I’ve known Dave Grohl for over 15 years. In that time, he’s taken my bands on tour; he’s had me and my girl over for dinner parties, costume parties, birthday parties, and drinking parties. He’s even sung me happy birthday, but he’s never EVER told me he loves disco drumming, and that’s how this conversation began. I don’t really want to call it an interview, because it’s more of a mission statement to me: how to make rock and roll do just that. Dave talking about music and drumming, and doing it the way he always does, with humility and humor, and it’s more of an honor to be a part of that than than anything else. To hear Dave tell a story is to be there, and sometimes it’s just about friends or his kids, but no matter what, you find yourself smiling the whole time. I hope you can feel the energy that was in the room. I mean, I can tell a story, but not like Dave.
Dave Grohl: Drum interviews are always funny
with me, I don’t know what I’m talking about.
ATOM: C’mon dude, whatever, I’m just gonna get into
it. Okay, my favorite thing about your playing is that you
always seem to find this perfect balance between playing
stuff that’s really really fun for drummers to listen to and
fun for drummers to play. And you do it without ever
taking the song out of the groove or get away from what
the song is doing, where it’s going...
DG: You know, I think there are a few genres where
the drummers are totally underrated, one of them
being disco.
ATOM: What?!?
DG: And the other one being punk rock.
ATOM: I did not see that coming.
DG: Well yeah! I’ve always been a huge fan of disco
drumming.
ATOM: Really.
DG: For Sure! Gap band, Tony Thompson/
Chic drumming, Jr. Robinson, Micheal Jackson
drumming, like real groove drumming. I’ve always
been a huge fan of it, as I’ve always been a huge fan
of programmed drumming too. Like Liam Howlett
from Prodigy, how he programs dance beats is great
because it doesn’t necessarily have to be the focus
of the song, it can just be the groove. It’ll make you
move as you focus on a lyric or it’ll make you move
as you hum a melody or something. It’s so effective
in its simplicity that you don’t have to raise your
hand and go, “Hey, I’m the drummer...”
Yeah, and at the same time, I have a lot of respect
for the real masters. You know, the drummers
who take control of a song, anyone from Krupa, to
Buddy Rich, the greats.
ATOM: Neil Peart...
DG: Well yeah, the first time I heard Rush was
the first time I really noticed the drums in a song.
When I was a kid I listened to the Beatles, rock
and roll, classic rock and AM radio was huge for
me, I loved all the AM radio.
ATOM: Like all the news stations…
DG: Yeah, the traffic reports (makes traffic alert
sound) and like Helen Reddy and Carly Simon
and Phoebe Snow and Gerry Rafferty and 10cc
and all the real melodic ’70’s AM rock music. I
loved that stuff because of its melody, but it
wasn’t until I heard 2112 that I really started to
notice the drums, as like the focus of a song or
a drummer that was really kind of charging the
track. At that point I really hadn’t gotten into The
Who yet either.
ATOM: Were you playing drums then?
DG: No, I was playing guitar, but I always kind
of understood what drummers were doing, for
whatever reason. I always knew that, like this
foot is the kick and my left hand was the snare,
right hand is a cymbal, I always knew that from
watching the Woodstock movie when I was like
8 years old. My first drum lesson didn’t come
from a teacher. One the first things I learned with
independence was from the movie score from
Halloween.
ATOM: WHAT?
DG: Well, there was this one scene where she’s
being chased through the house, and there’s this
piano, dun, dudun, dun, dudun...and then this
synthesizer comes in going din din din din din...
(he starts to play this and sings) and I spent an
afternoon trying to get my hands to do that, and
when I figured that out I was like holy crap, I
could be a drummer! This is great!
ATOM: You’re so funny.
DG: HA! Yeah, so anyway, I’ve always been a
groove person, and you might not think that
because of the kind of music I’m known for
playing.
ATOM: But I definitely DO think that, and that’s
what I’m saying, you still make it so there’s always the
groove or part, it’s interesting for drummers to listen
to and want to figure out what you’re playing. And
for me it’s not about flash or chops, it’s just finding
that balance.
DG: I don’t know what it is; I mean no two
drummers are the same. Everyone has their
signature fingerprint or their sound, the way they
play a drum set. I feel like so much of it has to do
with your hands. It’s easy to think that a drumset
would sound the same with different people
playing on it, when in reality, it’s all in your hands
and balance.
ATOM: Well it kind of goes back to what we were
talking about in my truck, when you were saying
everyone should play and record themselves with one
microphone, and adjust their hands to make it sound
good, sound right.
DG: Yeah for sure! It’s good! It’s like getting a
tune up. I mean, once I discovered Led Zeppelin
records, I got really into the natural sound of
the drumset. A lot of albums I had at the time,
the drums didn’t sound like drums to me, they
sounded like mics on things you were smacking.
