Foo Fighters: Back and Forth Page #8

---

you know?

I sorta got to be friends with him

over the course of doing those shows.

Clive Davis came to see us play

at one of the acoustic gigs,

and I said, "I think it'd be so cool

if we were that band

"where we did the rock show and

we had all the people that love the rock show,

"and we did the acoustic show and had

all the people that love the acoustic show,

"and they wouldn't necessarily

have to go to both. "

And Clive was like,

"Yes, but you can do both together. "

In a total Yoda moment.

I was like, "Oh my God, you're right!"

And that was the next album,

Echoes, Silence, Patience, & Grace.

Those songs were basically just that.

So that tour and that album before

totally shaped the one that happened after.

We were at a point in our career where

we thought things couldn't get any bigger.

We've headlined these festivals,

played these arenas.

We're perfectly happy

with the way things are.

And then John Silva said,

"You guys wanna play Wembley Stadium?"

And I said, "F***.

OK, but wait, how big is that place?"

When you do something like that

you put it on sale six months ahead of time

because that's a lot of tickets -

You need six months

to get rid of all those tickets.

And we sold it out.

I couldn't believe it.

So we put another one on sale,

and it sold out in, like, a few days.

When it sold out like it did,

I think everybody in the band was just like,

"What the f***?

How did that happen?"

It was this huge responsibility,

this great thing like,

"All right. It's our turn now,

like, we have to make it great. "

It was six months

until we had to play the show.

Every night before I went to sleep

for six months, I'd think,

"My God,

I have to play f***in' Wembley Stadium. "

Then I'd wake up in the morning,

like, "We're playing Wembley!"

Wembley is so big,

and it's like this sort of

monster bowl you're playing.

It's just sort of the weight

and the responsibility I put on myself

for a show like that, it's intense.

I remember before the first show,

I was so nervous,

and I somehow got hot sauce

in my eye backstage,

right before we went on,

I was just, "Why now?

Why did this have to happen now?"

You don't just go,

"Yay, they asked us to do this thing

"and we're gonna go and do our best

and see what happens. "

You wanna make sure it becomes

the most memorable show you've done.

And know that you killed it.

It was nerve-wracking,

because it's Wembley Stadium.

And if you've ever been there,

it's so f***ing huge.

It's like an illusion.

How the f*** did this band

get this f***in' big?

Can you tell me that?

When you have 20,000 people

and there's nosebleeds

that are so far away,

you wanna be able to bring everybody in.

I want the people up there to feel

like they're right there.

You'd imagine that after playing something

like Wembley Stadium

and playing to 85,000 people,

"God, what do we do now?"

Yeah, it's good.

It's the same way with records, in a way.

This is our seventh record.

What could we possibly do that's different

than the last thing we had done?

And I thought, "Well...

I wanna do the next one in the garage. "

It's about making records

the way we used to f***ing make records.

But let's do it with Butch Vig

so it's f***ing huge.

Butch Vig is probably most well known

for doing Nevermind, the Nirvana record.

But he's done

a ton of stuff through the years.

He did the last Green Day record

and he was in Garbage,

and he's been

a working producer for a long time.

Dave said, "I wanna make

the record in my garage. "

And then he said, "What do you think

about making the record on tape?"

I wanna get away

from what people think we should do.

I learned how to make records on tape.

And there's something

about that process that I love,

but you can't fix things like

when you're working purely in a digital format.

That's the first thing I said to the band.

"If we're gonna do this on tape,

you guys have to play really well.

"Because nothing's gonna be fixed. "

I think most people have an idea

of how records are made.

They're made on computers.

You can do whatever with computers,

but we all grew up

making records on tape.

It's got a certain sound.

It's got a certain set of limitations.

You can't go in and just go like,

"Well, that's close enough. "

Wow, this is great!

Rock n' roll is imperfection and flaws

and four or five or six or eight people

playing together.

It's not gonna line up.

It's gonna be a little f***ed up. It should be.

Human beings aren't perfect.

You wanna say hello?

Hi!

What was really different was the environment,

doing it at Dave's house.

Which is the most comfortable environment

you can imagine.

It's like...

It's just fun to be there anyways.

I think the atmosphere of where you're

recording has to come out on the record.

I don't see how it couldn't.

Look at this crew.

Look at the Hawkins!

What, are you kidding me?

The engineers and everybody

at one point were like,

"OK, we're gonna need this

and this and this.

"$700,000 worth of outboard gear. "

And Dave's like, "No, no, no.

We're making a record in a garage!"

I love that we're about

to make an album at home.

I think the album's gonna sound like that.

I know it will.

If we need to have

three different drum sounds,

wouldn't it be cool to have them

crossfade into each other,

like as the other drum sound's

starting to come up

and the other one's going back?

Wouldn't it be cool

if we had a bucket of KFC right now?

So in recording,

it usually begins with Taylor and I.

The drums first, with the guitar,

and at first it's really to see

if Taylor and I

lock in with each other.

Did I miss my cue?

Yes, you did.

I go through a process,

sort of a self-loathing, "I suck" process

when I'm recording drums.

I tend to think

I'm the worst drummer in the world.

F***.

Sorry. I messed up the pattern a little bit.

OK.

When I go back and listen to the recording,

I'm like, "I'm all over the place. "

It's not great.

Why? Why, God, why?

Sorry, I broke a drumstick!

Then it slowly evolves

and comes together after a couple hours,

and I have a drum track I'm really proud of.

The drums are finished.

I'm still not sure about These Days.

I could sit there and agonize all day

over one little snare hit or f***in'...

the way a groove feels.

- And you will.

- And I will.

They'll play it on the radio and you'll go,

"Damn! That f***in' snare hit!"

Maybe we should have just ProTooled

the f*** out of this record.

At least you know it's perfect.

When you're recording analogue like this,

knowing it can't be fixed

brings a factor to the way the band thinks

about how they're gonna play.

For instance, Nate,

before he would do his bass part,

would go out in the tent

and work out his part,

so when he came in to play,

he knew everything he was gonna do.

I think it sounds great.

It sounds awesome.

Yeah, it sounds awesome.

Is the bass or anything doing...

Rate this script:0.0 / 0 votes