with strident authority

ARE FINALLY BACK IN ACTION WITH A
THREE GUITAR LINEUP AND A ROCKIN,
HARD HITTING ALBUM, WASTING LIGHT.
INSIDE the cavernous main recording room at studio 606-the
nerve center of Foo Fighters HQ-a guitar tech pores over a pedal
board propped up on a road ease. The Foo Fighters are about to
embark on a world tour to promote their new album, Wasting
Light, and the road crew is busily primping the guitar rigs. Three
banks of Fender Tonemasters, handwired Vox AC30 and Peavey
6505 amps are set up in the configurations that will be used by
the band’s three guitarists, Dave Grohl, Chris Shifflet and Pat
Smea. Nearby, other crewmembers hustle even more gear into
flight cases and roll them into place for the big load-out.
Guitars bark & snarl
with strident authority...
5
re power) ) )
SUDDENLY, Dave Grohl emerges from a back room, a tall,
slender figure dressed in a black blazzer, t-shirt and jeans, clutching a funky looking, black Flying V guitar of indeterminate
brand that’s outfitted with skull knobs for tone and volume.
“Check this out,” he says. A wide grin stretches the sharp
contours of Grohl’s well-trimmed beard as he proffers the instrument. “It used to belong to Philthy from Motörhead. It’s the one
he used when they played ‘Ace of Spades’ on the young ones!”
This is clearly a big deal for Grohl. For all his grunge/indie-rock
cred and Eighties D.C. hardcore roots, he is an unapologetic
metalhead. That much clear from listening to Wasting Light. “I
wanted the Foo Fighters to make songs that you could play, like
‘Hells Bells’ or ‘Back in Black,’ ” Grohl says of the album. “Strip
it all down to a verse and a chorus that you can’t forget.”
AFTER two albums of experimentation with acoustic guitars,
orchestral arrangements and other niceties, the Foos have indeed
gotten back to the hard-hitting, balls-out, blissfully melodic rock
that put them on the map in the mid Nineties. The guitars bark
and snarl with strident authority, punching home the disc’s killer
hooks with unrelenting jackhammer intensity. One of the men
who had a key role in making it sound that way prowls the
Studio 606 parking lot, a cell phone glued to his ear. Pat Smear,
who provided much of Wasting Light’s gritty baritone guitar
underbelly, posesses a kind of vacant, distant air, the sangfroid
cool of a guy who seems somehow to be floating above the busy
scene unfolding at 606. But then Smear was a member of
seminal late-Seventies L.A. punk rockers the Germs and also
performed in the final incarnation of Nirvana. Both bands
of a house in Virginia where Grohl lived at the time. “That’s the
only Foo Fighters record I still enjoy listening to,” Grohl says,
“so I thought it would be nice to have him come down and
share the experiences. It all seemed just too perfect for me. For
Krist and me to record with Butch again was more than something musical; it was a real personal reunion. And then, I just
realized the other day that Krist and I had never been in the
studio with Pat. So the whole thing had a deep personal meaning to it-to sit in a room with Krist and Pat and think, Wow, 17
years ago we were touring America with the Butthole Surfers
and Half Japanese, or whatever. But now we’re men-fathers-in a
band that acts as our family. Pretty cool. We have to look at one
another and think, Wow, we survived all of that!”
OTHER GUESTS on the Foo Fighters brand new album
included guitarist/singer/songwriter Bob Mould, whose Eighties band Hüsker Du was an immense influence on Grohl
during his formative years. And mixing the album was the
legendary British producer/engineer and key architect of the
Nineties alt-guitar sound Alan Moulder (Smashing Pumpkins,
NIN, The Killers) who had last worked with Grohl on the
self-titled album from Them Crooked Vultures.
AS A RESULT, Grohl’s garage was literally crammed with
talent. Adding to the crowd, a film crew was on hand to create
a feature documentary about the Foo Fighters. And with all
that talent and a great new album in the can, who can’t say that
the Foos have been “Hardly wasting the light.” ALAN DI PERNA
changed rock music in ways that are still being pondered.
Having come through that, the almost inaudibly softspoken
Smear seems to be unfazed by almost anything. He has drifted
in and out of the Foo Fighters lineup a few times since 1995,
mostly in a touring guitarist capacity, but has left his indelible
stamp on Wasting Light.
