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Foo Fighters Listening BBQ -new studio visit report-

(Report and Interview by Izumi Kurihara)

The new album, In Your Honor, will be finished shortly. As officially announced, it will be a double album. One is the Rock and one is the Acoustic. Foo Fighters has been confirmed at Fuji Rock Festival in the end of July and everyone's heart is filled with anticipations for the new album to be released in June. Under such circumstances, I dared to visit their new studio in LA to attend the listening session. It was for the Directors and Managements of the record label BMG from several countries such as Brazil, Mexico, UK, Germany, Australia, Canada, Japan and so on. I was the only journalist and I thought it was really a special occasion for me.

In the afternoon on March 21st, when I was arrived at LA, there had been a big conference by BMG people since early morning. After it was finished, we headed for the studio by the large-sized sightseeing bus. I would say, I didn't have any idea how huge that session would be until I saw that big bus... It was about an hour drive from Hollywood Sunset Boulevard up north to where the Foos new studio located. There was nothing, the outlook of the studio was simply a huge warehouse, it was totally a deserted-looking town. I felt uncertain, but soon Dave Grohl came out and welcomed us then we finally got to know that was actually their own studio!

First we had some welcome drinks at a huge parking lot. Taylar Hawkins, Drummer for the band, started to show off his new Ford Mustang. Dave was going around and greeting the guests, and the other members did the same. Soon there were small groups talking each other. While I was hanging around doing nothing, I was introduced to Dave's mom, Dave's wife Jordyn, and Bass tech Jeff who gave a big contribution to building the studio. After about an hour of drinking, we moved into the studio and had a short tour. The first thing that caught my eye were the all of the platinum discs displayed all over the wall. They are not only Foo's but Nirvana's. I'm really impressed with the fact that they have tons of the platinum and gold discs from all over the world. There are many kinds of facilities and things -the office room, a ping-pong table and the pin-ball machine featured the Addams Family. I reckon that the studio was built to be able to 'live' there. The second floor looks totally like a house. There is a kitchen, a dining table, a big plasma TV and tons of the DVD collections beneath it. There is a bathroom and the washing machine. Now you see that the band and their staff can 'live' there anytime without any problem. Awesome indeed. I could not believe at all that it was only 4 months to build up the perfect studio like this. But I got to understand when I heard it was due entirely to FOO's staff who continued the work even after the recording session had stopped. They gave the finishing touches little by little after the band went home. They made their best effort to meet the band's request and make the space comfortable as much as possible. They, the band and the staff, know each other very well just like family, and such relationship made it come true.

Well, I know you've been waiting... let's move on to the listening session. We were called into the place from where all the recording equipment were taken away. There was a 'Menu' titled "Foo Fighters Listening BBQ" on each chair. Well, BBQ...? Okay, sounds nice. I opened it and found 9 song titles there. 6 from Rock side and 3 from Acoustic. Dave started with the greetings to visitors. It was the first opportunity for FOO to meet the people from Sony BMG(Sony and BMG have merged, except for in Japan). He expressed their appreciation to the Sony attendees, as well as to the BMG attendees with whom FOO has been working for a long time now. After the greetings, Dave started to explain the album concept...

"I wanted to do something special as it's been 10years since Foo Fighters was born. Thus we did build a new studio for our own, and we're making a double album. Well, in fact, we'd had some plot about a rock album in mind at the beginning and did record about 40 tracks. Then after that, the idea of making an acoustic album came up. It was no surprise to us because we sometimes write songs by electric guitar then convert to acoustic. I'm pretty sure that this album will open all kinds of doors. AC/DC might be consistent to produce the similar sort of music from the 1st till 25th. Foo Fighters is different. We can never have a preconception. Whenever we work on making album, we always have this feeling "well, this might be the last one". We have won the Grammy for One By One which was made in the shabby private studio, the basement of my house in Virginia. So I would say it's obvious that we'll be kicking some major ass with the new album at Reading Festival!"

Right after Dave finished his speech, "In Your Honor" resounded all over the room. A dramatic tune in which the extra-heavy distortion, and it certainly fits for the starter of the Rock side. (I heard that it was just finished a week ago, so fresh!) Next was "D.O.A", an up-lifting, with the very impressive, famous Foo's guitar riff. Before that reverberations has gone, "Best Of You" was in blast. Very aggressive, but catchy at the same time. I think this kind of technique, the combination of the opposite representation, is what they are best at. "Resolve" was, to me, a kind of unexpectedly a mid-tempo tune. "Free Me" is a wide-ranged, that has an irregular beat and scream, started with a slow intro in which heavy guitar riff sounded. The last one from Rock side was "No Way Back", which has a miraculous balance of a straight power and a modernity at super-dashing tempo. I'm so impressed that all those songs seemed to be arranged just to be played LIVE performance. I would say, they are all fu**ing great. In one word, AWESOME.

