Foo Fighters: surviving thenprospering

Mon 17th Sep, 2007 in Features

After six albums, Foo Fighters know what they’re doing, and are comfortable doing it. In the wake of releasing the double-album In Your Honour – split between a – œrock’ and an – œacoustic’ release – the band toured the world in both guises, alternately rocking out one ear then coming back to swoon with them the next.

But for new album Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace, the band elected to combine their love of the loud and the quiet, and elected to return to the studio with Gang of Four alumni Gil Norton, who worked on the band’s second album The Colour and the Shape. That release itself was really the first Foo Fighters record, with the eponymous debut being more akin to a Dave Grohl solo album in that he recorded nearly every part on it himself in a converted basement.

“It’s really where we found our sound as a band,” bassist Nate Mendel says of the recently re-released The Colour and the Shape, which is now available with a slew of bonus tracks. “We thought it would be nice to go back, remaster it, put some liner notes explaining what was going on at the time, and put some extra songs on there that we were feeling at the time didn’t fit on there, but we want people to hear now.”

Electing to reteam with Norton was an easy one – where the last several Foo Fighters releases were produced alongside buddies and pals, for the follow-up to the double-album In Your Honour the band wanted someone who could push them, challenge them, and really make sure that every moment was precious and never wasted.

“For this record for what we were trying to do we thought it would be good to get Gil in there,” he says, “because he’s really good at helping figure out what a song is, how far you can take it, and get him to shepherd us through it.”

As such, a lot of thought and care has gone into the making of Echoes… but Nate believes that each Foo Fighters album has always been a considered affair. “We don’t leave too much to chance on them,” he says of each finished document, but he does agree that a lot of extracurricular work when into the making of the Foos’ sixth effort. “We did a lot of pre-production on this record,” he confirms, “which we don’t always do. A lot of times we’ll go in, record it, think we have it, and then have to redo it and it turns out the first recording we did was a demo.

“Not so this time,” he says. “We went through the songs with a fine-tooth comb, with Gil off in the corner with his notebook, and then we played the song a million times – two beats a minute faster, three beats a minute slower – and tried everything. We knew when we went in to record [each song] that we’d tried everything and we knew that the song that we were about to put down on tape was the – œright’ version of each song.”

After initially thinking that they would time some time off to rest and recuperate following three years of touring on the back of In Your Honour, Foo Fighters instead headed straight back into the process of making another album. “We were firing so well, and the band was functioning so well, and it was a really exciting time because we had a brand new studio,” he says of the initial impetus to begin working on yet another batch of tunes. “We went back in and made this record.”

While In Your Honour split the two sides of the band directly down the middle, separating the rock from the more contemplative and acoustic nature that has been at the forefront of songs such as Big Me, returning to recording a cohesive album that combined both aural pursuits allowed Foo Fighters to reconnect with themselves. “It was nice to go in and make a focussed record,” he confirms, “and to not have to worry about spreading the dynamic.

“It was a fun experiment to do,” he says of splitting In Your Honour, “but it WAS an experiment, and sort of a novelty. We were able to push things all the way to one side, so it was nice to go in and say – œlet’s see what happens’. We recorded some songs, picked the best ones, and didn’t have to worry about where they fall dynamically.”

After making double-albums, many bands struggle to get back into the songwriting swing of things, with the creative juices often drying up as a result of the expenditure required to complete two albums (for the price of one). “The songwriting process itself wasn’t too different,” Nate says, neatly debunking the myth that a band runs out of things to say. “What was different this time around was when we actually began to record. In the past, there were a lot of things that were off-limits, and Dave as a songwriter has always [previously] placed an emphasis on keeping things simple, and economy – - œlet’s not throw synthesizers on this song but make it really direct and simple’.

“But this time around,” he continues, “after having gone through the acoustic tour with a load of different people on stage we’d got used to the idea of there being other musicians playing on the album and different instruments, and it was open – there was no idea that was off-limits. There were bag-pipes in the studio, and it was that kind of recording process.”

The sole surviving member of the band’s initial incarnation – alongside fellow SDRE member William Goldsmith on drums, and Nirvana rhythm guitarist Pat Smear – Mendel has watched Dave Grohl grow in confidence both as a person and as a songwriter throughout the last decade, and he can’t believe what he has become.

“When we started out he wasn’t insecure but he’d just started being a frontman and was working out how to be the centre of attention,” he says of the early days of Dave being front and centre. “He’d come from behind the drums and that’s a whole different thing and all of a sudden he was the leader, the songwriter, so he had to figure all this stuff out as he went along. He’s gotten a good handle on it, and it sounds strange to say but I’m proud of him – it hasn’t been easy, and he’s done a great job.”

Foo Fighters’ Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace is out now.