TN:180 Foo Fighters

Welcome and album overview

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1:00Hello, I'm John Kennedy and joining me for this episode of Take Notes are Foo Fighters to talk about how they wrote, recorded, and produced their latest album, Your Favourite Toy. I was joined by Dave and Nate from the band at Metropolis Studios in London, where we got into how the record came together, digging into the demos, sessions, and songwriting, and breaking down how the ideas developed in the studio. We recorded this on the day the album came out, so they were in good form, full of excitement about the arrival of their new baby.

1:31They had just had their album launch party the night before, which sounded like a lot of fun. There was ice skating, apparently, bowling, and karaoke. And then the same day that we recorded our interview for Take Notes, I did another interview for them for Radio X, a track-by-track conversation. But as ever with Take Notes, we really dug deep into all the gritty details of how they made the record. As always, we filmed the entire conversation, so if you'd like to watch the full interview and see Dave and Nate break down the sessions in detail, head over to patreon.com forward slash take notes.

2:04Membership also gives you behind-the-scenes content, the chance to ask our guests questions, and entry into our monthly gear giveaways. A big thank you as well to our partners at Tape It. They have just released their new Denoiser, delivering instant studio-quality audio by intelligently removing background noise while preserving your sound without artifacts. It's available as a desktop app and VST, and currently half-price at $49. So head to tape.it forward slash Denoiser to check it out. But now, without further ado, let's get started.

2:36We'll be right back.

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3:38Foo Fighters are an American rock band formed in 1994 by Dave Grohl. Known for their alt-rock anthems driven by melody and personality, Foo Fighters grew from Dave's solo project into one of modern rock's biggest and most influential bands. Credited with helping redefine the sound of their era, They have released 12 studio albums, won 15 Grammy Awards, and in 2021 were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

Recording at home

4:07Their 12th studio album, Your Favourite Toy, arrived in April 2026, largely recorded at Dave's home studio. The record is their first with new drummer Ilan Rubin. Today I'm at Metropolis Studios and I'm joined by Dave and bassist Nate Mendel. And what better way to start than by hearing the album's title track. This is your favourite toy.

4:32You'll play the face in a mirror One hand is free in the lens But it ain't getting clearer Dead gardens from bad seas Bad night skies blow on trains Big smile Try not to choke on the glitter Get back Hear that boy Someone pull away your favourite toy For good

5:02For good Hey! Outside and never tell me It is Your Favourite Toy by Foo Fighters, the title track of the new album. And I'm very pleased to say that I am sat here with two Foo Fighters at Metropolis Studios. It feels like we only met a few minutes ago Because we've also recorded an interview for Radio X today But it's great to have you here for Tape Notes To dig into some of the tracks on the new record I thought maybe we should learn where you recorded this album

5:35Because I think that seems such a key ingredient to how you recorded your favourite toy So at home, above what I'm going to say is a garage But you're going to say it's a garage That's right, yeah Yeah, we did this one in my house And we made another record God, it was like 15 years ago Our record Wasting Light We did that one in my house as well But that one we used the actual garage as the drum room

6:06And then we did all of the other overdubs and things upstairs in this little office And so it's quite small I mean, it's maybe a third the size of this room It's really small When we did Wasting Light, we actually brought in a lot of analog equipment We had two API 1608, almost like sidecars, that we bridged together And then this wall of wonderful outboard analog banks of compressors and things

6:44And this time, most of the album was done just like right in the box We do have this beautiful old Neve BCM-10 sidecar It was gorgeous And we've had for, oh my god, 25 years, 26 years We've used for most of our albums Then we have a bunch of like API EQs that we've hot-rodded And, you know, little bits and bobs here and there A nice, small selection of amps

7:15A Wizard amp A Fender Tone Master A couple other things, but like a high watt But really, just everything was really pretty minimal A lot of it had to do with the amount of space available It's just a small room, so we really couldn't fit much in there The drum set we used for the album was my daughter's drum set It's an old Ludwig, and it's a small three-piece But we managed to dial in tones So it really had a bigger sound to it

7:46And is that in the same room? Or is that in a separate room? There's a small isolation booth It's a little bit bigger than a phone booth It's really small Which we used to do vocals And actually downstairs We sort of made this little ISO booth kind of cabinet For the guitar cabinets I had to go down in this section of my garage And move all of the Halloween costumes And the Christmas lights and things And we built this makeshift, like, foam

8:18Kind of cabinet box thing For additional guitar cabinets And, yeah, it was all really sort of, like, makeshift in a way The equipment that we used to do a lot of the demos on the album You know, it was all just sort of newer digital stuff With some cool older microphones But then when it became clear that we were going to record the actual album at home You know, I had this idea that it would be great to have a place

8:5030 feet from my bed Where, if so inspired I could just kind of roll out of bed Go upstairs, record something really quickly But have it be album quality In the gear that we would use So we did spend a little time upgrading what was upstairs But for the most part, it was pretty minimal Yeah And, you know, and it's cool Like, to wake up in the morning and make coffee And get the kids ready for school And then walk upstairs

9:21And our producer-engineer, Oliver Roman Is already in there You know, he's I would text him and say What time are you coming over? And he'd say Oh, I'm already in your house And so it was So every day it was It was great, you know To be able to put down a vocal And say Okay, I'm going to go downstairs and make dinner And then make dinner And then bring Oliver a plate As he's editing through something Or, you know, making rough mixes And it just makes it seem a lot more