CHRIS SHIFLETT, the third pillar of the album’s guitar
triumvirate, is affable and easygoing. Although he doesn’t stand
quite as tall as Grohl or Smear, when the guitars are strapped
on he’s fully their equal. On standout Wasting Light tracks like
“Arlandria” and the lead single, “Rope,” Shiflett and Grohl’s
guitars duck and weave around one another in lurching
lockstep
“Oh, there’s
He
Butch.
made the record that
changed my
life
forever...”
lockstep rhythms atop the masssive foundations laid down by
longtime Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel and drummer
Taylor Hawkins. At any given moment, Shiflett, Grohl, or
Smear might bust out with a blitzkrieg single-note riff. While
Grohl writes all the songs, the Foo Fighters are an equal opportunity establishment in that regards.
LIKE GROHL AND SMEAR; Shiflett carries full punk rock
credentials, having played in San Francisco Bay Area/Fat Wreck
Chords stalwarts No Use for a Name and Me First & the
Gimme Gimmes. Wasting Light is an album very much
steeped in alt-punk history. Stationed behind the funky old
API analog console in Grohl’s garage -where the album was
recorded was none other than Butch Vig, the legendary
producer who crafted Nirvana’s profoundly influential Nevermind album, not to mention seminal discs by the Smashing
Pumpkins, Sonic Youth, and Garbage. Vig produced a few
bonus tracks on the Foo Fighters’ 2009 Greatest Hits album,
but Wasting Light is the first full-on studio album that he and
Grohl have worked on together since Nevermind some 20
years prior. “Butch and I have been so close ever since we made
Nevermind,” Grohl says, “and we always have that between us.
Whenever I see him I think, Oh, there’s Butch; he made the
record that changed my life forever. Hi Butch! It’s more casual
than that, but it’s an undeniable connection that the two of us
have. Over the years we’ve talked about having him come back
and do a Foos record. And it just made since this time. It’s the
right songs at the right time and it is a very good thing.”
IN TRUE INDIE-ROCK SPIRIT, Grohl decided to make
Wasting Light a garage album. The Foos took a break from
Studio 606 and its state-of-the-art Pro Tools system, holding
up instead in a tiny garage space in Grohl’s residence, with tape
machines stashed in a storage closet and a tiny room above the
garage as a control room. The two Studer A-80 analog tape
machines and API console used to record Wasting Light are the
exact same gear empolyed to track the Foo Fighter’s third
album, 1999’s There is Nothing Left to Lose, in the basement
repower) ) )
8
................................................................................................................................
re power) ) )
9
me to tears sometimes. It’s very much a song about who we are
as people and about finding our place in not just the musical
world but in the actual world that we live in as men.
There’s a longing in this record which I think Switchfoot is
known for. We’re known for that sense of sort of longing,
asking questions that make people think. We’re very much a
band that asks more questions than gives answers. Songs like
“Where I Belong” and “Restless”, those two to me are very
much kind of worship songs, they have like that spirit in them
of worship where it’s a longing or reaching, a seeking. “Selling
the News” has a lot of social commentary which is another
kind of song that Switchfoot does very well. And then “The
War Inside” is an honest song about struggling to live out what
you believe on the inside and that has a lot to do with our soul.
When I say it’s the most soulful album, I guess that’s kind of
what I’m thinking. Our struggles, our personal struggles are
out in the open on this record.
REPOWER How involved are you in the writing process?
DREW Well, a typical song on a record, John will write it on
an acoustic guitar, bring it to the band in a rough format and
say “look at this.” We’ll all listen and take thoughts in, we’ve
been a band for awhile so no one is precious about their stuff
and Jon isn’t precious about his writing. He’ll allow quite a bit
of input. The lyrics are mostly, you know, Jon writes and Tim
will jump in sometimes as an editor. Then the music is more of
the full collaboration and I guess that’s where I come into play.
I think I do a lot more inputting on the music; the guitar
sounds, the parts, the arrangement, the how to express those
words in sounds.
REPOWER It seems like you are very connected to what Jon
writes. Is that always the case?
