STACK #196 Feb 2021

MUSIC FEATURE

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FIGHTING FIT

Sitting about staring at their completed record gathering cobwebs, Foo Fighters decided the usual release-and-tour marriage could go kick rocks; Medicine at Midnight has arrived in its post-grunge splendour (sprinkled with a few unexpected curiosities) despite the pandemic, and guitarist Chris Shiflett gave us some insight into its concoction. Words Zoë Radas

L et’s pretend you’re Dave Grohl (don’t think on it too hard, just listen), and it’s time to record the tenth album by your wildly successful band Foo Fighters. Everyone’s jazzed, you have your pick of spaces in LA, and you’re ready to roll. Where do you go to lay down the fresh meat? Frank Zappa’s meticulously constructed Utility Muffin Research Kitchen in the Hollywood Hills? Josh Homme’s outlaw-chic Pink Duck Studios? Hans Zimmer’s Austrian-bordello- mansion, never before used for any kind of recording, which you must rent from a guy who reportedly requests you sign a non-disclosure agreement because of the property’s weird history? inspired rooms in Santa Monica? Or do you select a decomposing

“It was a funky old house, kind of sliding off the hill,” describes warm and breezy guitarist Chris Shiflett. “It needs a little maintenance, a little love, that house! It’s being reclaimed by Encino at this point.

was a nice environment, a laid-back kind of place to record.” Grohl has described strange occurrences during recording (guitars spontaneously detuning, mysteriously added

ProTools tracks containing only open mic noises, and so on). Shiflett is a bit less whimsical in his assessment of the place, but grants there were a few spectral moments. “I mean, walking back to your car at night, there’s overgrown bushes snapping at you, at the back of your neck,” he laughs. “It’s hard not to get a little spooked by that sh-t! I just

It’s hard not to get a little spooked by that sh-t! I just watched Poltergeist for the first time since like, the ‘80s. It scared the f-ck out of me!

Dave rented it when he was just going to make some demos. He brought some gear up there, put a little demo studio together, and he liked the way it sounded.

So, we popped the real gear up there, and the guitars, and we ended up doing it there – it

12 FEBRUARY 2021

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