Roswell Records/RCA RecordsLast year, Foo Fighters starred in Sonic Highways, an eight-part documentary series that followed the band as they traveled from city to city while they recorded their new album of the same name. Looking back at the whole Sonic Highways experience, Foo bassist Nate Mendel is very proud of what the band was able to accomplish.
"I think it's the coolest and most fun thing that the band has ever done," Mendel tells ABC Radio.
"Aside from how it turned out and what was actually aired on television, just the doing of it was an incredibly important thing for our band to do," he adds. "After 20 years of doing this, I don't think there's anything wrong with just going into the studio and recording an album and putting it out, but you do need to find new ways of being a band when you've been a band for so long, and this was a great way to do it."
As they visited different cities and recorded in different studios across the country, Foo frontman Dave Grohl would interview different musical representatives of the area, including Dan Auerbach of The Black Keys, Ian Mackaye of Fugazi and Minor Threat, Joan Jett and even President Barack Obama. Grohl would then use those interviews as material for the lyrics of the Sonic Highways album.
"I think that lyrically, it was a huge progression for Dave and for the band," Mendel says. "He took on an entirely different style, like just threw out the way he'd done lyrics before and chose a new way to do it. I think that's going to help the growth of the band."
For Mendel, his favorite part of the Sonic Highways experience was recording at Inner Ear Studios, just outside of Washington, D.C. Inner Ear was home to many artists from the legendary D.C. hardcore label Dischord Records.
"To go into that room and record there and be a part of that history with Dave, who was in [the punk band] Scream and was on Dischord, and Ian [Mackaye] was hanging out and [Inner Ear Studios owner] Don Zientara was there, and talking to him about old D.C. hardcore bands that I loved, that was probably the highlight for me," Mendel tells ABC Radio.
Sonic Highways is now available on Blu-ray/DVD.
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