know. You work so hard on this music, and you're just so focused on writing the songs and playing them and recording them and mixing them; everything that goes into making an album takes about a year. And finally, you're like 'OK, it's finished. Here you go.'

"Now this little, private thing that we've had this long time with us is all of the sudden released on the world. It's kind of scary, but we were excited about it. We worked really hard and this is some of the best music we've ever done."

The 28 songs filling "Stadium Arcadium" incorporate every genre the Chili Peppers have ever dabbled in, from the hard funk-rock that is the band's calling card to delicate Beatlesque balladry, from straightforward power-pop to wild excursions into electrified psychedelia. The band -- Smith, singer Anthony Kiedis, bassist Flea and guitarist John Frusciante -- ended up finishing 38 new songs total; the 10 left off the album will be used as B-sides on singles such as the album's first hit, "Dani California."

The Chili Peppers recorded the album in the same Laurel Canyon house where they made "BloodSugar" with über-producer Rick Rubin 15 years ago, a setting that clearly works for the band and the songs. When the band moved into the house in 1991, it was the first modern group to use the space as a recording studio. Rubin bought the place after that experience and has run a lot of groups through since, though none as successfully as the Chili Peppers.

"It's changed in 15 years," Smith said of the house immortalized in the band's "Funky Monks" home video. "A lot of bands have been in there. It's kind of like an old girlfriend. She's kind of torn up now, been with a lot of different guys, been around the block. But she's nice and friendly and good to see, and you fall right back into it."

Whatever mojo the band and Rubin have working in Laurel Canyon, it's served the band well; their original intention when approaching recording was to write and record 13 songs. But when they started working, the songs just flowed; hence, a double album split into "Jupiter" and "Mars" sides.

Smith describes the sessions that led to "Stadium Arcadium" as "hitting a real creative stride and you're just feeling it, and it's all coming really easy, and a lot of it."

"We've always been the kind of band to put [out] the kind of music we're making at that time," Smith said. "We don't write songs on the road. We take time off, we get together and get in a room and we write for however long. We record the songs and put them out and that's who we are at that time as people and as a band and as songwriters."

At this moment, they are four guys at or approaching middle age, all in long-term relationships or married, and Smith and Flea both have children who will be traveling on tour with the band.

The "Stadium Arcadium" tour, stopping in Salt Lake City Wednesday, probably won't be the hedonistic joyride of past Chili Peppers excursions, but like "Stadium Arcadium" itself, the trip will no doubt be a true reflection of who the Red Hot Chili Peppers are in 2006.

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Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Delta Center

The Red Hot Chili Peppers, with The Mars Volta opening, play Salt Lake City's Delta Center Wednesday at 7:30 p.m. Tickets are $51.75, available at all Ticketmaster outlets and the venue.

Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith recommends these double albums: "London Calling, " The Clash "Exile on Main Street," The Rolling Stones "Sandinista!," The Clash ("That one's actually a triple.") "The Beatles" (aka "The White Album"), The Beatles "Physical Graffiti," Led Zeppelin.