9:53You know, a lot less I don't know, clinical or professional or something To do things at your own pace In your own place Made for a really comfortable experience And also, like, a good space to experiment You know, there's no clock on the wall, really And there's no other clients waiting to get in the room So, to me, it was ideal Yeah Especially for an album like this Yeah, and it sounds great And yet, you know, in that small space

10:24With that kind of makeshift setup It still sounds like a massive Foo Fighters album And we're going to explore that today By digging into some of the songs on the record

Asking for a Friend

10:34And the first song we're going to look at Is Asking for a Friend So, Nate, if you could play It's a Blaster of the Master That would be brilliant Save your promises Until we meet again You can save all your promises Until the bitter end What is real? I'm asking for a friend

11:07What is real?

11:11I'm asking for a friend Or is this the end?

11:22Give me a reason Show me a sign Ugliest truth Or the prettiest lies I feel it fading away Fading on you Just a little taste of Asking for a Friend by Foo Fighters From Your Favourite's Toy This was the first song, I think, recorded for the record before you knew you were making an album, in a way Well, there was this thought originally that, you know, people don't really make albums necessarily anymore

11:54and you can just record a song and put it out So we were kind of experimenting with that idea Like, let's just It doesn't have to be for anything or part of a larger ensemble of songs and just make a song So that's really how this song came about Yeah Yeah, there was a song that came out before Asking for a Friend a song called Today's Song And that was I feel like that was around It was an anniversary, maybe I think it might have been

12:24in July of last year It was the anniversary of our first record which came out on July 4th 1995 Oh God, it was the 30th anniversary of our first record That's what it was Holy crap That's a lot of time I forgot about that part Yeah, and so we recorded this song It was the first thing that we had released in a long time and we put it out just as a standalone single And as Nate said

12:54we'd never really done that before Like, aren't you supposed to have an entire album to present to the world? Apparently these days you don't have to have that And so then as we did this song it was just as Elan joined the band and he'd literally been in the band for a matter of days So this song there were maybe some demos that preceded this session but it was really at first just kind of an exercise in time signature

13:27where what is it? One, two, three One, two, three One, two, three One, two, three See, I don't really even know how to count time signatures I know it sounds horrible I'm a drummer But I did like the idea of And how you could play with patterns within that not only time signature but like almost

13:57drum beats that would roll like or go double time So it was really just like this kind of experiment or exercise in playing with those patterns. But then it had to become a song in order for it to be worth anything other than just a riff. And so we started putting it all together.

14:32There was an intro and there was a verse. And the chorus had a sort of busier pattern than the stripped down verse.

14:48Maybe we could, because I think you don't have any demos with you today, Nate, but you do have the stems. So you could start playing. I mean, it's beautiful being serenaded here by you, Dave. But we have the stems, so we could kind of play through some of those parts that Dave is talking about. All right. Well, do you want to start with the drums? Yeah. Can I hear what's going on there? Let's hear the drums. All right. Which are not in the intro.

15:14And Alain. Boom. Yeah. And here comes Batten. So we should emphasize that Alain had a call a couple of days before this. You said, oh, can you come over? How soon can you do it? He comes over to your house and you tell him to play this, you know, in effect. And this is probably either his first or second take.

15:46Wow. I mean, when you sort of play something for him, he's just so brilliant that you hardly have to explain anything to him. He can also just hear what's needed or necessary. So yeah, this one, we put a lot of work into this song, actually. I had such a hard time with the bass and that triplet part. Did you really? I didn't get, I was playing it and I was like, this doesn't, this doesn't feel right. And Alain was like, that's not right, man.

16:17Well, for whatever reason, like the straight beat with the triplet thing over it, I was just, I was taken aback by how tricky that was. Got it though. And when, when did you put down the bass? You know, so you were working on the drums. What was the next thing to go down? I think maybe at first, like we put down the drums and then we put down some guitars for like a melodic reference. Because also at that point, I don't think I really had a vocal melody.

16:47It really did just start with the, with the time signature and the rhythmic patterns. Then it was a matter of trying to find a song in it. And so I'm sure like some guitars were put down with some kind of melodic reference. Yeah. It's usually you, you've got your guitar down, there's drums. And then a lot of times I'll come in next. Yeah. Maybe, maybe we could hear the drums, then a bit of the guitar and then the bass. Yeah. Okay.

17:14And then this will be Dave.

17:18So Metallica. Okay, so there's that. And then see what the bass is doing.

17:33Look at that right in time.

17:36No editing. See?

17:43But it's interesting. I mean, how much time did you have to work it out? I'm looking to see if I have a demo of this because I might, but I don't remember what I called it. Oh, wait. Yeah.

18:16So you begin with.

18:46And would you have played that to Elan when he came over? Yeah, that would be, that would be something. So he'd have heard that and then he's kind of building on that. Yes. And then you were able to rework the guitars and put down some more things. But then clearly you had a second thought. You thought, right, it's, it's too metal or it's, it's, what was the reaction to that? It just didn't seem to be, you know, I think it's sometimes easy to wind up with a patterned riff

19:17that's all based in one key. And, you know, a lot of heavy metal songs are like, you know, You know, and you're just using that, like that root note key for everything. It's like, or whatever, instead of having the chords move to introduce, like, maybe a

19:52more interesting melody or whatever. So I think that, for me, that was the challenge. It was like, okay, how, this is a cool pattern. How do we turn it into a song? Yeah. So, so what did you do next? You know, how did you turn it into? I mean, I think the next part might have been the second verse after the chorus, maybe. Or is this the end?