The first song from Acoustic side was "What If I Do". We can hear every rubbing note of the guitar strings so vividly. It is tend to be just a resemble of its 'roots music' such as blues or country if the band plays in acoustic, but there is no such bias at all. They are different. They surely composed it as the 'Foo Fighters' Acoustic' indeed. "Miracle", in which John Paul Jones plays a beautiful piano, is just right that. It is the very Foo Acoustic song. Dave's voice is so emotional, so touching, and just fits to the tune. The last one was "Virginia Moon", which Nora Jones sings with Dave, is totally a bossa nova! Boy, you cannot realize this is Foo Fighters if you hear it without any information. They sing softly like whispering on the tender notes something like a glockenspiel. It must be fairly good only by Dave and better to be listed on the setlist in the next tour, I'd love to hear it live.

After the listening session finished successfully, we went out of the studio. And Dave was there making BBQ for us! Now I understand why he put that "menu" on the chair! Beef, chicken and pork rib... everything just fit for the Californian night. Everyone's face was changing from official to the party mode. "I tell you what... David will take me along to Japan to the Fuji Rock Festival!" said Dave's mom, and Dave's wife joined us saying "We'll go there with my friends and family all together. I'm really looking forwards to it!!"

As time went on, the percentage of alcohol went up. Before I realized it, Dave held the big whisky bottle and gave the "Target" a shot of straight whisky! With no exception, the guy from BMG Japan became his target and got a shot. It was quite obvious that Dave got totally drunk at that time. (I noticed he had a glazed look in his eyes...) Well, it seems that the whisky glass was too small to him, Dave took a candle out of the huge candlebowl and used it as the shot glass! What the hell he's doing? He was going around with that "whisky glass" and giving a shot to everyone. I was nearly to be a target, but had a to escape. What a relief...!"For those who want to throw up..." said a director very naturally, pointing at a trash can, as if they always do that. Do they REALLY do the party like this?! Unbelievable!

It was a little chilly outdoors, but we had such a hilarious, memorable party with a charcoal fire of BBQ, warm delicious food and a great hospitality of Foo Fighters.

I went to the studio the following day for the interview with Dave, and as I had feared he would, Dave had a hangover when I met him again..

- This is really an amazing studio, isn't it.

Dave: Yeah, I love this studio, I'm really pleased with what we've done. Paradise indeed.

- There is a homey vibe, too.

Dave: We made One By One at the basement of my house in Virginia and the equipment was quite simple and plain. And when we started to build this new studio, we tried to make it have the similar vibe... we tried to make it comfortable as we can feel at home, rather than to be too much professional. Well, but, it turned out to be really a pro-studio as a result. Once we are working on the album, it will take almost a year spending time at the studio. So we know everything. We know the best spot for each one...where is the best place for drum sounds, the guitar amp should be put here, and so on. We know everything at all. But this is the very new studio, so we've found 'something new' everyday. We were excited trying everywhere around the studio to see the new sound, we really enjoyed it. It's fun. We brought equipment from Virginia. We love to use the good old things such as '70s, '60s and '50s. I have deep sentiments for the Virginia studio, so a thousand emotions crowd in on me when I went back to Virginia and loaded a truck with equipment and drove the way to here...

- ...No, you mean you did it by yourself?

Dave: Hell yeah! It was hard though. It took 5days-drive from California to Virginia, then about 4days for packing... I didn't mind any of furniture at all, but I did check and sort out the mess of the tapes. You know, the tapes and equipment are the most important for me, something rare and priceless. So I don't want to lose any piece of them. All those things were fragile and we had to handle them very carefully. oh yeah, it was really a hard job... I think, the music is not just a stringing every single notes together, but the very personality of myself, how to say... the very thing that happens to my life. It is reflected in the song. And to me, the moving of the studio was a turning point in my very emotional aspect. The construction of the new studio and making a double album effected to my emotional part so much. I think the sound of the new album is reflected by the process of those changes, the moving from east coast to west coast, from the small basement to the huge studio. All these changes are reflected in the songs

- We've heard six from the electric and three from the acoustic side yesterday. The rock side sounds like as if you assumed it a set-list for the live show.

Dave: Right, that's the important point. In that way... for instance, the second album "The Colour And The Shape" was right in that way. We made and arranged it properly assuming the set-list for the live. Attract audience at the opening, rouse them up, bring them to the other place, then drop a big bomb and go to finale... Isn't that reasonable way?

- Yes, definitely. It seems you have not finished whole work yet. What is the latest status?

Dave: Mastering has not yet finished. I'm a person who does work on the things to the very last minute. Still writing songs. At the beginning the outline of the album seems unclear, but it will be getting clear by writing songs continuously. We'll see which song would fit perfectly and which one does not. And once we see the entire overview of the album, I want to make it better and better and better... the deadline is Apr1, so we'll continue the song writings and recording by then.

- Wow, well, that's really a last minute! Will you?

Dave: You know, just one song may change everything. Well, we have one more week, I have two more songs to record by all means. We've done the acoustic side in two weeks and it is pretty nice, simple and natural. We didn't play it yesterday, but there is this freaking magnificent acoustic track with piano, pipe organ, accordion, harmonica, mandolin, 12-strings guitar, cello and so on. It's so huge, sounds like a full-orchestra. We've done such a great acoustic album, so I had a feeling that it will be killing the rock side. That's why I'm thinking we should make it better on the rock album as well... Because, you know, we are a Rock band!!