Foo Fighter Dave Grohl knows his band can do whatever it likes
September 20
DAVE Grohl is hungover. Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel is a little less so, having missed the early-morning shots session at their Sydney hotel.
Their suffering is compounded by the fact that the two are in Sydney for only two nights in the middle of a whirlwind international chatfest to alert the masses to their sixth album, Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace.
But spirits are buoyed as snatches of the album -- turned up to 11 by enthusiastic media in a nearby room -- reach the bar.
"Come Alive? You love that one? The thing with this record is everyone has a different favourite song because it has so many different directions and I'm proud of that, I'm real proud of that," Grohl says.
Foo Fighters have been on a roll since their 2005 double album In Your Honor, and Echoes seems destined to increase the momentum.
But you wonder how much bigger they can get, having stolen the Live Earth show at Wembley Stadium and being guaranteed mega-crowds every time they tour Europe, Australia and America.
Having 80,000 people screaming their words must have given Grohl, Mendel, guitarist Chris Shiflett and drummer Taylor Hawkins licence to do whatever they wanted on Echoes.
"You stand back and add everything up and you probably get forced into that (thinking)," Grohl says.
"You can stand at the lip of the stage and stare out at all those people and feel, 'God, this is amazing'.
"But then you turn around and see the other three guys and I don't feel like Kiss or U2 or whatever.
"It still feels like we're in Taylor's basement or something."
It was last year's limited acoustic tour, featuring a three-night stand at the Sydney Opera House, that informed the new album.
Despite millions of album and ticket sales, Grohl says the success and enjoyment of that tour validated the Foos' broader vision.
Buoyed by those creative juices, they hit the studio with producer Gil Norton, who had led their second album, The Colour and the Shape.
"Just goin' out with the extended band and hearing this potential made me realise we could do something more than the four-piece rock band s---. That was something we needed, to survive," Grohl says.
"You know what? There's a lot more confidence in the band now, so when we walk into a studio we're not afraid that we can't write a song.
"Having knocked down a lot of the boundaries that were around us before, it's like anything goes now.
"We can throw in a string quartet. I can sit down at a piano and play. We can build songs in bizarre time signatures with four-part harmonies.
"I don't feel we're the greatest band in the world, but when we go in and do an album, that's what I'm trying to be."
It was thought that the Foos would take the requisite post-tour hiatus this year, but melodies kept coming as the frontman sat strumming his acoustic guitar on his couch.
Grohl brought dozens of ideas to the band to be fleshed into songs for Echoes, many of them pieces he had previously dismissed as not being of the Foos mould.
"Maybe some people will take a break for the sake of their career, or to regain their life outside of what they do," Mendel says.
"Dave doesn't have too tough of a time coming up with ideas. Thankfully, we don't need to take that much time off."
Grohl knew he wanted a bigger musical vision, but he is hard-pressed to cite any uniting lyrical theme on the new album.
The birth of Violet Maye, his first child with wife Jordyn, American politics, the Beaconsfield mine tragedy and the vicissitudes of touring life all make an appearance.
"I wrote the songs in a short period when we were doing demos. This was the first time I've tried to complete all the vocals and the
lyrics before going in to record," Grohl says.
"I went in for about two weeks and sat in a room by myself and wrote.
"So the album is where my head was at in those two weeks. And I've had a baby, I've been in a band for 13 years, I live in Los Angeles . . . everything about my life made its way into the lyrics.
"I'm sick of writing puzzles. That was fun for a while, but now I will write something blatantly literal.
I don't want to skate around it."
With everything from the blistering rock assault of single The Pretender to the Ben Folds-esque piano tune Statues on the album, it does indeed seem the Foos can do whatever they want musically.
Well, almost. A dance record?
"I don't know about that, not so sure about that one," Grohl says.
Mendel adds: "Some doors are gonna remain closed."
What about hip hop?
"Yep, that's one of the doors," Grohl says, laughing.
Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace (Sony BMG) out Saturday.
Thanks to www.news.com.au