DREW Yeah. A lot of the songs that he writes are out of discussions that we have, stuff that we talk about on the road. If we’re
in a car for a long time chances are there will be a song that
comes out of that. If there’s an interview that we do sometimes
with you guys, it will get us thinking about stuff and then we’ll
continue a conversation. After that, a lot of our songs come
from struggling with life at two in the morning and Jon will
come the next day and be like, “Guys, you know, I got this
song last night I wrote in my hotel room, what do you guys
think?” And we’ll talk about it. So I mean chances are we’ve
talked about every song as a band before it goes on the record.
So yeah, I’m connected to the songs personally.
REPOWER Have you seen anything that has kind of changed
with the band from the earlier records to now?
DREW That’s a big question. I’ve got a lot of things that come
to mind. The band has honed in an authentic sound. I think
we’ve kind of grown out of the quirky type songs like “Chem
6A” and “Company Car” which I still love. We’ve gone into
more of these speaking to the masses, big questions, important
songs that feel important and honest. I think we’ve found a
very quizzical approach in a lot of our music that has been a
part of our calling and that has been a part of our voice in
society, rather than talking about school or girls.
I also think we have been one of the bands that has crossed
lines drawn by Christian music and secular music critics. I
think that when we started there was a lot of separation and
now there’s been a lot more bridges built across this river that
was separating these things and a lot of bands have been carried
across over our backs so to speak and done great things which
is I think is awesome. The band hasn’t changed in our security
of who we are. How do I say it, you get to a place where you
realize that the great artists are ones who don’t care what people
think as much but just stick to what they know they’re
supposed to do and I think that’s been one of the changes. I
think we’ve decided that we’ll let the critics critique and we’ll
just do what we know we’re supposed to do and continue pushing ahead in that.
REPOWER That’s awesome. I think that’s a great message to
younger bands too who are just getting going.
DREW Absolutely. Yeah, I mean if I can reference the song
“Dark Horses,” I think that’s us. We wrote it about these homeless kids and it definitely captures that but it’s also us. I feel like
we are the dark horses. We are the ones who are running in sub
currents of culture and spreading a good infection, if you know
what I mean.
------------------------------------------------------------------------REPOWER How is the process of writing an album different
in Switchfoot than in other groups?
JEROME I was in a couple bands before Switchfoot and those
other bands stylistically were totally different from Switchfoot.
I was in a band called Mortal that was like industrial Goth.
Very electronic and Switchfoot is more of a rock band, but
performing and writing with Switchfoot has been incredible
because they said, when they asked me to join them, “you
know, we really like the added element of what you bring and
the skies the limit.” Whatever you think is great, or good musically, that’s what we want. They gave me free reign to do what
I need to do.
REPOWER How involved are you in the writing process?
JEROME There are five guys in the band and I’m one fifth of
the involvement in writing. I mean Jon writes the songs on his
acoustic guitar and he presents it to us and then all of us will go
in there and say “okay this song needs this.” There are songs
where it’s like “okay this is a keyboard based song, we want
more keyboards in this song” or “this song is more guitar.” It all
depends.
REPOWER How has the band changed since you joined?
JEROME
JEROME Well they didn’t have a keyboard player before
(laughs). When I joined them, they liked me bringing in the
keyboard element, you know, whether it’s electronica or adding
strings, just pushing the song. It’s really cool that you have that
range, that openness with the band.
REPOWER How did you come to be part of Switchfoot?
JEROME Well, it’s crazy that the door just opened and they
needed a keyboard player. What’s a really funny story is that I
was working at a 9 to 5 job. It was my second day on the job
and my job was in data entry and I really hated life. I just was
not feeling it so during my lunch break I called Jon up and
said, “Hey, do you still need a keyboard player because I really
don’t like my job.” He’s like, “Yeah, sure, come on down.” So
right after I got off the phone with them I quit and haven’t
stopped since.
REPOWER Has the band changed spiritually over time?
JEROME There’s always a growth pattern. Lyrically you’re
always striving, searching spiritually and that always translates
in music as well. We’ve always had that element in our music of
just giving, pushing for hope, pushing for something that may
STEPHEN RUSS
not be here but in our next life.
repower) ) )
12