Taylor Hawkins on rock side of 'In Your Honour'
IN YOUR HONOUR
Early Indications are that Grohl was Inspired by heavy metal
side-project Probot
"Someone said it reminded them of The Who meets Fugazi,
which is cool. Dave came and said, 'I have the perfect opener
forthe record.' It's not really a song, it's a manifesto, if you
will. And the heaviest thing we've done."
NO WAY BACK
Classic Foos superhero music, but cranked up
"We all felt it would be the first single. But I think we try to have a different kind of song as the first single. 'All My Life' wasn't very typical of us. That's good, it kind of opens ears. But I love 'no way Back'; it has an anthemic quality."
BEST OF YOU
The first single gives evidence the Foos have raised their game
"The thing I like about 'Best Of You' is its dynamic, there's so many
levels of dynamic; it starts here, then it goes higher, it goes higher,
it goes higher, then it comes back down, then it ends with this big
cacophony of sound. It's an interesting choice for a single."
DOA
A new-wavish intro speeds In before crossing to the dark side
"The first version of it was really kind of small. Then we thought,
'We gotta make it bigger.' It needed something else, and now a lot
of people are saying it's an obvious single, which is strange to me,
because the verses are better than the choruses."
HELL
A minute-and-a-half of white-hot noise and spite, riding toward
Satan on a gigantic Thin Lizzy riff
"It's a short little thing, more like an interlude to another song.
Dave's not a big fan of The Who; I am, so's our bass player and
so's our guitar player, and that song is very Who-ish to me. The
screaming vocal reminds me of Roger Daltrey."
THE LAST SONG
Another potential single, with Grohl in an aggressive mood;
"This is the last song that I will dedicate to you!"
"It's what 'Breakout' should have sounded like. A lot of things
on this record to me are what a lot of old past songs should have
sounded like. With this record we worked on everything without
beating the hell out of it; just getting the best, most intense,
energetic performances."
FREE ME
Proof that this half is all about the riff
"I love this because it's musically challenging. The time signature
is in six as opposed to four, then it goes to three over four. It's dark,
coarse and it's got this rip-your-head-off, blood-curdling vocal,"
RESOLVE
'Everlong'-style FM anthem that ushers In the first flashes of
the lighter acoustic side as we head slowly out of the darkness
"We did three or four versions of it because we wanted to get the
best out of it, but we maybe started overthinking it a little bit. The
version that's on the record is the second version -I thought it
caught the best of both worlds. We did another version that was
really slow, and it nearly turned into a fuckin' Bon Jovi song'"
THE DEEPEST BLUES ARE BLACK
This Is the mellowest thing on the loud half of the album, while
still maintaining a masculine thump
"There's a real swinging, 'We Are The Champions' feel. You can
almost sing 'We Are The Champions' to the chorus. And I love the
vocal on it, i love the drum sound on it. It's a little rawer than the
rest of the album. The lyrics remind me of fuckin' Willie Nelson or
something - it almost has an old-school, good, country storytelling
tone to it."
END OVER END
Classic quiet-loud-quiet dynamics, culminating, of course, with
Ia balls-out outro that is very, very, very loud indeed
"It's the most regular song on the record. It's a good ender, it's got
a good pulse to it. It's not my favourite song on the record
but I like it and it has it's place. It's just a song y'know?
It's a big ending."
