 |
| |
|
| |
Interview
by A. N. Erasurehead
15-11-2002
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 |
| Foo Fighters bus to widescreen gigs |
|
The Foo stream…
Foo Fighters come to rock arenas
Let’s recap: Foo Fighters’ album No. 4, ‘One By One’, had a difficult time materializing and the band had to record it twice. Between these two creative events, the singer/guitarist/figurehead, Dave Grohl embarked on a temporary association with Queens Of The Stone Age; he recorded all-but-one track and drummed on the ‘Songs For The Deaf’ tour of Europe. (He also drummed on Cat Power album ‘You Are Free’, due out on 17 February.)
The band’s situation wasn’t helped by a stormy cloud of impending court battle over the Nirvana legacy with widow Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love, in one corner and former Nirvana colleagues, Grohl and bassist Krist Novoselic, in the other. It appeared that it would never end but Love changed her mind suddenly and ‘Greatest Hits’ compilation (with the never-released ‘You Know You’re Right’ included) entitled ‘Nirvana’ appeared, unfortunately, one week after the Foo’s disc.
The band already played festivals this summer, including Carling Weekend at Reading and Leeds and is now embarking on the maiden arena tour. Herewith is Grohl’s stream of consciousness on a number of topics while Marlboros were regularly ignited with a relish of an American smoker who’s denied the indoor pleasure back home.
“This is definitely my favourite album the band’s ever made just because it is true to each individual member: Taylor (Hawkins) is just so far beyond anything he’s ever done on any albums, he’s come into his own and he is an amazing rock drummer; Nate (Mandell) has found his place as the bass player of this band who has incredible sense for melody and is a true individual who comes up with bass lines that make songs something really special; Chris (Shiflett) is the best guitarist we’ve ever had in the band. He’s been with us, to me like forever, but it’s 3 ½ years only… He has such strong sense of melody…
The cool thing about the band is that everybody compliments the others and understands how to compliment whatever else the others do. But, it is our best album because it has the same feel as my other favourite records, it has the same things: a) it sounds like us, b) that’s how I always wanted us to sound like, c) it is just us.“
Stealthy plectrum
“I think this is the most personal album I’ve ever written; I think there are a lot of things that I always wanted to say but might have been afraid to say them. Perhaps I didn’t say it for the sake of a listener, kept a lot of things to myself, just because I thought nobody would want to know that! This time, the music lent itself to a different feeling that conjures up things that seem to break down insecurities. Suddenly I felt like I had a vehicle to say something that I never had to say before but finally I have a reason to say it. Music is also more aggressive than anything else we’ve ever done!
Most of the album, most of the lyrics on the album, takes you through a tortured beginning of a love affair and I think it is a dark, romantic vibe the album has. It is about, you know, rough sex, and living in the moment, the right now and you reputation and done-and-the-next one… I felt that singing about it, it would clear all these dark sides.
I think it is important to keep moving in life, and grow, you know, becoming a better, bigger person, or whatever. Some people do that by having children, some people do that by painting, for me I have this thing I can do. It can be seen like postcards, or snapshots from the past, and 20 years from now I can look back and think – ‘Wow, that’s where my head was at the time!?’ And that’s where records take you, through life; as much as listening to albums reminds you of times in your life and help you through things, making of an album can do the same, let you grow…”
Divine blueprint (of Nirvana)
“I think it is natural, I mean, just like a lot of bands of the 1980s were influenced by bands in the ’70 that were influenced by bands in the ‘60s… Just kind of makes sense, you know… There is bandwagons and then there is sort of a subtle influence… Maybe, rather than just taking from someone, taking from where they left off. It seems like there’s the difference but also to me, there is really – blatant influence. And then there’s others that just kind of make sense in a tasteful way… The blatant influences are easy to spot.
It’s weird because when we were 12 and 13 years we were listening to, I don’t know, Aerosmith or Devo, Bad Brains, or Queen, or whatever. Now, a lot of kids don’t have mom’n’pop record stores to go in and discover new music (to them)… They walk into a Virgin Megastore and buy things up on the first rack they see or by watching MTV or listening to mainstream radio stations… Rather that listening to college radio they are listening to the bigger, commercial rock stations… It’s almost like you can’t blame the kids for being so influenced by what was going on ten years ago.
And it is now that those influences are coming around; you gotta kid who is 23 years old now, in 1991 he was f**king 14 (wrong maths? more like a 12-year-old) and he was just learning to get into rock music. And, if he didn’t have older brother with a huge record collection to sort of discover s**t like that, but relied on the more conventional music to listen to… So, imagine what the guys from Led Zeppelin thought when they heard Whitesnake for the f**king first time!? Jesus Christ!
But, yeah, a lot of music suck s**t, you know. A lot of music is horrible, a lot of people are so incredibly uncreative and plagiaristic that they are basically there to feel the void and serve a purpose, which is to make money and make videos, and, you know…
Every album makes you feel like you’ve achieved something, you gain confidence and you look forward to going on stage and sharing new song with people, as well as doing the old ones better than we ever had. It is exciting, still exciting and I can do it tonight and any night… Which makes you feel as confident as an old guy.”
It’s getting curiouser and curio user…
Tour dates:
16 November – Evening News Arena, Manchester
17 November – Telewest Arena, Newcastle
19 November – NEC, Birmingham
20 November – CIA, Cardiff
22 & 23 November – Wembley Arena, London
25 November – SECC, Glasgow
A. N. Erasurehead
15-11-2002
Foo Fighters album ‘One By One’ is available now of Roswell/BMG
|
|
|
