Split Personality
Revolver 2005
Foo Fighters get ready to deliver not one but two new records
Dave Grohl & the rest of the Foo Fighters are holed up inside an old gutted warehouse in the LA suburb of Northridge. They've converted the building into a state-of-the-art recording studio and are in the process of completing the latest release. Make that releases. Because after 10 years and four albums, the Foos are ready to tackle that tried and true watermark of rock-and-roll success, the double album.
"It just makes sense to do something we've never done before," says Grohl. "We thought we'd take advantage of the studio, take advantage of all the music we've written in the last year."
While more pompous acts might look at the double album's 156 available minutes as an opportunity for musical excess, Grohl and Co, ever the down-to-earth bunch of guys, have instead decided to use their two records to explore the different
sides of the band's musical coin. The first disc
will feature all acoustic music, while the second will celebrate the band's heavier capabilities. "I either like things really heavy and really
obnoxiously loud, or I like things that are quiet
and gentle and beautiful," says Grohl. "Usually
our records are a combination of both types.
This time I thought, rather than try to make an
album with songs that are fucking screaming
hardcore loud and songs that are acoustic
ballads, rather than try and sequence those
songs together, why not just make two CDs?"
Although Foo Fighters have recorded their
last three albums in their own space,
this is the first time they've built the studio
from the ground up.
This has provided them
with an opportunity to
do things exactly the
way they want without
running up an astronomical bill. "There's no clock on the wall,"
says Grohl. "You don't feel like there's an open
tab just running wild. This took a lot of pressure off the band."
Even though Foo Fighters had all the time
in the world to work in the studio - from a
financial point of view, anyway - they nonetheless decided to have all their material written
before going in to record. "It helps me to
know what the album will sound like," says
Grohl. Writing ahead of time has an added
benefit, he says. "We usually write during the
recording sessions. Sometimes you walk into
the studio and you throw down an idea that's
spontaneous and new and fresh and exciting.
But then you wind up a year later playing it
live and you've elaborated on it, you've made
it better. So we've done that already in the six
months we've had to work on these songs
before recording them."
"This is all sort of new ground for us,"
continues Grohl. "With all of our records, from
the first to the last, we've made music that
opens doors to different types of songs.
I'm really looking forward to seeing where
this goes."
Words: Rachel Clark Pics: Lisa Johnson
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