20:21When you're alone, am I a part of you?

20:27Am I a part of you? So you're staying within the rhythm. Am I a part of you?

20:34Oh, you don't know how am I a part of you? Am I a part of you? Am I a part of you? Am I a part of you? But also that original riff, that which was used in the intro of the song, can also be used over that bridge section or that second verse or whatever. So basically just trying to find these interchangeable pieces that will work on top of each other without just staying in that one kind of flat key

21:10the entire time. So it was really just, yeah. It was kind of like, it's like a Rubik's cube trying to get one side solid, get all of those pieces to work together. So there was that. And then there was the idea of having it go double time. And when it gets to the double time part, that was, I think, the original, our original attempt at that was like even more Metallica. Got a gallop.

21:43So who's playing all those different guitars? Is that you, Dave? Or is that Chris playing it? Fuck no, that's Chris. I could never do that. And at what point did Chris put down those? So you'd already changed the tempo by that point. And it's like, right, Chris, this is what's happening next. Yeah. I mean, I thought that, you know, just to put it into double time and bring it somewhere else. And, you know, it just made sense that like after that big drum roll, I could just go straight into like a screaming late.

22:17Yeah. I mean, I grew up like a rock and roll kid and very much like a metal kid as well. So this like takes from a lot of those cues. Chris is really in his wheelhouse with that solo too. His 80s heavy metal background. Yeah. He can shred a lot. And, you know, and this song is much different than the other songs on the album in that there's a lot of movement in this song. Yeah. There's breaks. There's different sort of time signature stuff,

22:50drum pattern stuff, melodic stuff. It'd be nice to go through them all. I mean, but I think we need to let Chris have his, his moment. And maybe solo the solo Chris is ripping. Do we solo the solo?

23:14And where is he standing when he's doing this then? Is he downstairs? He's upstairs right in front of the console, right in front of the sitting right next to Oliver or producer engineer. And I'm like usually right behind him on this old Ames chair with my legs up on an ottoman just listening and watch. I mean, you know, again, Chris is also entirely capable of doing things that none of us can do. So, you know, you can kind of throw him suggestions or,

23:48but yeah, Chris also grew up as like a rocker dude. And we don't have that many opportunities in our songs to. I feel like there was a lot on this record. It's like, oh, here's the solo section. It's like, really? Again? Right. Maybe more so than before. And is he using a particular amp or a particular set of gears to create that sound? I wonder what he was using for that. He was probably running through. Well, his go-to is the Freedmen, but that might be live. I'm not sure what he was recording with. Yeah.

24:19Gaffstack. Maybe the Wizard? I'm bad when it comes to guitar amp stuff. I just go, I usually blast through this old Tone Master thing. Whenever we record it, it's like I use the Tone Master and an old Tridi Lopez guitar. And that kind of is the... That's your sound. That Tone Master is great. That's a great amp. But yeah. We also do have a bunch of pedals in this sort of like pedal cabinet where you can like pull out a drawer and there's all these cool pedals to use.

24:51But that doesn't sound overly affected to me. No, it's pretty straight ahead. Yeah. Kind of relatively clean. Yeah. It's so much fun to play with pedals and get the most tripped out fucking spacey tones. But sometimes you go too far and you just lose all of it in the track. So sometimes, you know, something a lot more simple and direct will be more effective. Yeah. So that is a good example of a guitar lead that sounds like a cable and a guitar that goes straight to an amp and you just fucking turn it up.

25:28Yeah. Yeah. And you just play like Chris can play. And you just play like Chris can play. Let's hear some of these changes then within this song. If we were kind of... You could maybe run through them. Well, okay. So let's see. All right. We got the intro section, which is this arpeggiated thing, which is quite different than the rest of the song. It's kind of building up there.

25:55It's solo the guitar things. Okay. So this will be you.

26:01So it's a drop D tuning.

26:06And...

26:08That's not in yet. No. Chris is doing this high thing. I'm doubling what you're doing up high. Yeah. There were harmonics put in there as well. You know, sometimes when you start layering a combination of harmonics and then arpeggiated string, plucking of strings or whatever, you wind up with these really cool overtones that the instruments as a group will make a certain note that you may not have exactly played, you know?

26:46So those harmonics with that arpeggiated thing, to me, it was almost... They're like bells in a way. And the rhythm of the picking, you're sort of like... You're introducing the rhythm of the song or the beat. I really love percussive guitar playing. You know, like Malcolm Young from ACDC is just as instrumental rhythmically as Phil Rudd, the drummer of ACDC. And so to have all of these things taken into consideration, whether it's the drums or the baseline or the arpeggiated stuff,

27:21it's all to sort of... It really turns into like a freaky musical drum circle in a way, even though there's only one drum set. But yeah, so the introduction is meant to sort of introduce that sway, you know, the waltz. Yeah, yeah. And then there's a little bit of a 90s dynamic here. You got the quiet, pretty part and then the rock out part. This is the end! There's a tension through the song, you know, that it feels...

