Guest DJ Dave Grohl
This week, Foo Fighters releases its latest project, Sonic Highways. Why "project" rather than album? Sonic Highways is more than just eight new songs. It's also an eight-part documentary currently running on HBO. Together, the album and film series look at the intersection of geography and music. It's what Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl calls a love letter to the history of American music. The band wrote and recorded each song in a different city. Grohl interviewed local musical icons in each place and wove the stories he heard and the history of each location into his lyrics.
The first stop in the band's musical journey was Chicago, followed by Grohl's former hometown, Washington, D.C., then on to Nashville, Austin, Los Angeles, New Orleans, Seattle and New York.
When Dave Grohl stopped by the NPR studios in Washington, D.C. to talk about Sonic Highways with us, he reflected on growing up in the area, on what it was like to see his favorite bands play the 9:30 Club and how the city's complicated and controversial history shaped his world view and the song "The Feast and the Famine," which was recorded at Inner Ear Studio in the D.C. area. Grohl also explained how some of the other songs for Sonic Highways came together and talked about the local musicians that inspired them.
You can hear the whole interview with the listen link above, or excerpts in our playlist below.
Guest DJ Dave Grohl
Foo Fighters
- Album: Sonic Highways
- Song: The Feast and The Famine
On the D.C.-based influences of "The Feast and The Famine":
On the day before [recording] the vocals, I take all of my [interview] transcripts back to my hotel room, and I highlight words, and phrases, and ideas, that I thought summed up the story of this city's history. ['The Feast And The Famine'] says, 'Last night they were burning for truth down on the corner of 14th and U.' That's a reference to the Chocolate City riots. 'They took your souls and they took you for fools / Took all your windows from prisons and schools,' because the Bad Brains guys went to a high school where the windows look like prisons and there was one door in, one door out. 'Crossroads, there's nothing to lose': That's a reference to Bailey's Crossroads."
Foo Fighters
- Album: Sonic Highways
- Song: Something From Nothing
On collaborating with Cheap Trick guitarist Rick Nielsen on "Something From Nothing":
"Rick Nielsen was sitting down in the studio after the interview and he goes, 'Well, aren't you gonna ask me to play on your song?' And it was the first session of this whole project, and I thought, 'Well, of course! Yeah!' So we gave him a baritone [guitar], and he just made this noise, man. I mean, the way he plays guitar — honestly, nobody plays guitar like that guy. The title is referring to the spark of inspiration that sort of lights the fire to do whatever it is that you do. That thing where you create something from nothing."
Foo Fighters
- Album: Sonic Highways
- Song: In The Clear
On writing "In The Clear" for New Orleans:
It's hard not to talk about the hurricane when you go to New Orleans, you know? They're still recovering. So, I wrote [this] song after interviewing all of the musicians, and the people that went through that experience, and it can apply to almost anything in life. There's reference in there to a Second Line marching band, there's reference to the Paddle Wheel, there's reference to the storm. But ultimately, I'm one of those people that, I can't relax, because I don't feel like everything's OK, ever. And, so, the lyric is 'I'm not in the clear, we are not in the clear/ but don't go count me out yet.' So, I feel like that, every day of my life. And I feel like I wrote that song for New Orleans, because they're still struggling."
Featured Artist
Comments
You must be signed in to leave a comment. Sign In / Register
Please keep your community civil. All comments must follow the NPR.org Community rules and Terms of Use. NPR reserves the right to use the comments we receive, in whole or in part, and to use the commenter's name and location, in any medium. See also the Terms of Use, Privacy Policy and Community FAQ.