Pat, first of all, a question about your leg. You had a bad gardening accident at the beginning of the year. How is the recovery going?
Pat Smear: Really good. I've been able to walk on crutches for a while, now I'm trying it without them. My goal, and also my big wish, is to be fit again by the tour. I think it will work out. I really want to play these new songs, man (laughs).

"Your Favorite Toy" is an energy-packed album; the tracks feel like earlier days, they remind us of punk rock and hardcore, it sounds uncompromising, like you really felt like it. How did the work go?
Smear: We completely refrained from hesitating for long. Dave was burning with ideas; he developed many new songs lightning fast, and then we didn't tinker around much together. We recorded the demos, and then bam, bam, bam, the whole record was finished quickly. We just got started and were done after a good week.
Nate Mendel: There was no schedule, no time pressure. We met in Dave's garage and said: "So, we have a week, let's see what comes out of it." Dave had written everything alone at first and let himself be inspired by everyone and everything. At some point, he presented 30 or 40 ideas. That was an amazing amount of strong starting points, even for his standards.
Chris Shiflett: When the first songs, including "Asking For A Friend," took shape, it was clear to us where it was going: we wanted to make a kick-ass album. That's my favorite description right now. An album like a kick in the butt. Loud, fast, hard, but also catchy and with songs that take no prisoners. Working in Dave's garage was another decision that led to a crisp, by no means overproduced record. We didn't even bring the equipment for a modern production there, but were forced to strip the songs down to the bone.

Is it harder to leave the songs largely raw and untreated than to overproduce them in a top studio?
Shiflett: The difficult thing is not to let a song get "pretty." That's a tough task for me especially, because my role in the band has changed a bit over the years—towards a kind of decorator of the piece, who decorates here and adds a tiny detail there. This time, however, my power chords were in demand, raw and heavy, and fewer ornaments.

Where does the bite and aggression in the songs come from?
Smear: I can't answer that. I don't know where it comes from. But I know it's there. Our original concept, if you can call it a concept, was to make a punk rock album and subordinate all songs to this idea. But because so many songs were created so quickly, that basic idea became too small at some point. We wanted to open up the record, bring in a little more depth, maybe a slow number or one with a shamelessly big chorus. In the end, it turned into a fairly colorful Foo Fighters album again.

"Your Favorite Toy" is your second album without Taylor Hawkins. How much is he still a part of your world?
Smear: We talk about Taylor every day. Not a day goes by that we don't think of him. Taylor is still with us in a strange way.
Shiflett: For me, it was especially true in the studio. I always expected the door to open and Taylor to walk in. I hope I keep this feeling for the rest of my life.

Foo Fighters have been around for 31 years. What keeps you together?
Smear: We are best friends. I can't really analyze it much right now; we just like each other. I remember when we played the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert, Joe Elliott from Def Leppard came up to me and was completely stunned. I said: "Joe, what's up?" And he goes: "Tell me, do you guys really all share a dressing room?" I said, "Sure, why wouldn't we?" And he thought that for Def Lappard, who've been around since 1977, would be the only band in the world with a communal dressing room.

Should one of you demand his own dressing room, would there be trouble?
Smear: Oh, Taylor always wanted to have his own wardrobe. He really annoyed at us about that (laughs). But we made it clear to him that he could take a hike. He still tried it again and again, though.
Shiflett: It's really wild that we are still here. With all the crap that has happened to us over the years. But this band sticks together; we realize that over and over again. I absolutely cannot imagine a life without the others, without the Foo Fighters.

Words: Steffan Ruth