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Luckily for Chris Shiflett of the Foo Fighters, breaking up was
hard to do. The guitarist tells Karen Bliss about the hellish recording
of the band’s new album, One By One.
“It was such a strange process making this record.
It was definitely unlike any record I’ve made before,” says
Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett of the rock band’s fierce
new offering One By One. “We recorded a whole version of
it that took four months, being really meticulous, and (we) kind of
over-produced it, and at the end of that we realized that we weren’t
really happy with it.”
Shiflett, formerly of California punks No Use For
A Name, joined the Foo Fighters in 1999 after the making of the band’s
third album, There Is Nothing Left To Lose, replacing Franz Stahl,
himself a replacement for original guitarist Pat Smear. He landed this
great gig with an internationally acclaimed band, performed at festivals,
on TV shows, at award ceremonies, and even recorded a cover of Pink
Floyd’s ‘Have A Cigar’ with Queen’s Brian May. He
also fit in well with his fellow Foos — singer-guitarist Dave Grohl,
drummer Taylor Hawkins and bassist Nate Mendel — but hadn’t
yet played on an album with them.
“I was pretty nervous about what my position
would be because I hadn’t really recorded much with the band,”
he says. “I think it affected my approach to the making of the
record.”
When the first version of One By One —
produced by Adam Kasper — was deemed too perfect, too processed
and too drained of character, Grohl decided to accept a touring gig
drumming for stoner rockers Queens Of The Stone Age. The Foos leader
had recorded drums for the Queens record Songs For The Deaf back
in summer 2001. That combined with Hawkins’ hospitalization for
a drug overdose meant the Foos “were kind of on break anyway.”
Recording of the new Foos record started at Grohl’s
house in Virginia, then moved to LA. Meanwhile, the Queens were still
drummerless. “He was going to go play this one gig with them at
the Troubadour [in LA], and he had a lot of fun. We weren’t having
a lot of fun in the studio and they still didn’t have a drummer.
As we were becoming more frustrated and unhappy in the studio, this
(touring) opportunity came up.
The extended break didn’t sit well with Shiflett.
“I’m kind of a pessimist,” he admits. “I thought,
‘well, we’re breaking up, and that sucks.’”
A “super bummed” Shiflett “freaked
out” for two weeks, then took the opportunity to record songs for
his own still unnamed side project with his brother bassist Scott Shiflett
and drummer Pete Parada, the rhythm section for Face To Face. Chad Blinman
(Face To Face, Get Up Kids, Dishwalla) was enlisted to produce the guitar-pop
album.
Chris had never fronted a band before, except for
“goofball stuff” in high school. (He recently sang lead vocals
with the Foos on a cover of The Ramones’ ‘Danny Says’
that was made available online.) “(That) was the first time that
I ever sang a vocal for real in a studio. I was really nervous but once
I did it, it gave me a lot more confidence. I was like, ‘wow, I
can do this if I just double the f**kin’ thing. Sounds pretty good.’”
As of now, he’s about half-way through the vocals and then it has
to be mixed.
Then a ray of light appeared. “It became apparent
that [the Foos] weren’t going to break up,” says Shiftlett,
“and then when we went to make the final version of the record,
then I was really excited.”
The band bashed out four cover songs — the Ramones
track, Psychedelic Furs’ ‘Sister Europe’, Prince’s
‘Darling Nikki’ and Joe Walsh’s ‘A Life of Illusion’
— at Hawkins’ place, where the relaxed atmosphere gave the
guys the motivation to re-record what would become One By One.
Producer Nick Raskulinecz came on board to supervise these final sessions.
Shiflett now knows what his position is in the Foo
Fighters. Grohl and Hawkins work out the arrangements and lay down their
parts; Mendel records his part and then Shiflett comes in last. “My
role in the band is to add a little colour here and there,” he
determines.
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