Drummer Taylor Hawkins of Foo Fighters gave an exclusive interview to Matt Wilkinson’s show on Apple Music 1 to reveal a lot of intel on their new album, Medicine at Midnight due out in 2021! He spoke specifically to their current new single “Shame Shame” – “Hey, this is record is different than any record we’ve ever made. Trust us, this one’s going to… You’ll definitely be like, ‘Huh?'” I’m sure people are scratching their heads when they hear it for the first time, like, Wait a second, that’s a drum loop’. “ Listen to the full show and hear more from Taylor right now!
Taylor Hawkins on Shame Shame as a single:
Taylor Hawkins on listening to loud music with Dave Grohl:
(Quotes via Matt Wilkinson of Apple Music)
Taylor on Foo Fighters’ new album Medicine at Midnight and their new single Shame Shame: ‘I think we’ve picked Shame… Well, first of all, it’s super hooky, It’s the closest thing we’ve ever come to Another One Bites the Dust. We’ve been considered the band that makes the same record over and over again from some people which, when you’re a rock and roll band and you have guitars, bass, and drums, and maybe a little keyboards here and there, there’s only so far… And listen, I don’t mind being AC/DC, I love being AC/DC, I like AC/DC. But I think that the intent, if there was an intent with putting Shame out first, it was definitely to say, “Hey, this is record is different than any record we’ve ever made. Trust us, this one’s going to… You’ll definitely be like, ‘Huh?'” I’m sure people are scratching their heads when they hear it for the first time, like, Wait a second, that’s a drum loop’.
Taylor on wanting to tour again and Foo Fighters having shows booked for summer 2021: ‘I’ve been on the road pretty much consistently for 25 years. So yes, I’m missing the live thing, the excitement, the butterflies, the strenuous three hour slogs. I’m not necessarily missing touring. It sounds terrible, and by the time we do get back to it, which God knows when, hopefully this summer. I mean, we have booked dates for this summer (2021)’.
Taylor on listening to music at very loud volumes with Dave Grohl: ‘Well it’s rock and roll, man, I like it loud. Dave likes to listen to music so fucking loud, it’s crazy. When we listened to playbacks on the studio stuff, I can’t really hear it when it’s that loud. It’s so loud that it just is distorted to me. You know what I mean? I used to drive around in Dave’s Suburban back in the ’90s and his speakers were all blown. And we’d be listening to The Prodigy at 10, just flying around with cigarettes in our mouths, eating McDonald’s and fucking listening to The Prodigy at like 10, literally at 10. And your ears form their own sort of compression at that point and it’s just, I don’t like listening to music that loud. I like to hear it good’.
Taylor on his favorite Foo Fighters songs from years gone by and his love for their track Aurora: ‘I would say without a doubt, it would be Aurora. I just think it’s really, I love that side of Dave. I love it when Dave gets in his almost yacht rock softness in his voice and he double tracks his voice really nice. And that was the first drum track that I ever did for the Foo Fighters that I was really, really proud of, because I only played half the drums on the Nothing Left to Lose record, because it was my first time in the studio and I was just… I didn’t know how to record. Recording drums and playing live are just super different and the mistakes are polarized heavily, once you’re under the scrutiny of the microphones. You had to do it right. But I could also say the first time I heard This Is a Call was the first time I heard the Foo Fighters and I wasn’t in the band yet. I was playing with Alanis and we were all in the van, traversing the Foo Fighters, playing all the same clubs as they were. And it was just funny, and we just wore that album out. And This Is a Call might be my favorite Foo Fighters song of all time too’.