Foo Fighters have been a band for 26 years now and are ready for their tenth album Medicine At Midnight; they do not always agree on everything. Drummer Taylor Hawkins, however, is no longer involved in discussions with frontman Dave Grohl, he says in conversation with NU.nl. “It’s like arguing with your wife, you always lose.”
The new Foo Fighters record, which has been released for a year and was postponed due to the corona crisis, consists of exciting, danceable rock songs with great pop choruses. Hawkins says that this sound comes from Grohl, who had a very clear idea of how Medicine At Midnight had to sound.
“It is almost as if the record can be divided in two: there is a danceable, groovy part, and a rock part. They are relatively short songs that you quickly enter and exit. Queen has tried something similar to Hot Space, but they didn’t do so well. And I can say that, because I am an honorary member of the Queen fan club, ”said Hawkins.
He even got in touch with Queen drummer Roger Taylor about Grohl’s plans for the record. “I told him we would use drum loops, and he reassured me because they had done that before.”
‘Dave has always been right so far’
Hawkins has long ago decided not to argue with Grohl about the direction the band is going. “Foo Fighters is really the vehicle of Dave Grohl’s thoughts. I still work with other people on music to get things out of my system, but for Dave it’s mostly his job for Foo Fighters. I never question what he wants. “I’m not saying his ideas are always brilliant, but he thinks everything through. If you can do something in this business that you’ve always wanted to do, you have to be an idiot to screw it up.”
“We don’t argue about how to keep innovating because the answer is always with Dave. And so far he has always been right. We haven’t known our wives as long as we’ve known each other. It’s like one. Marriage. In that sense, arguing with Dave is also arguing with your wife. It’s pointless, because you always lose in some way. “
“Dave is a marketing slut, and I mean that in a positive way. We are often asked who does our management and who comes up with the marketing tricks, but that is all his creativity. ”
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Hawkins says the band’s long-standing success is also partly due to the fact that Grohl wants to keep the people he likes happy. “Only two members left in the early days. Dave likes to surround himself with satisfied, hardworking people, and it pays off.”
In addition, according to Hawkins, Grohl is a real master when it comes to marketing. “He’s a marketing slut, and I mean that in a positive way. We are often asked who does our management and who comes up with the marketing tricks, but that’s all Dave’s creativity.”
That Hawkins, who normally also provides vocals for Foo Fighters, does not sing a note on the record this time, he found it a bit sour. “I was disappointed for a moment, but now that I have heard the result, I understand it completely. I have fully accepted it and I still sing live, that is more important to me.”
Hawkins can’t wait to play the Foo Fighters album live. “I swear, it gets fucking bananas if we can go on stage again. “
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