Each tom and cymbal was separated and made to
sound its own way. So once I heard Led Zeppelin,
it sounded like a drummer in a room with a band.
Then once I learned mic placement and some basic
engineering, it only made sense to me, in order to
get that sound you had to play it that way. I would
record myself with just a few mics in a room and
to try and capture the sound of the drums. It really
comes down to your own personal equalization of
what you’re doing, rather than relying on a mixer
to do it for you.
ATOM: I want to back up a little bit, you hit on
something that I am really interested in, and that is
that you really do have your own sound. You have a
signature style and a recognizable sound and I think
there are only a handful of rock drummers who can say
that.
DG: You know it’s funny, I always considered
myself to be a combination of all the different
drummers I grew up worshiping, so there are
things that I’ve lifted from Jeff Nelson of Minor
Threat, Tony Thompson, Reed Mullin from
C.O.C., John Bonham...
ATOM: Which era Tony Thompson was your
favorite?
DG: Just him, just his big flams, his drumming. I
got to meet him once and I said, “Hey I don’t want
to sound like a total douche, but if it weren’t for
you”...and I don’t think I got to even finish what
I was saying and he was like “I know man, it’s
cool”.
ATOM: (laughing)
DG: (laughing) There was one day in a studio in
L.A. about 8 or 9 years ago, we had a big room at
Conway to ourselves for the day and we thought,
let’s run tape and invite a bunch of our friends
over. So we invited Josh from Queens of the Stone
Age, Krist Novoselic was there, Matt Sweeney the
amazing guitar player was there and I was like,
let’s call Keltner. So I called up Keltner and said,
“Hey man come down, we’re gonna mess around
and roll tape.” He’s a legend you know, his meter,
his vibe, he’s a real vibe player you know. So he
comes out, sits down behind a drumset, and does
everything sideways, and backwards. And as
we’re jamming, I look over and he’s got a stick
and a shaker in one hand, and a brush and a
frying pan in the other and he’s playing the snare
with his foot or whatever. It was fucking crazy
what he was doing, but it had this sound. And
I watched it and I thought, THAT is messed up!
And then I listened to it, and I thought, “THAT
is genius!” And then I realized, people call Jim
Keltner because that’s what Jim does, he plays
like Jim Keltner. And for years whenever I went
into a studio to play with anyone I’d be really self
conscious like, “God I hope I’m doing what they
want me to do, I hope it sounds right, I hope I’m
playing well.” And after watching Keltner do that
I thought, “You know what, from now on I’m just
gonna go in and play, like I would play.” I think
it’s important to do that. You know, I never took
any drum lessons so honestly, I don’t know much
about what I’m doing. I can hear it in my head,
and I can play most of the things I can imagine
in my mind or hear in my head, but I don’t know
what’s right or what’s wrong, so I don’t have any
boundaries.
ATOM: You’re not restricted by any rules.
DG: Not at all, so I think that’s what makes people
do their own thing, when they don’t feel like any
one thing is wrong, and you just do what you
do. But at the same time, I listen to myself and
think I’m just a super middle of the road generic
drummer.
ATOM: That’s cute.
DG: It’s true! What I’m doing isn’t any different
than what Rat Scabies was doing in the Damned.
He was washing his cymbals and beating the shit
out of them and playing 8th notes on the kick and
swinging his snare going through a rock song.
ATOM: But at the very least, you are aware of what it
is that makes it what it is, and a lot of people just gloss
over that stuff.
DG: Well, I also think it’s different things like
where you place a stick on a drum, where you hit
the snare drum. I think most people without even
thinking about it, just hit it in the same place all
the time. That’s gonna make your drums sound
different, that’s gonna make your playing sound
different. Where and how you play a cymbal,
where you land your kicks, mine are usually
behind. You know, all of those things together
are what make you sound the way you do. And
I think it’s important that people appreciate that
about their own playing. I know some drummers
who wanna do everything right, players that want
to play perfectly, and I think a lot of times that
cripples your individuality, it takes away that feel.
I’ve heard people talk about feel for hours and I
don’t think it’s something you should talk about.
ATOM: It should just happen.
DG: You should just have it or, yeah, it should just
happen.
ATOM: Well, I guess what I want to know is, was
there ever a point when you acknowledged what you
were doing as yours?
