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Foo fighting to the top

For this six-Grammy-winning top band, every day is Independence Day

THERE WAS a little relief, bassist Nate Mendel says, in the Foo Fighters camp at the Grammy awards ceremony earlier this year.

"Well, we won, so that was good," says Mendel, whose band took home trophies for Best Rock Album and Best Hard Rock Performance. "We didn't get doughnuts, like we got last time, which was zero for five. So we had a great time. It was a lot of fun."

It's certainly been an enjoyable ride for the Foo Fighters since former Nirvana drummer Dave Grohl started the band, as a one-man studio project for the initial album 'Foo Fighters' (1995) and then as a full-scale band and going concern.

Six grammies

The group has won six Grammies during its career, including three for Best Rock Album, and has launched a consistent string of hit singles - including 'Everlong' (1997), 'Learn to Fly' (1999), 'Times Like These' (2002), 'Best of You' (2005) and 'The Pretender' (2007) - while earning a reputation as a highly credible, arena-calibre rock band at a time when those are few and far between. "I don't know what it is, but it just keeps on getting better," the 39-year-old Grohl says.

"And, as it all sort of grows and changes, the four of us just stay the same, and we look at each other every time something happens ... Like a Grammy nomination or a big show selling out, we look at each other and we're like, 'Can you believe that? Isn't that nuts?'

"Because we don't feel any different, you know?"

Roswell records

Mendel, who came from the band Sunny Day Real Estate and is the only remaining member from the original Foo Fighters lineup except for Grohl himself, credits the band's ability to maintain its integrity in part to a visionary business arrangement: The Foo Fighters make their records for their own label, Roswell Records, named after the New Mexico town known for its alleged UFO encounter in 1947. Only after they've finished the album do they licence it to parent company RCA.

That insulates the Foo Fighters from the kind of pressures most bands face, the bassist says. "They can put it out or not put it out," the 39-year-old Mendel says. "They don't have anything more to do with it than that, so we don't have to worry about writing hits. Thankfully Dave's a good songwriter, and he writes catchy songs, but we don't have that pressure or somebody breathing over our shoulder.

"I think that really is something that destroys a lot of bands," he says. "There's a lot of things that had to fall into place for us to still be a band 13 years into it, but I always look to that as being one of the main things."

String players

The arrangement has allowed the Foo Fighters to experiment with and expand their sound as they see fit. On the double-disc 'In Your Honor' (2005), for example, the band recorded one album of hard-rock tracks and another of mellower, acoustic songs, which it supported with acoustic shows deploying an expanded lineup that included string players.

Last year's gold-certified 'Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace' brought those two forms together on a single album, resulting in an even broader dynamic range. "Last time the quiet side was an experiment," Mendel says, "like, 'Let's try different instrumentation. Let's try a different dynamic.' And we did that and learned different things from it, until we were able to bring some of those qualities into this album, so that it isn't just another rock album."

It is a rock success, however: Besides its Grammy Awards, its first single, 'The Pretender,' spent 18 weeks at No 1 on Billboard's Alternative/Modern Rock Tracks chart, setting a record. "'The Pretender' was clearly the sort of standout radio song," says Mendel, who takes some pride in being 'clueless' when it comes to predicting which Foo Fighters songs will work as singles. "It's pretty much my favorite song on the record."

The Foo Fighters, who also include guitarist Chris Shiflett and drummer Taylor Hawkins, are continuing to use an expanded lineup while touring to promote 'Echoes, Silence, Patience & Grace,' which Mendel says 'gives us more range and makes touring a lot more fun.'

Among the added players is Pat Smear, the former Germs guitarist, who was a Nirvana sideman before becoming a full-time Foo Fighter from 1995 to 1997. "He's the most enthusiastic one, which is funny," Mendel says. "He should be a crusty, old, bitter rock guy, but every day is like Christmas on tour. It's fun having him out for that reason alone."

Sound check

All of which has left the Foo Fighters with an open landscape of possible future paths. The shine has hardly faded from the Grammy Awards, but Mendel says that the group is already working on new songs during its current tour. "We've got a handful of them that we're working on at sound check," he says, "which has never really happened before, so we're getting a good start."

That means that the next Foo Fighters album may come sooner rather than later, though Mendel cautions that, after spending most of 2008 on the road, "we're going to need a break" before any serious recording gets underway.

"It's fun making the music," Mendel says. "It's when you have to go out and promote it that it's work. So we're going to be in a weird place. We were on this last record too.

"It's like, 'We just got done touring, but we're ready to record. What do we do?"' he explains. "You can't record it and leave it in a vault, because it'll get leaked, and it feels weird to just sit and wait arbitrarily for six months. We'll probably find ourselves in the same position again, excited to record but knowing that you've got a year of touring at the end of it."

Not that he's complaining.

"The band's in a good place," Mendel concludes. "Everyone's really excited about making music, so we're already getting going, and we'll see where we end up."