“He wanted it to be perfect”: Dave Grohl on his most intense recording session
Enlisting the right producer can be the difference between a good record and a great one. Countless artists throughout history have slipped when it comes to hiring the best-suited producer, with some later admitting to how their input severely diminished the impact they wanted the project to have. Having known first-hand the differences between good and bad approaches, Dave Grohl once recalled his most intense experience in the studio.
From an outsider’s perspective, it often seems too easy to shoehorn producers into two categories: the ones who adopt a strict and regimented always-on approach and the Rick Rubins. Those who fall into the latter are usually viewed as more laid-back characters whose general mantra centres around spontaneous creativity and innate intuition. Rubin himself doesn’t exactly possess extensive musical theory knowledge or studio pragmatism, but that’s precisely what makes him a dream to so many.
However, Rubin has also received criticism, with some saying his off-kilter ways can result in a lack of direction. However, some also argue that the opposite approach can also be counterproductive, which is where some, like Brian Eno, provide the ideal solution. Eno isn’t exactly militant in his approach, not by a long shot, but his affinity for abstraction often pushes artists to overcome common symptoms of studio fatigue like writer’s block, where random application opens doors to creative flourishes.
For someone like Grohl, a good producer is one who can adapt to the project and lead the way, and within Nirvana, someone like Steve Albini was the ideal captain of the ship. After all, Nirvana was never about following trends or adopting sounds for its own sake, and even if it became about that, there’s no way that Kurt Cobain would have allowed it to happen. In Utero, especially, was about capturing the truth of the movement, and Albini’s hand made sure it happened without any external influences getting in the way.
“We got Gil Norton to produce the record, and he really whipped us into shape.”
dave grohl
However, Grohl experienced an unexpected transition with Foo Fighters’ second studio album, The Colour and the Shape, where producer Gil Norton took the reigns in deciding he needed to run a tight ship, mainly to ensure the process and sound was as refined and accomplished it could be to enable the band to develop and progress past the success of the self-titled debut. With the second record, the need for a leader was strong, even if it made the entire thing feel unnecessarily high stakes.
“The Colour And The Shape was really the band trying to make an album since the first was such a fluke,” Grohl recalled, noting the desire to step up. “It was probably the most intense recording process I’ve ever had in my entire life because up until that point, the only other producers I’d worked with were Butch Vig and Steve Albini. When Nirvana went in to record Nevermind, those songs were already written, so there wasn’t much pre-production, and when we recorded In Utero with Albini, well, he just hits record and lets you do whatever you want to do.”
Continuing: “With The Colour And The Shape, we got Gil Norton to produce the record, and he really whipped us into shape. He sat us down in a rehearsal studio for two or three weeks, and we worked on the arrangements, we worked on the lyrics, we worked on the melodies, and we did serious pre-production. Then tracking with Gil was like a lesson in your craft, it was nuts. He had everyone doing take after take after take, he wanted it tight, he wanted it to be perfect. It was intense. The making of that record was really intense.”
While some would have faltered under the pressure, having someone like Norton lead the way was the perfect addition that ensured The Colour and the Shape didn’t fail under the pressures of trying to create something even bigger and better than the first record. Grohl might have learned a few tricks since then, but as a newly appointed leader of his own project, enlisting a producer like Norton was ultimately the difference between putting out something with a lasting impact.