DG: When we made the Vultures record, there
were times when Josh (Homme), who I love and
who is a brilliant player and producer and an
awesome engineer, would push me to do things
that I wouldn’t normally do. Typically, what will
happen in the studio is if you push someone hard
enough it will dead end and they will say, “You
know that’s just not what I do.” I’ve said it before,
I’ve heard people say it before and that’s a cop
out. I think I was all about that on the Vultures
record. There was one song called Reptiles, and
Josh wrote the song and programmed the drum
beat in Garage Band in his hotel room one day, and
it was the most insane drum beat I’d ever heard,
it sounded like a fax machine, it was completely
random. And he said, “Here, learn this.” And
I’m like...I...I…it’s like if you asked me to read
you a paragraph in Japanese or something, I just
can’t do it. And I struggled with it, I struggled
with it. I can’t read music, so I have to memorize
everything I play. I tried, and it was so bizarre,
just arbitrary random bulls#!, and I wanted to
give up ten times, and then I got it. And I was
like, “That’s my favorite thing I’ve ever done!”
Because, it doesn’t sound like anything else I’ve
ever done, and that’s what I like about it. So, if
you don’t throw away any of those dead ends or
walls that you run into, it helps you grow a lot. I
love that song now, it’s insane!
ATOM: It’s hard to play is what it is...
DG: It’s totally hard to play. I blew it live many
a time. Also, you know the Vultures record was
really nice because the type of music we were
making was different from anything else I had
done before. The closest thing was probably the
Q.O.T.S.A. record. I hadn’t played drums on an
album in a long time, so I was totally starting
from scratch. So, I played differently and it’s was
great.
ATOM: Do you notice that if you haven’t been playing
drums for a while, that when you come back things are
different, some things are easier and some are harder?
DG: Shit yes! When we’re on the road, there are
drummers everywhere and I can tell you who is
sitting down at what drumset within 15 seconds.
Because most drummers sit down, they adjust
their seat and they do the same damn roll they
do every time just to get comfortable. And it’s
understandable, I do it too I think. But it’s nice
to get away from your instrument and forget
everything for a while, because then when you
come back to it you have this fresh perspective,
clean slate. You might approach it differently and
you might come up with some new tricks, without
losing all the old ones.
ATOM: You don’t practice when you’re not…
DG: Honestly dude, I’ve probably practiced...
and I’m not saying this because I’m proud of it...I
don’t like to play the drums when there’s no other
musicians around to play with. I don’t like to
play by myself in a room, I like to play with other
people. I probably should (laughs) sit down and
learn some stuff. About 3 or 4 years ago I bought
a little pad, a practice pad. I wanted to learn how
to bounce my sticks (laughs). I don’t know how to
do that, so I sat there trying to do press rolls, and
I gave up after two hours going, “This is bullshit.
That ain’t gonna be loud enough!”
ATOM: You’ve always written songs, and over time
you’ve, I guess, honed your skills as a songwriter. I
mean, now you are a Grammy award winning songwriter. So, have you noticed your approach to drums
parts has changed?
DG: Yeah, I think so. I don’t really know how
much.
ATOM: Do you ever listen back to recordings and go,
“Oh, damn!” Like, would you do it differently now,
knowing what you know?
DG: I think I’ve always put focus and emphasis
on pattern, composition and arrangement, even
when I was playing hardcore, but that was mostly
out of the basic need for structure. It’s so we could
all keep the song together; this drum roll means
we’re about to go into the chorus, this drum riff
means the song is about to stop…and I would
just do it every time so that the band wouldn’t
mess up, and I’ve always had a great appreciation
for the songs that make you want to air drum. I
think it’s cool and also kind of funny to see drunk
motherfuckers in a bar air drumming to ‘Back in
Black’ or ‘Abacab’. That’s important to me because
what happens is, you have people who are
listening to drum riffs, so write one of those riffs.
To have a classic drum riff is every drummer’s
dream; to have that one part, where that guy who
doesn’t play the drums does it when the song
comes around.
ATOM: He’s just listening to music, he doesn’t know
why he’s doing it.
DG: He doesn’t know dick about the drums, but
he knows that one drum break in "You Shook
Me All Night Long". So to me, that’s a good
example of drumming as songwriting. That sort
of composition, that simple ear candy becomes a
hook. So, I started taking that into consideration
more and more as the years went by; you know,
I don’t really make acid rock; I don’t really make
spacey 10-minute long Yes songs. I grew up loving
Buddy Holly and the Beatles; the two and a half
or three minute sweet songs, and Nirvana was
the same way; just to keep it simple and make it
so that there’s stuff that’s really memorable and
effective. So, I started using that in a lot of drum
arrangements too.
  When I did the Q.O.T.S.A. “Songs for the Deaf”
record that made a big difference, it changed a lot
for me. It was the first time I’d made an album
where the drums and the cymbals were separated.
So we did the basic tracks first, guitar, bass and
drums live in a room, no click track.