28:04I mean, it does take off, but it feels as if it's going to take off now. And then it's like, oh, no, it's not quite yet. Do you know what I mean? Well, Taylor used to call it stress rock. Right. Stress rock. Oh my God, I haven't heard that in so long. Yeah, it's got a bit of that. It's intensive. Yes, yeah. I'm thinking of terms of... There's got to be a baritone in there, too. Would Pat have been playing it? There's got to be a baritone. Let's see where Pat's at.

28:35There it is.

28:40Okay, so that's Pat. And the great thing about the baritone, too, when you have those moments of those stabs. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. You know, you throw in a baritone on top of that. It just kind of like sounds like a fucking machine gun. You know, it's funny. Some of my favorite... There's this band from Montreal. Actually, they're not from Montreal. They're from way north of Montreal. They're from the same little town as Angine de Poitrine.

29:13There's a band. There's a metal band from the 80s. There's still a band called Voivod. And they were just from the middle of nowhere, Quebec. And they had this song called Thrashing Rage. And the riff was just... And they were like these really tripped out northern Quebec fucking metal dudes. Their band was based on a science fiction concept.

29:45Voivod. But that song, when they played it live, it was in the 80s. The singer would come out and he had like a gas mask on and this smoke machine. And he would blast these clouds of smoke to the rhythm of the drums. So it'd be like... And he'd come out on stage with this gas mask and go... It was just like anything to further the fucking power of a simple riff like that.

30:17My head left that bit of stage... We do have a tour coming up. Time to get a gas mask. And there's so many ideas. I'm conscious of the time. So is there anything else you'd like to highlight in this song before we move on? Hmm. Yeah. Something near the end. Yeah, I want to hear some screaming. A little bit of screaming. Because there's some pretty great screaming near the end, isn't there? Yeah, let's get to some of those hot screams. Let's see what we're at here. I'm asking for a friend. Or is this the end?

30:47Damn. Damn. And how do you record that? How do you make sure it sounds the way you want it to sound? You know, it doesn't go too much in the red or doesn't distract too much? You know what's so funny? Last night, we were having dinner at a restaurant. And it was Nate and Alon and I, our manager, John, and his wife, our friend Russell, our friend Ray. And a man walks up to the table and says, hey, how's it going?

31:24And I was like, good. How are you? An American. And it was Rich Costi who mixed our record Echoes, Silence, Pace, and Grace. And oh my God, he's one of my favorite people in the world. I was so excited. I hadn't seen him in 15 years. He's made Muse records and he's made a ton of huge records. And it was great to see him. And we talked and swapped numbers and stuff. But my favorite memory of him was when we were mixing one of our albums, that album, Echo, Silence, Pace, and Grace.

31:57And he was working on an automated leave at a studio in Los Angeles. And every time the song got to the big explosive part, the board would shut down. And he was like, what the fuck? And so he would call in the engineer, the house engineer. And he'd get the board back up. And then Rich would keep mixing. And then it would get to that point in the song where it would explode. And the board would go down. And he was like, what the fuck? And I was looking at the meters on the board. And the meters were pegged.

32:29Just solid red the whole time. And so I said to him, I was like, Rich, might it have something to do with the fact that every meter on this bridge, like every piece of gear is just pegged? And he said, don't look at that. And he got tape and put tape over every one of the meters so you didn't watch what was happening. You just used your ears. And so instead of the fear of pushing a needle too far to the red, you were appreciating the distortion or however that sound was just being crammed into every compressor and every EQ.

33:15And so when recording something like a dirty vocal or a scream or a distorted vocal, it's like, I don't fucking care what the meter says. It's like, I'm just going to scream as hard as I fucking can. And Oliver Roman, who recorded and produced the record with us, he gets it, you know? I'd hate to lose the moment for the sake of clarity. And so something like that, it's like, but I kind of have to warn him.

33:47Okay, I'm going to scream. And I scream and like we end the take and I just see him in the control room just going like laughing hysterically. Do it again. Do it again. Amazing. I think we should have a blast of everything together to hear Asking for a Friend in all its glory.

34:30It is Asking for a Friend by Foo Fighters from your favourite toy. And the next one we're going to look at is Spits Shine.

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36:13That's better.

36:16When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast. That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs.

Patron questions and songwriting

36:46The next song we're going to look at is Spit Shine. But before we get there, I have a couple of questions for you from our patrons on Patreon. So, we let people know who we've got coming on. They're very excited about Foo Fighters being part of the show. Ruby wants to know, what's a moment in your career that felt small at the time but ended up changing everything? That's actually, that's a great question. Maybe, just off the top of my head, we were talking about it earlier, when you came back from vacation when we were doing The Color and Shape and you brought in Everlong.

37:16It's just like, oh, here's a song.

37:19Sounds pretty good. We'll see what happens. You know, you have no idea what the life of a song is going to be, right? Yeah. So, yeah, in retrospect, a big moment. What else? There was a moment when I was 14 years old, maybe 15, and I went to see a punk rock show in Washington, D.C. And I met these other kids that were my age in between bands. We were, there was a place called the Wilson Center.

37:49And we were outside, like, smoking clove cigarettes and being cool little punk rock kids. And I met these other guys, and they had a band. And at that time, I just played guitar. I didn't play the drums. But I loved to pretend to play the drums at home. And I joined this band. They were called Freak Baby. And I was the second guitarist. And the drummer's name was Dave Smith. And Dave had a drum set in his basement.

