We haven’t heard from the Foo Fighters since your two Wembley Stadium shows in 2008. What have you been up to?
Dave Grohl: The last album [Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace] was such an experience for this band because we finally got to the place where we were playing stadiums and headlining festivals all over the world. There was a demand for the band that we’d never seen before and truly never expected. When we played those gigs at Wembley, as we said goodnight, I looked out and I thought, “I can’t imagine that it can get any bigger or better than this.” So I felt like it was time to step away from it. Not necessarily retreat, but just to back away. Because something that good, you don’t want it to burn out.
You’re recording the new Foo Fighters album with Nevermind producer Butch Vig…
Y’know, going back to make an album with a producer you’ve worked with before is not unlike going back and fucking a girlfriend you had 20 years ago. It can either be really good or a total fucking disaster. But it was perfectly natural and totally comfortable and he’s the same person he was 20 years ago. He wears cologne now. I think that’s the only difference.
Instead of recording at your 606 Studio in Los Angeles, you’re making this record in your garage…
I’ll tell you exactly what it was. In my hotel room in Perth, Australia, on a Them Crooked Vultures tour, it all came to me. I was sitting writing a new song and I thought, “OK, we should make a documentary about the recording of this new album and make it a history of the band too. Rather than just record the album in the most expensive studio with the most state-of-the-art equipment, what if Butch and I were to get back together after 20 years and dust off the tape machines and put them in my garage?” I literally backed the minivan out of the garage, pulled the lawnmower out, put a drum set in it and set up mics. We soundproofed the garage door so that my neighbours wouldn’t call the fucking cops.
Krist Novoselic plays bass and accordion on one track. How much contact have the pair of you had since the end of Nirvana?
We’ve always been in touch. One of the things about the expanded Nirvana family, it doesn’t matter how much time has passed, when you see each other you’re immediately connected by that, by the good and bad things. When I see Krist, I hug him to celebrate our lives, but I also hug him to console him, y’know. There’s a song called I Should Have Known that I thought would sound great with his bass-playing and accordion-playing. It’s probably the darkest song on the album.
You’ve talked this record up as the heaviest-sounding Foo Fighters album yet…
It is. There’s a song called A Matter Of Time, which is one of the sweetest melodies I’ve ever written, but it has one of the heaviest riffs. Then there’s a song called White Limo, which has such a badass riff it’s fucking insane. It makes you want to break into someone’s car and steal their stereo. There’s a song called These Days, which I think might be the best song I’ve ever written. Also, we had Bob Mould from Husker Du come down and sing on a song with me called Dear Rosemary. It sounds like Bob and I wrote a song for Husker Du 20 years ago and the Foo Fighters are covering it.
So will the documentary go on cinematic release?
Yeah. Originally when I thought about making a documentary, I didn’t flatter myself so much to think, “Oh yeah, people will be flocking to the theatres to see this one.” I just thought it would be cool to capture the story and then it kind of snowballed. We’ve never done a lot of filming when it comes to making Foo Fighters records and this time I’ve had a camera in my face changing diapers at fucking six o’clock in the morning.
You’re playing two huge outdoor gigs at Milton Keynes Bowl in July 2011. That aside, what are your other plans for next year?
Everybody’s batteries are so recharged we’re just gonna come out with our wheels fucking whirring. We’re gonna do as much as we can. We miss it. I miss being the singer in the Foo Fighters. I miss standing at the lip of a stage looking at thousands of people sing along to The Pretender or Best Of You or Everlong or whatever. You know what I’m looking forward to in 2011? Longer shows. I want to play for three fucking hours. I want to take that shit down…
ALBUM TITLE: TBC
RECORDED: DAVE GROHL’S GARAGE. LA
PRODUCER: BUTCH VIG
SONGS: WHITE LIMO, I SHOULD HAVE KNOWN, A MATTER OF TIME, THESE DAYS, DEAR ROSEMARY, MISS THE MISERY, BRIDGE BURNING ORLANDRIA.
ETA: SPRING 2011
http://www.fooarchive.com/features/qnov10.htm
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