Foo Fighters hold a special place in my heart not just because I think they've written some of the best rock songs of all time, but because even after 25 years into their life as a band, they are still constantly pushing themselves to continue chasing rabbit holes.
When I say "chasing rabbit holes," what I mean is when you let yourself get really excited about an idea and dive headfirst into the project with no regard for how useful that project will be in the longterm or whether or not your interest in the subject area will last. It's seeing a shiny idea and following it. Downloading Photoshop out of curiosity one afternoon and immediately playing around with it is chasing a rabbit hole. Hearing about North Sentinel Island for the first time and going on a two-hour research binge about it is chasing a rabbit hole. Thinking of a really cool way to record an operatic piece by yourself and jumping straight into the studio to test it out is chasing a rabbit hole.
In my opinion, Foo Fighters — and especially their ever-busy frontman Dave Grohl — are an amazing example of what I think this looks like. It seems like at every point in Foo Fighters' career, they have been unafraid to chase ideas they think are interesting and see them through to fruition no matter how ridiculously stupid that idea may be. Some examples that jump to mind...
Starting in September 2013, Foo Fighters embarked on a project where they traveled to eight US cities, interviewed a bunch of music figures from that city's history, wrote a song inspired by the city and the interviews, and recorded the song at a famous music studio in that city. This was chronicled in the HBO series Foo Fighters: Sonic Highways and became the basis for their eighth studio album, also called Sonic Highways.
In 2018, Dave got the crazy idea to record a 23-minute progressive rock instrumental piece titled "Play" where he played every single instrument on the track and insisted on recording it in full takes, so if he messed up a small passage somewhere in the 20th minute, he would redo the entire take again. This song was eventually released on Dave's Play EP.
In March 2020, early in the COVID-19 pandemic, Dave was starting to get antsy without being able to tour or play with his band, so he started an Instagram page titled "davestruestories" where he typed up and shared some of the wildest stories of his life (which he has plenty of). This project eventually turned into a full autobiography titled The Storyteller, which was released in October 2021.
In 2021, Foo Fighters launched a disco side project called Dee Gees and released an album of Bee Gees cover songs called Hail Satin because literally why not.
In the middle of recording their tenth album Medicine at Midnight in a creepy house in Los Angeles, Dave got the crazy idea to stay at the creepy house a little longer after the album was finished and produce a low-budget horror film set on the property. The result was Studio 666, a full-length film featuring the band that is currently playing in theaters across the country and getting panned by critics everywhere.
These are just a few examples of what I'm talking about. I find it super inspiring that a group of people their age is continuing to go down these rabbit holes and chase really interesting ideas. It would be incredibly easy to get complacent after all of the success they've had, but if anything, the band seems to be more adventurous than ever now, which is quite remarkable. My hat is off to you, Foo Fighters.
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