It was just the three of us, I had no cymbals, I had
these cymbal pads and I knew that I had to go
back and overdub all of the cymbals, so I really
had to focus on what I was doing, because I had
to remember what I had a done over a week and
a half. Eric Valentine, who’s a great producer, he
really worked with me on building a lot of those
parts.
A song like “No One Knows”….the first
drum roll in the chorus...the second
drum roll in the chorus...the third drum
roll in the chorus, it’s meant to build like
that, but also, everything was patterned
so that I wouldn’t have a hard time
overdubbing the cymbals later. That’s
when it really hit home that for that type
of music, writing those parts and trying
to make those hooks really makes the
song even bigger. It’s the same thing
here, when we’re making a Foo Fighters
record, we spend a lot of time trying to
construct a good pattern that builds from
the beginning of the song to end with
Taylor’s drumming. Taylor has a great
sense of composition, and when I come
in with a song, it’s usually really easy to
say, “It should go from here, point A to
point B, build up or break down here and
here,” and then it’s just a matter of dynamics.
ATOM: Is there a favorite thing you’ve played on a
recording?
DG: Well, Nirvana’s Nevermind, I still listen to it
now. I’m a high school dropout, but I’d imagine
that it’s the same feeling as the last day in High
School. I look at it like, we were kids and it was
fun and easy to do, and it was really simple and
I wouldn’t change a thing. It’s, you know, such
a simple record, I think maybe the easiest record
I’ve ever made in my life. I’m not kidding! It was
so simple! I listen to it now and it’s like looking at
a picture of yourself when you’re like 19 or 20 you
can see in your face like, god, I was such a dumb
kid having a blast!
Then there’s the Vultures record. I listen to it and
I’m really proud of the drumming. Well, I’m really
proud of the record because I got to play with
fucking John Paul Jones of Led Zeppelin!
ATOM: Did you ever just trip or have moments of
clarity like, what am I doing here?
DG: Oh dude, every night! Oh yeah, on the bus
in the morning, on stage, on planes. The Vultures
record was a blast to make because I got to
play with John Paul Jones and I felt like we had
connected, and had become a rhythm section.
He’s really good (laughs)...he’s pretty good...
ATOM: Did he inspire you or encourage you in any
certain direction?
DG: Well yeah, apparently John would be the
guy who would stay in the studio after Zeppelin
would record a song and help the engineer and
edit the drum parts together. Hard to imagine
Zeppelin had to do any editing at all. But they
did, and John, because his meter was so great, he
just knows when it’s right.
Oh god, there was this one song that we didn’t
release, it was such a bitchin’ drum track it was
really groovy, like maybe the grooviest thing on
the whole album...and it went: (sings and plays
this long phrase that is sick..I wish you could hear
it too...ATOM). It was bitchin...it was so cool, but
to get it, we played it a ton. You know, John could
play it once and it would be amazing, but for me
to really get it tight and in the pocket and right
in the groove with John, it took me a while. It
was like ten or fifteen takes, until finally I was
like, “I think I got it...I think we got it...should
we listen?” And John says, “Yeah let’s listen,”
and I’m listening to it and I’m like, “Yeah, yeah
I think I got it!” I’m like, ”Oh Shit this is it!”
And it sounds great and I turn around and look
at John and he’s kinda scratching his chin, looks
at me, and he just shook his head and says, “You
didn’t get it” (laughter). So, if you’re lucky, in
your lifetime you’ll get to play with a bass player
that makes you sound better. I don’t know who
was following who, it just fit and clicked, and if
I was ever in a place where I needed someone to
help me out I would just turn to John and watch
him. And there were also times when we would
jam and he would throw out some crazy African
shit at me.
ATOM: Idea-wise?
DG: Just like time. He’d show me a riff and we’d
start playing it and hitting accents, and usually
live we would just jam. There was song structure,
but there was a lot of room for the two of us to
just jam and goof off. And there were times when
I would just look at him and go, “I don’t know
what you’re doing right now.” There was one
jam in the studio and he was doing some African
crap and I don’t know what it was. I just stopped
and said, “I haven’t the slightest clue what you’re
doing” and I stopped!
ATOM: That takes some confidence too, to just say, “I
don’t get that.”
DG: Honestly, before we went in to make that
record, of course I was a little nervous, I have
Zeppelin tattoos! You know I’ve listened to his
records forever and then I realized, he’s already
played with the greatest rock and roll drummer
of all time, so I don’t have to walk in there and
try to be his favorite drummer, I’ll just go in there
and play the way I play. I’m not gonna be the best
drummer he’s ever played with, I’m not gonna
be his favorite drummer in the world, so I’m just
gonna do my thing, and it worked out really well
that way. That’s not to say that I wasn’t terrified
9/10ths of the time, but it was fuckin' FUN to play
with John. I’ve never experienced anything like
that before.