From the opening note of Concrete and Gold, the newest release from Foo Fighters, it sounds like the band is having fun. The tracks are manic, huge in their sound, and rough around the edges.
Yet, with thoughts of the band’s ‘Rickroll’ at Tokyo’s Summer Sonic festival (Rick Rolling is an internet meme and prank, which leads viewers to unexpected appearances of Rick Astley’s 1987 hit Never Gonna Give You Up), and a choir of Shawn Stockman’s voice on the album’s title track, Nate Mendel, the band’s bassist, is caught off-guard when asked if the experience of being Foo Fighters is becoming more enjoyable with time.
“Usually when I get a question like that it’s more, how do we keep it fun? How do you deal with playing Everlong for the thousandth time?” he says, pondering his response. “But in some ways it does get more fun. We have these opportunities, when the band has been around for as long as we have and we’ve had success in the past, to do things like play in Japan, to notice that Rick Astley is on the side of the stage watching. To just say, ‘Hey man, do you want to come up and play the song?’ And he’s game.
“We get better at what we’re doing. We have a really good relationship with our audiences, we know how to travel together, and we know how to write together.”
The writing and recording process for Concrete and Gold proved to be an entirely new experience and challenge in the band’s 23 years together. It marks their first, and seemingly unlikely, collaboration with producer Greg Kurstin, who has previously worked with Adele, Sia, and Pink.
“I was actually surprised by that myself,” says Mendel.“I hadn’t met Greg Kurstin before we started working with him on the record but knowing who he was, I thought he’d add a sheen, or at least be inclined to polish. It was pretty surprising when we went in and started recording.”
Rather than a pop-style polish, Kurstin was instrumental in the rough, textured sound of the record. “The first thing he did was add effects to everything – blow out the sound. There was a lot of distortion and grime all over it. I thought,‘What are you doing to our band? I thought you were going to try and clean it up, and you’re disassembling it.’ It was shocking, but I liked it. That’s the point of bringing someone in, to make you think.”
Foo Fighters’ core is of course the affable Dave Grohl, the key songwriter and dictator of the band members, jokes Mendel. Kurstin’s part on the record was largely Grohl’s doing, in a quest for a fresh take on the band. Grohl was a longtime fan of Kurstin’s band, The Bird and the Bee, before the two became friends.
“When Dave writes, he tries to keep it simple – in an AC/DC kind of way – and that’s where the power comes from, the simplicity of something. But Greg is all about making things more complicated, having these textures, melodies and harmonies, and making the backing tracks really dirty and processed.”
Though Mendel had expected something more polished from Kurstin, he’s happy with the result. “I think in trying to make music sound really polished and machine-like, people are looking to get an emotional reaction out of getting something that is perfect. That’s what’s going to translate to people.
“When people listen to a song and everything is in its place, that’s what’s going to be a great song, but that approach never worked for us.”
Being known for their epic live shows – last time they visited Australia they played two-and-a-half hour sets – part of what makes Foo Fighters’ recording methods unique, is their desire to recreate what they play in the studio on stage, with room for change and expression.
“We want there to be room for spontaneity, and for things to be rough, and human. That produces its own power,” says Mendel. “You listen to a Rolling Stones record, or Led Zeppelin – they’re rough as hell. They’re incredible musicians, but there’s all kinds of room for things to be wobbly, and that added to the charm and power and musicality of it. We’re from an old school approach in that way.”
Approaching the ninth release came about quicker than the band had anticipated. After finishing the Sonic Highways tour two years ago, Mendel admits he didn’t expect to hear anything about Foo Fighters for quite a while.
“But it was only, like, six months later when Dave contacted us and said he had a batch of songs, and an idea of how we could record it, so why don’t we get together when the kids are at school and start working on it?”
That response, the fact that these rock stars are now fathers, is the core of much of the record’s charm. The music video for Run features a geriatric Foo Fighters playing a heavy-rock gig in their nursing home. Clad in prosthetics, fake grey beards, and makeup, Mendel laughs that the tongue-in-cheek glimpse of the future was “frightening”.
“We were trying to figure out what to do for the video for that song. And Taylor [Hawkins] our drummer, said,‘Man, we’re old as hell. No one wants to look at our old faces in the video.’ And that was the idea – why don’t we go all the way, and be as old as we possibly can, and base the video on that?
“We’re really just taking the piss a little bit, on the fact that we’re not 25, and we’re still making songs like Run, which doesn’t sound like something a band in their 40s would do.”
With all the changes, a huge part of Foo Fighters’ charm is their dependability. They may be in their 40s, they may have tried different things along the way, but they keep having fun, they keep playing Everlong, and they’re still utterly adored by their audience.
“I think it’s because we care, and we love doing it. I would say more has stayed consistent than has changed,” Mendel says, of their two decades as one of the world’s biggest bands. “Hopefully people will let us stick around and do it for a while.”