38:22That's where we would rehearse. And he was a good punk rock drummer. But there was, but I sort of, I kind of knew that I could do it maybe a little better than he could. And I remember suggesting, hey, how about this? And he was like, why don't, why don't I play drums? And you play the bass. And he was like, okay.

38:53He's a great bass player. And so I just immediately, like, got on the drum set and picked up the sticks and became a drummer. That day. In that moment. Up until then, it was just like I was sitting at home listening to, you know, minor threat records or punk rock. Rock records with pillows and sticks. Now it's on a real drum set. I was like, whoa. And I was just like.

39:25I knew how to do it. And I was like, oh my God. The band instantly sounded better. I'm like, holy fucking shit, I'm a drummer. This is great. And that kind of changed everything in that moment. Wow. Where at the time it was like, yay, we have a punk rock band. But kind of changed my life. Yeah. That's amazing. And it links in to the other question I'm going to ask now, which is from Nick Webb, who says, Elan has a book on drumming. Dave, if you wrote a book on songwriting, what would be the most important ideas in it? You know, I bought Elan's book off of Amazon.com.

40:01I couldn't wait to read it. I couldn't wait to read it. And I opened it up. And it was a lot of sheet music, which I can't read. I'm like, god damn it.

40:15He wrote a book of music. He's so brilliant. He's so brilliant. He's so incredible. I mean, he is a fully formed musician. The other day at the studio, he looked in the corner. We have a piano at the studio, which we don't use that often. We don't use it. I think other people do. And he said, oh, it's a Steinway that Clive Davis gifted to us after one of our records. And it's used in the studio, but we don't use it often.

40:50The Foo Fighters don't. And he sits down and he starts playing Mozart like a classical pianist. And I'm just like, are you fucking kidding me right now? And he wasn't fumbling his way through it either. No. Yeah. He was handling it. Diddle-a-loo, diddle-a-loo, diddle-a-loo, diddle-a-loo, which is like, holy fucking shit. This guy. If I had to write a book on songwriting? Yeah. Oh, jeez. I mean, recently I had this idea that I wanted to talk about this album in terms of songwriting,

41:24which actually we're doing right now. And I was going to write this whole piece on why people write songs. Not necessarily how, but like, why? Why do people feel the need to do it? And I had this idea that I was going to book in the whole piece with a quote from Nate, where we were recording an album in my basement in Virginia. I think it was the fourth record, third or fourth record. And I was stuck on a lyric. And I was wasting everyone's time.

41:54I think everyone was downstairs waiting for me to record the vocal. But I was on a blank page. I was uninspired. I didn't have anything to write. And Nate says to me, he goes, you know, not every song has to be imagined by John Lennon. You know that, right? Like, you could just write something. And I'm like, oh, it was really liberating. I'm like, oh, phew. I don't have to write imagined today? Great. And so, but it's funny because the bookend, I wanted to sort of tie it all together at

42:25the end of the piece by saying, you know, what might not seem imagined to you could be imagined to someone else. You know, first of all, lyrics are subjective and, you know, they're up to one's own personal interpretation or whatever. So there's some lyrics that I'll read from other artists and think like, eh, it's kind of nonsense. Whereas that person is decoding some sort of emotion within themselves and no matter how

43:00quickly or how much thought they put into it, it's revealing in some way. I think one thing that maybe a problem that I have had in the past is just self-editing to the point of losing the, the original, uh, the original intent. You know, it's almost like improvisational when you just do something, uh, that happens quickly with, with no self-editing that it can often be the most revealing.

43:33And that's a lot of this, that on this record. And as we dig through the tracks and listen to stuff, I'm constantly finding a new meaning or a new depth to something that I may not have considered before. Yeah. So, you know, I'm not the type of person that's going to walk around with a journal and a bottle of red wine sitting in the park and writing an endless tome of fucking poetry, but when I have to, I will. Yeah. And, and, and we're going to hear some more of that poetry in song.

44:05Oh God. Right now. It's been trying to great. It's been trying to the song. So if you could give us a blast of the bus, Nate, that would be great. This little river. This little river. This little river.

44:42A little taste of spit shine from your favorite toy by Foo Fighters. The next song we're going to dig into.

Spit Shine

45:08How did this one come about? This one was an idea that came up kind of a while back, maybe like 2018, 19, we were about to make the Medicine at Midnight record and we have a recording studio, but it's always busy. And I wanted to have a place to just set up a little studio and record ideas.

45:39So there was this big, old, weird haunted house looking mansion, not far from where I live. And, uh, we rented it out so that we could make demos there and we wound up making a record there, then we wound up making a horror movie there too, but, um, it sounded great in there. And there was something about that, that this is one of those songs that really is based on a rhythm, which, um, but that it's the sort of swish of the high, actually solo, the drums.

46:18Yeah, let's do it. It almost sounds like shakers.

46:30Hey.

46:32Like, and to me, it was like, I don't know, I don't know what you would call that beat or, but it just kind of had this little skip to it. And I love those side beats, you know, like, like there's something about it that it seems kind of like, I just want to shake your shoulders. It seems kind of fun in a way, you know, I mean, it's not unlike something, you know, like the, like the, no one knows by Queens of the Stars. There's just like, has a side step to it.

