How Taylor Hawkins’ death has impacted Foo Fighters on grief-stricken 11th album
The Australian has heard an exclusive preview of the new Foo Fighters album, its first since the shock death of longtime drummer Taylor Hawkins in March last year.
Twice in his musical life Dave Grohl has been struck by lightning bolts of grief. Twice in his musical life he has had to confront whether to give up or press on, renewed.
The first bolt hit when his Nirvana bandmate Kurt Cobain died by suicide in 1994, ending the alternative rock trio’s remarkable ascent. When he re-emerged, it was under a new artistic name: Foo Fighters, then a one-man-band whose 1995 self-titled debut was written and performed entirely by Grohl. He lost a friend and bandmate, but found a new musical reason to live.
So when the second bolt struck in March last year, when longtime Foo Fighters drummer and backing vocalist Taylor Hawkins suddenly died, aged 50, shortly after the band had played a one-off stadium gig in Geelong, the experience was sadly familiar.
The devastated musician again stood at a crossroads, grief-stricken, and wondering how – or whether – to continue one of the world’s few remaining rock bands capable of booking and filling stadiums.
Eventually, late last year Grohl announced a decision to continue Foo Fighters in Hawkins’s memory – and next Friday, June 2, the band will release its first new music since his death, in the shape of an 11th album titled But Here We Are.
Most major music releases these days are sent to trusted media outlets via the thoroughly unsexy but efficient method of secure digital streaming platforms. Not this one, though.
The Australian has heard an exclusive preview of the new album, held by the band’s record label Sony as an old-school listening session. Apparently at Grohl’s insistence, we were handed lyric sheets to study while its 10 songs were played loud and clear.
We weren’t allowed to take any notes on what we heard while the music played, and in another unusual step, we are told 54-year-old Grohl is doing zero interviews around its release, instead preferring to let the songs speak for themselves.
Our initial impressions? It’s an undeniably strong collection, and easily the most affecting and effective set of songs that the band has issued since its initial run of albums in the 1990s.
Much of the lyrical content appears to centre on Grohl’s grief for his departed friend, with penultimate track The Teacher impressing through its dynamic and emotional range across 10 minutes, in a suite that brought to mind some of Led Zeppelin’s most intricate arrangements.
It is believed that Grohl played drums on all 10 tracks, marking his first drum credits on a Foo Fighters release in nearly two decades, although that has not yet been officially confirmed.
With a string of concerts booked this year, beginning at a festival in Boston on Friday, much speculation had surrounded the question of Hawkins’s touring replacement, and the band this week announced its newest member: Josh Freese.
If anyone is up to the formidable task of following both Grohl and Hawkins in sitting behind the Foo Fighters drum kit, it’s 50-year-old Freese, a highly respected player whose lengthy CV includes recording and touring with the likes of Guns N’ Roses, Devo, Nine Inch Nails and The Offspring.
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