Q&A: Foo Fighters

Foo Fighters are (clockwise from top left): guitarists Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear, bassist Nate Mendel, drummer Taylor Hawkins and singer/guitarist Dave Grohl (Credit: Steve Gullick)

Foo Fighters, ‘Wasting Light’

Dave Grohl and co. get back to the garage on crackling...

Besides Dave Grohl, redheaded bassist Nate Mendel is the only person who’s been in Foo Fighters since the Grohl solo project became an actual band in 1995.

It almost didn’t work out that way.

As seen in the Foo Fighters documentary “Back and Forth,” at one point around the late ‘90s, Mendel called Grohl and quit the band, intending to reunite with his previous group, emo pioneers Sunny Day Real Estate. Within days, Mendel realized this was a gaffe, rang the Foos frontman again and recanted his resignation.

In hindsight, how would he have handled that initial call differently?

“Well, I wouldn’t have done it at all,” Mendel says. He’s sitting on the back porch of his home in Los Angeles’ San Fernando Valley. “You know what I did learn from that experience? There can be some unusual thoughts.” He laughs. “Look down the road a little bit, and think how things will play out before making that decision.”

These days, most decisions facing the Foo Fighters (which include guitarists Chris Shiflett and Pat Smear and drummer Taylor Hawkins) are of the champagne variety. For example, how to celebrate when their seventh studio LP, “Wasting Light,” became the band’s first to top the U.S. charts.

“White Limo” is a standout track on “Wasting Light.” What’s the most memorable experience you’ve had in a limousine?
[Laughs] Probably the time I realized limos are super uncomfortable and radically cheesy. “Hey this is supposed to be great! Wait a second…” I mean you’ve got to crawl to the back over the girl you’re with, and you know those little crystal decanters? They never actually have liquor in them. [Limos are] just amazingly corny ways of getting around, but people still take them. I don’t know why.

When Dave put Foo Fighters together in the mid-‘90s, what’s the first song the band jammed on at that initial rehearsal?
You know, when we play “This Is a Call” now Dave will say, “This is the first song that we ever played together.” I don’t remember if that was it; it probably was. It was kind of the standout song on that first album.

Most album covers with a photo of the artist on them suck, but the cover for “Wasting Light” is pretty cool. Did you guys use any other bands’ LPs as a reference point thereof?
We really struggled this album to come up with good artwork for it. We would have a bunch of different names and then the name would affect the artwork and then when we’d change the name and the artwork would change. Then the idea came up to do a photo cover, which we’d never done, and I referenced the Talking Heads because they’ve done at least two photo covers that were really great. “Remain in Light” was really interesting.

When the Foo Fighters are working out songs, does Dave give you a specific vibe he’s looking for—like, “I’m thinking McCartney meets Lemmy for this bass line”—or does he just let you figure it out?
I’m really surprised on how little direction I get from Dave sometimes because he’s got a very definite idea of how he wants the song to sound. He and Taylor are very collaborative on the drums, right down to every snare hit and which cymbals are going to be used. And I’ve got a lot of free range. A lot of times I’ll come in with a lot of ideas because I want to make the bass parts as interesting as possible. And I’ll get edited down in order to simplify the sound and get more of a solid direction.

Can you remember where you were when Prince played the Foo Fighters song “Best of You” during his 2007 Super Bowl halftime performance?
I wasn’t watching the Super Bowl. I was living in Portland at that time and I was in my car when my girlfriend called me and said, “Holy s---, Prince is playing ‘Best of You.’” [I] went home and saw it on YouTube as quickly as I could. I think I became a Prince fan at that point, hearing how he interpreted that song. It was really genius. Part of me wondered if it was a response because we covered his song, “Darling Nikki,” and we wanted to put that version on an album and Prince said, “No.” I have a feeling, just knowing Prince’s reputation for being how particular he is with his music, that it wasn’t personal. But at the same time I thought he was like, “Oh yeah, think you can cover one of my songs, huh? Well let me show you how you do it.”

Dave’s former Nirvana bandmate, Krist Novoselic, plays bass on “I Should Have Known.” How did Dave address that with you?
Well, Dave was talking about what guests might play on the album and brought up Krist and that it would be cool to have him come down and be in the studio with Butch [Vig, “Wasting Light” and “Nevermind” producer], because obviously there was the “Nevermind” reference there, and initially mentioned him playing just accordion. I was actually out of town when [Novoselic] came in to do that, so I didn’t really know what was going on and he ended up playing [bass] on “I Should Have Known,” which I’d played on. My parts are still on there. He played over top of it and did like a lead-bass part. So it was kind of cool—I got to play on a track with Krist. So there was no, “Hey, you’re going to need to step aside because Krist is going to play on this one.”

Ever feel like Foo Fighters are carrying the flag for rock bands, in terms of being in mainstream media or playing major awards shows or whatever?
The music that we play right now, fairly straightforward rock, is really out of favor and kind feels like kind of an anachronism sometimes. Although this kind of music is still loved by people, it seems to be more classic bands rather than current ones. So I’m proud of our band. I wish we had more people out in the world playing rock music that were more popular.