47:08It's kind of cool. So it actually, in the course of this, there's a little bit of swing to it, but everything was just sort of based on that and the idea of having a really rapid fire vocal. I mean, it's funny. Like, originally the cadence of the vocal was like, there was no break. There was no breath in it. It was like.

47:40And I remember the first version when we recorded it, our producer, Oliver, he was like, it was so hard for me to just breathe while I was singing. I'm like, I think I might find a new pattern. He's like, I think that's a good idea. It's a bit much. Do you want to hear? I have that. Do you really? Was it jumpy or? No, it was spaz. This is the demo. So it was like, just, you know, like messing around for fun.

48:35Again, because, you know, again, not every song has to be imagined. So like, you know, why not just kind of have fun with it? And I remember after doing that, I would play it for people. And actually, Nate's wife, Kate, was like, she loved that thing. Surprisingly, because it's not her jam ordinarily. One more Americana. I was like, wow, okay. But again, like, you know, you have to have the right ingredients in order to make that happen. And so like, I could scream my lungs out all day long.

49:09We can come up with riffs all day long. And it takes a great drummer to, like, be able to sort of tie all of those things together and to have it patterned in a way. Like, you know, as much as I love rock and roll, I've always been a fan of electronic music. Going back to like, remember the Young Gods? Did you know about the Young Gods? Yeah, yeah, yeah. From Switzerland. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing group. And they were sort of mixing, like, you know, live instrumentation with samples and synthesizers

49:43and stuff. I love the Young Gods. Kissing the Sun. It's a great song. Yeah. They also had that, there was an EP or a song called Envoyé. Do you remember that? They were just so cool. I loved it when bands sang with accents. Death metal bands from Brazil. Yeah. If you sang like this, it made it sound even more sinister, you know? But anyway, so, but, you know, so I love Prodigy. You know, I love Chemical Brothers. I love Propeller Heads. I love all of these.

50:15So there's something about like that repetitive pattern of something. Dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun-dun. And then, of course, it's just like four on the floor. Doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh, doosh. You know, to try to like, see if you can achieve an analog version of Atari Teenage Riot. Like, wouldn't that be great? So, yeah, so the foundation of this was really that rhythm and a really repetitive riff. So let's hear the rhythm again, but with the vocal that you did go for, that allowed you to breathe.

50:48Sure. Favorite part of the record right there.

51:06And then the whole thing. It's great the way the contrast with once you introduce the oohs and then get into this.

51:37You know, it's like the light relief to the intensity of what came before. You know, another thing I love about this song is, so it's an ascending riff. And then when Chris comes in, he has a descending riff that goes over that. And putting those two things together, I feel like maybe. Where does he come in with that? There it is. Yeah. Over this.

52:12Yeah. Yeah, that sounds pretty cool. It sounds like a swarm of fucking insects or something. Yeah. And a lot of that just happened, like, in the moment, right off the top. I remember when Chris did that guitar line, Pat was in on the couch laughing hysterically. Oh, my God. I love it. That's hilarious. And, you know, if you have that feeling as you're doing it, then you're going to have that feeling as you're playing it live in front of a lot of people. And, yeah, it's that kind of spirit or energy of something that you want to retain.

52:47Yeah, totally. I want to hear that there's a nice bit of bass in the bridge. Can I switch it up? Oh, is that the breakdown bit? Yeah. Yeah. Let's see where we're at.

52:58Let's just continue in the rough way.

53:07Oh, yeah, the theremin, too. We should solo that. So I don't know why, but I sort of imagined, like, ooh, it'd be kind of cool to put a theremin on this. And we were trying to—we were calling around looking for people who had cool old theremins, you know? And we couldn't find one, so I went on Amazon.com, and I bought this theremin that was, like—it was probably this big with an antenna that's, like, about that high.

53:40It was probably $19, and I got it in 24 hours. Set it up, and Rami shows up, our keyboard player. I don't think he'd ever played a theremin before. He's like, wait, what do you want me to do? Hiya, what do I do? What do I do? I'm like, dude, you just, you know, I don't know. I've never used one. And so we just sat there kind of playing with him and laughing hysterically, because it's almost like a whoopee cushion. It's like, it's just always funny.

54:13Theremin over theremin over theremin. And it was just the most ridiculous thing. It was fun to watch, Rami. Yeah. Is he bringing that out on the road? Oh, hell yes. I mean, you know, we have to be careful, or it could turn into dazed and confused really quickly. We did a video for this song just before we left on this trip, and my favorite part of that was watching Rami play the theremin. Perform the theremin. Perform the theremin. That was really, he wasn't playing it. He was performing it. It's like a demented swan lake.

54:44Brilliant. We're going to have to have a blast to the end, and then we can move on and have a listen to If You Only Knew. We'll be right back.

55:21We're going to have a blast to the end, and then we'll be right back.

55:51That was Spitshine, and we're going to take a quick break, and we'll be back, and we're going to play If You Only Knew. When you need to build up your team to handle the growing chaos at work, use Indeed Sponsored Jobs. It gives your job post the boost it needs to be seen and helps reach people with the right skills, certifications, and more. Spend less time searching and more time actually interviewing candidates who check all your boxes. Listeners of this show will get a $75 sponsored job credit at Indeed.com slash podcast.

