FOO FIGHTERS // Concrete (Green) and Gold

The Foo Fighters, Australia’s adopted rock gods, have announced they’re returning to our shores in support of their upcoming record Concrete and Gold.

The almighty Foo Fighters will be releasing their ninth studio album, Concrete and Gold as soon as this Friday, the 15th of September. The album has been touted as one of the most experimental albums yet from the group, who worked with legendary pop producer Greg Kurstin, as well as Boyz II Men, Paul McCartney, and Justin Timberlake, just to get the job done. As if their Australian fans needed anything more to get excited about, the group announced plans to bring the album Down Under in all its live glory at the start of next year. In a time where everything’s uncertain, it’s comforting to know that the Fooies are set to head on back to our stadiums. For guitarist Chris Shiflett, it’s a chance to rest and relax away from his hectic home schedule. Yep, even rock stars still have to take the trash out sometimes.

Hysteria: Chris, thanks for taking the time to chat. Whereabouts in the world are you right now?

Chris: I’m at home, sitting in my office. We’re going back out on tour in a couple of days but we’re still home right now.

So, is this a bit of well-earned downtime for you guys?

Yeah, well you know, time at home isn’t exactly downtime. Especially not right now because we’ve got like the album’s coming out really soon, so there’s all sorts of promotional stuff here and there, and my kids start back up at school, so we’re doing that whole thing. And then soccer practice just started, and so we just back in it.

Wow. So, real life just doesn’t stop, even when you’re about to release an album. It just all happens.

You still have to take the trash out.

How does it all feel? I mean, you’re now a few days really away from the release of Concrete and Gold. This is your ninth studio album, so on one level that says you’ve done this nine times, but I can help but feel as though it’s probably a pretty special occasion each time. Are you especially excited for this album?

Yeah, this time feels different, you know? I’ve been in the band 18 years this month, and this is the first time in all the years I’ve been around, and all the albums I’ve seen this band make and have been a part of, that I remember us finishing a record so far in advance of it coming out. Usually there’s a lot more tinkering going on up until the last moment it has to be shipped off to the pressing plant. We finished this one awhile ago, we were done in what like, May I think. Something like that.

So it’s been interesting. We started touring in May or June, I forget exactly when we started but I think it was June, which is way out in advance of a release. We’ve never done that before, so in some ways it feels crazy. There’s a lot of stuff going on and there always is when we’re putting out an album. But it feels less crazy, it feels a little more relaxed than in the past, and maybe part of that is because there’s nothing attached to this one.

There’s no TV shows, no documentaries, there’s no big extra curricular thing. It’s like, we just made an album, we finished it a few months ago, got it all done an at a nice place, and then we’ve just really been waiting for it to come out, which is a strange feeling in Foo Fighter Land, it’s a little unusual.

I imagine it would also be a bit frustrating, they say the artist’s job is never complete. So I imagine you guys probably had urges to go back and tinker. Did you?

I didn’t. I think everybody was really happy internally with the record that we made. You know, I think it’s a different sounding record and we spent some time on it, worked with some new folks. I don’t know, I think everybody was happy with the end result. I mean, I can only speak for myself but I didn’t feel like that, I just felt more like it’ll be great when the album’s finally out and we can go play most of these songs live.

It’s like, we just made an album, we finished it a few months ago, got it all done an at a nice place, and then we’ve just really been waiting for it to come out, which is a strange feeling in Foo Fighter Land, it’s a little unusual.
[CHRIS]

So, you worked with Greg Kirstein as the producer for this one and it would be interesting to get some insight into how that went down. I mean, one of the biggest producers in the world and one of the biggest bands in the world. What’s it like when you have the war room talks about ideas? How do you go with the balance of power between those two forces that are Foo Fighters and Greg Kurstin? Was there any element of that at all?

You know, it seemed like a great idea when Dave first mentioned it. I had met Greg awhile ago at a party at Dave’s house, so I knew that they were friends and I knew that Greg’s well known as a pop producer, but there’s a lot more to him musically than that. He’s super deep when it comes to music. When Dave first suggested it I knew he wanted to switch it up this time, and he was really clear about that when we first started talking about getting a new album together, that he wanted to do something different. He gave us all instructions, “Just don’t bring your regular guitar and your regular amp, bring something different.” It was that kind of stuff. I don’t even know if he exactly knew what he wanted to be different about it, but he just knew that he wanted it to be different and Greg was the perfect guy to facilitate that. I feel like he helped the band … you really can’t overstate how big of an impact he had on this record.

The guy is just a treat to work with, and he’s so smart, and he’s got such musical depth to him that I just feel like he could have done anything, he could have taken us anywhere in the studio.

So, studying some of the language that you guys have been using about the album, reading some of the interviews that have gone down already, there’s a fair amount of political talk in it. From an outsider’s looking in, it feels like more political talk than ever for a Foo Fighters album than ever before. I could have that completely wrong because I could have the wrong perspective on it, but was this one particularly influenced by all the political drama that’s going on?

Well, I mean I think that you can’t help but be influenced by the world around you, there’s no way around it. It’s funny that, that’s been the read on the album. I’ve read that, too. I never got the sense that Dave was writing specifically political songs lyrically about anything, but he was writing those lyrics right after the election and all that stuff, so I’m sure it probably seeped in there somehow. It’s funny that you bring that up, because I was reading an article about us earlier today that’s coming out in Rolling Stone. It’s an interview with Dave and he’s talking about that.

I read that one also, yeah.

Yeah, and that was kind of eye opening to me and I’m in the band. I was like, “Okay, wow.” So maybe it was a little more political than I thought. I don’t know if he’s ever written directly political stuff before, but he kind of talks about it in that article that he was influenced somewhat by that. I think that’s to be expected, we’re living through some pretty crazy times, especially here in The States. It was like, especially right after the election, I feel like half of our country was in shock. I feel like things now, with a little distance, have just settled into a numb feeling of dread. But, at that time, like in November, December, January, it felt like things just did not seem well in the world, and they still don’t.

I guess that kind of social sickness is gonna bleed into the art that’s coming out of that context, so I guess you had no choice.

Right. I mean, just in terms of aggressive songs, I think it goes even beyond the lyrics. It just gets into the vibe of the record as a whole.

It was actually announced overnight for us, so there’s stacks of Aussies who are absolutely stoked, but you guys are gonna be heading down here in January, which is super awesome. David and Tyler were here as Chevy Metal, they did a cheeky little show here. But it’s gonna be so incredible to have the whole band coming back, everyone is really excited. Do you guys get a bit of a buzz coming back to Australia? It feels like there’s a bit of a special connection between Australia and our Fooies.

Yeah, for sure. We love it, we always have a great time. I’ve said it many times, but it’s always the highlight tour of whatever album cycle you’re in. For me it’s like a vacation. You wind up playing a show every three days and then you spend the rest of the time at the beach. Over the years I’ve made lots of friends down there and it feels like home away from home.

That’s amazing. We have various codes of football and soccer, but there’s nothing that fills our stadiums quite like a Foo Fighters concert, so the love is definitely returned from here.

That’s nice. Well, we love it. We always come back and you know? It’s the best.

You can catch The Foo Fighters when they’re in town next year with Weezer, where they’ll be hitting Perth on Saturday the 20th of January, Adelaide on Tuesday the 23rd of January, Brisbane on Thursday the 25th of January, Sydney on Saturday the 27th of January, and wrapping things up in Melbourne on Tuesday the 30th of January.

Listen to Foo Fighters on Hysteria Radio Here.