“That was really a slog”: Dave Grohl on the hardest record Foo Fighters ever made
There’s a certain magic that goes into making any classic rock record. Even though it seems simple enough to get four or five people in a room to bang out a bunch of classic songs, the stars have to usually be aligned in just the right way for everyone to be on the same page and create something that everyone can be proud of. Although Foo Fighters was still a Dave Grohl outfit in the late 1990s, he felt that the hardest time he ever had in the studio was putting together the songs for The Colour and the Shape.
But before he even got to work, there was already a mantle of pressure that he didn’t really need. He didn’t anticipate everyone would see his glorified demo album of a debut to be eaten up by the masses, so when he cut the next one, people weren’t just seeing his band. They saw the guy from Nirvana trying his best to make it alone.
That meant bringing in some power players for the record, with Pixies producer Gil Norton overseeing everything. It seemed like a perfect fit, but once everyone started playing together in the room, Norton could already tell that there were a lot of problems based on what Nate Mendel and William Goldsmith were doing.
They had played together in Sunny Day Real Estate, and while they gelled properly on their own, it never translated to the magic Grohl was looking for. Especially when looking at the drums, Grohl was a bit too critical, which had to have been hard for Goldsmith when he was trying to be original, and the drummer of one of the biggest bands in the world was looking over his shoulder.
Even when he put in the hours, it still wasn’t enough, leading to Grohl just scrapping every one of his tracks and playing drums on the entire record. He got what he wanted as the bandleader, but all Goldsmith got was hurt feelings and a broken ego, initially quitting on the spot when he found out that Grohl would be filling in for him in the studio.
Despite the energy of tracks like ‘Everlong’ and ‘My Hero’, Grohl still felt that the record was among the most difficult processes he’s ever had in a studio, saying, “When we went in for our second record, which a lot of people think is our best album, that was really a slog. We had a hard-working producer (Gil Norton), and we were doing 30, 40 takes of a single song. The end result is amazing, but it did take its toll on the band.”
It’s one thing to leave all of that aggression in the studio, but Grohl wasn’t even off the hook when he got on the road, with Pat Smear quitting halfway through the tour and being replaced by Franz Stahl. No matter how many times you’ve faced adversity in music, there had to be some point when Grohl looked at himself after two band members and wondered what the hell he was doing wrong.
Still, Foo Fighters have been known to endure any kind of hardship, and throughout The Colour and the Shape, you don’t just hear the long hours they took to make it. It’s also the sound of everyone giving it their all to make the best record they can, and for a group just starting out playing together, they sound hungry as hell.