56:27That's Indeed.com slash podcast. Terms and conditions apply. Need a hiring hero? This is a job for Indeed Sponsored Jobs. Visible puts unlimited 5G data and hotspot in the palm of your hand. Powered by Verizon's 5G network with no contract holding you back. And for a limited time, you can get Visible for just $19 a month for 12 months when you use promo code SAVE6. All the features of big wireless service for half the cost. Tap the banner to switch today. Terms apply. Standard rate applies at month 13.

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If You Only Knew

57:03The next one we're going to look at is If You Only Knew. So if you could give us a blast to the master, that would be brilliant. Now wait a minute, long lost friend, everything comes around, here we go again. Ain't it a pity, ain't that a shame, you're gone without a trace, face without a name.

57:35Oh no, not you, I don't, you do, you die, who knows, and so it goes, same old story, don't you worry.

58:05Just a little taste of If You Only Knew by Foo Fighters from your favorite toy. How did this one come about? This one began on an acoustic guitar. The riff. Down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down. So in a way it almost has like this kind of old James gang sort of funk role to it.

58:36Not that it's a funk song, but it does have a little bit of a swagger to it. And we have a bad habit of sometimes beginning songs not on the one. So to me, I hear the one perfectly for this song. I just, I don't know why, and I can't read music and I'm bad with time signatures. But to me, it was like, I could feel the down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down, down.

59:14So to me, it feels perfectly natural that way. And then when I was playing everybody the demo of this song, it would come in and they'd be like, whoa. And they'd feel upside down. Actually, I think I do have that on my phone. And I used to call it, I think I called it stroll, just the instrumental.

59:36And the one thing I liked about this demo is that that's a combination of an acoustic and a trini together.

59:56It almost reminded me of like a Bowie Ronson kind of, you know, it just had this like swagger to it, you know.

1:00:26So what was the issue, Nate, you know, when if you're all looking at Dave saying, what's going on? Yeah, what's the issue, Nate? Well, I had an issue with the pre-chorus. That's where I get lost. And how it got weird. Yeah. It was like, one, two, three, four, where am I? What's going on?

1:00:45Yeah, this part seems more straightforward to me.

1:00:50You're right, though. It does have that Bowie Ronson thing going on. And I'm kind of visualizing David strumming that acoustic guitar. Yeah. Yeah.

1:01:23Got it. I'm just watching Nate as you're listening to the bass. I got the count now. Right. It's weird when it gets to that point. Like, it's funny because, you know, people count things differently. And sometimes it doesn't matter. Like, it doesn't matter. There was once when I was recording on a Nine Inch Nails record. Drums. And it was this demo thing.

1:01:55And it was called With Teeth. I think that's what it was. It was a song called With Teeth. And it was for a record called With Teeth. And the riff was like, Like that. And I'd go in and do a take. And Trent and Atticus were there. And they'd say, okay, let's do one more take. But make sure you hit a crash on the one.

1:02:26I'm like, okay. So do it again. And I'd go in and do a take. And Trent and Atticus were there.

1:02:30And I'd do another take. And they're like, great. Okay. Just one more. But just get the crash on the one. I'm like, great. So I'm like.

1:02:40And they're like, come in here. And I walk into the control room. And they're like. They start playing the track. They're like, tell me where you think the one is. And I was like.

1:02:53And the two of them just start laughing. That's not the one. The one is here. And it was on some weird side note thing that fucked me up. Like I was so confused. And so I was like, well, that's not my one. Like, okay. That's your one. As long as I recognize the pattern. Just tell me where to put the symbol. I'll put it there. But I've got my own one. So it's kind of that way. It's like you've got like a box of rhythmic knowledge. You know, like I feel like I can handle most things that come my way. And it's every once in a while, I want to come out of left field.

1:03:23It's like, I don't get that. I can't do that. But it's hard to, it's almost like it's, you know, it's hard to unsee something. You know, you see something, it's like, oh, God. And you'll never. It's also hard to unhear something. So it's hard to unhear the one. It's hard to put it somewhere else. Yeah. Yeah. Or when you scat over a song and then can't unhear it.

1:03:50So going back into If You Only Knew, let's hear some more from the song. And maybe you could like build up the track with the parts and talk us through it. Yeah. Okay, cool. Maybe should we start with the drums? We could just go from there. Drum Chack. Alain Rubin. You know, one of the other great things about Alain is that he has perfect flams.

1:04:20He has a perfect, perfect distance between the notes and his flams. It's very important. Some people choke their flams.

1:04:30Alain does not choke his flams. I remember when he was warming up backstage before a show with this little practice pad. He's like, what are you doing over there? He's like, oh, I'm trying to get my left hand to be at the exact same intensity as my right hand. It's not just get the pattern right. It's got to be even. Very detail-oriented.

1:04:48Ambidextrous, I'd say. Open-handed drummer.

1:04:52There are true advantages to that. But also a great, like, swing. You know, you could feel that he's not rushing. Yeah. Though he's not dragging.

1:05:10It's a very natural. I mean, you know, he's a Zeppelin fanatic. And so he really does pull from the feel of, like, Zeppelin stuff. Yeah. But, um... So what should we hear next? Is it a bass on top of that? Or have you gone for... Get in there, Nate. Yeah. More Nate. Oh, here's me struggling to figure out the pre-chorus.

1:05:41I'm just root-noting in here. Nothing too interesting happening here. That's good. You know, sometimes you just... Sometimes you just gotta, like, yeah. Fill it up. Here, take a look at it. We've got some... You know, in this breakdown, actually, you've got some really wonderful Rami Jaffe. Um...

