Dave Grohl says Foo Fighters still make music “like a band that plays in a f**king garage”
They may be one of the biggest rock bands in the worlds, but Foo Fighters still operate and make music “like a band that plays in a fucking garage”, according to Dave Grohl.
Speaking to Radio X’s John Kennedy about the band’s latest album Your Favorite Toy, the frontman explains that despite decades of success, the group’s creative process hasn’t strayed far from their roots.
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“The way we function as a band… I know that all of this is much different than it was when we were young and playing in bands in a garage, but we still function like a band that plays in a fucking garage,” he says. “It’s the same thing! It’s like, ‘Hey, I’ve got a riff,’ and we show it to everybody.”
“Maybe people would imagine that we’re a lot more professional than we actually are,” Grohl adds, “but really the way that we function… it’s really similar to [Dave’s previous punk band] Scream.”
Describing Your Favorite Toy as a good example of how this works, Grohl says he typically brings in rough guitar parts and lets the track evolve organically with the rest of the band.
“Usually I’ll put down a rhythm guitar and then maybe a sort of melodic bit above that, almost for reference,” he explains. “Like, I’ll double the rhythm guitar, and then I’ll have some sort of melodic line that goes above it. But the funny thing is that nobody knows what I’m going to sing until I sing it.”
“So, I don’t go to the band and say, ‘Hey guys, listen to this song idea.’ I don’t do that. We record the instrumental and nobody’s really sure what the vocal melody is going to be. And there have been times where everyone lays down their tracks, and then I’ll be inspired by what they do, and change the vocal melody from things that they’ve done. So it’s always kind of a bit of a mystery.”
Asked how the band manages to balance its three-guitarist lineup, Grohl says, “As far as guitarists in the band… I’m sort of like a rhythm guitar player. Chris [Shiflett] is very much a lead guitar player and Pat [Smear]… Most bands, like the guitar players have a pedal that they step on for distortion. We just have Pat.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Grohl also shared a behind-the-scenes detail about the band’s latest album title. He originally wanted to call it For Good, inspired by a lyric in Your Favorite Toy – until another release threw a wrench in his plans.
“I wanted to call the record For Good, because that song, Your Favorite Toy, at first I called it For Good. In that song, Your Favorite Toy, it says, ‘Get back, hear that boy, someone threw away your favorite toy for good.’”
“And I was like, ‘Oh, that’s a good not only title for the song, but also for the album.’ They could have more than a few meanings, but I’m like, ‘That’s kind of nice – For Good.’ And then that Wicked movie came out, and it’s called Wicked: For Good. And I was so pissed! So, then I changed the title of the song, and then it just became the title of the album.”
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Source: www.guitar-bass.net