1:06:12Really, what can you do? Oh, yeah.

1:06:17Here comes Rami. I need somebody to take my hand. Really, what can you do?

1:06:34Lead me somewhere I can lay to rest. That's a really nice pattern. That's great. If you want to learn new... This is Pat.

1:06:49That is Pat.

1:06:53It's funny... Got all germs in there. Pat usually goes last when it comes to tracking. And we've usually put all of the, you know, main ingredients into the song. A rhythm guitar, some sort of melodic movement that Chris will do. Maybe in a higher register. And then... Nate. Rami. And it's like, how can we make this song bigger? I swear to God, you just give Pat one fucking take.

1:07:24And he'll take it there. Like, he really does. Smiling. The funny thing is that, you know, it's the sort of raw energy of his playing that makes the track bigger. The chords that he uses. The sound that he gets. The way he strums. All those things. And he can usually get that in one take. But he loves recording. You know, a lot of people get red light fever. They get scared when it comes time to record. But he does not.

1:07:55And once he's finished something, he doesn't want to stop. Like, it sounds great. He's like, no, let me do it again. This is fun. And you're like, well, okay. But I think we have it. But yeah, this song, there's, you know, this isn't outside of the, you know, rhythmic complications. It's a pretty simple song. There's a few guitars and there's some lead notes here and there. But it's also, it's another song where we used, I think it was a 58, which we sort of blew

1:08:25out with some distortion. Actually, yeah. Let's listen to the vocal and the verse. So we have a tiny, like, slap delay that we put on there. And then we lose the slap. Hold on. Oh, yeah.

1:08:56I know. Which kind of makes it jump a little bit more. It comes, it goes, same old story. Don't be sorry. If you want it new. If you want it new. Oh, I'm actually on this one, I'll put a lower register octave vocal. Maybe you feel the way I do.

1:09:26If you want it new.

1:09:32Doubling vocals. It's a good thing. It's a good thing. It's very effective. I love it. I think we should go back into the track and to round things off and highlight Pat and highlight everybody as you play it. Chris has some really great lead stuff in there, too. Yeah. Yeah. Got a little bit of Nashville in there.

1:10:16A little Nashville. Yeah. A little rock and roll. Sounded great. So good to hear all those different parts. Can we get a blast of them all together now and hear the master of If You Only You? If you want it new. If you want it new. If you want it new. If you want it new. Maybe you feel the way I do.

1:10:51If you want it new. It's from your favorite toy.

1:11:22And that's the last track we're looking at today.

Favorite gear and closing tracks

1:11:24But we are going to let you go, Dave and Nate. But there's one more question I want to ask you, which is a question that we ask everybody who comes on the podcast. And it's about a favorite piece of equipment or a piece of tech that you maybe couldn't have made this record without. Oh, wow. I couldn't have made this record without. Well, you know, I have a lucky guitar and it was the first Gibson Trini Lopez that I ever purchased. And I bought it at a guitar shop in Bethesda, Maryland called Southworth Guitars.

1:12:00And it was one of those guitar shops that just like, it was like a museum. You know, you'd walk in and you'd see all of these beautiful classic guitars. And I didn't at that point, I think I was, it was maybe I'm, I was still in Nirvana and I just wanted like a hollow body to, um, to put it in my lap instead on the couch and just mess around. Um, and I'm looking at this row of old Gibson, like three 35s and they're all beautiful.

1:12:38And there was this one that had this funny headstock and it looked, the body shape and design was the same, except it had these diamond F holes and different headstock. And I was like, oh, that's kind of cool. And so I bought it and brought it home and just played it on the couch, but it eventually became, it was, it became the lucky guitar that's been on every record that we've ever made. And, um, I think that, um, for a lot of reasons, it's a great guitar.

1:13:11It's very dynamic. The harder you play it, the harder it sounds, the more gentle you play it, the more gentle it sounds, it's reactive to touch more so than a lot of other guitars that I have also has sort of like this exposed bridge thing that can act as almost like a snare. It becomes like this additional percussive element to whatever riff you're playing. And it has a chime to it. So we've never made a record without that guitar.

1:13:41I don't think. And, um, it's almost like a superstition to me. So, um, I, I, we couldn't have made this record without that guitar because I don't want to make a record without that guitar. I think that's probably the one piece. Amazing. We need to choose one more song, another track from the album, a kind of outro song as you walk off into the sunset. You started with your favorite toy, right? Yeah. Yep. So as we walk off into the sunset, let's listen to Unconditional.

1:14:19Excellent. So good. I'm so good to be able to hear these things and be able to isolate them and, and see them in all that detail. Really exciting. Thank you for spending time with us and allowing us this opportunity. Thank you very much. This is Unconditional by Foo Fighters.

1:14:37Thank you for listening. And in particular, thanks to all of you who have signed up to support us on Patreon. I'm just one part of the team that brings you take notes and it relies on your support. Access to Patreon includes the full length videos of new episodes where possible, ad free episodes and detailed gear lists among many other things. If you'd like to join, head to the link on our socials or website.

1:15:09For pictures, highlight clips and behind the scenes content, head to our Instagram or YouTube channel. And on Discord, you can join the growing Take Notes community. Once again, thank you for listening. Until next time. Goodbye. оказque. Can't see what's on my mind I'm just not sure Find a better way To explain this To you

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