Dave Grohl made so many demands on Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins' time that he only had a week to record his Birds Of Satan album, he's revealed.
Speaking to TeamRock Radio this morning, Hawkins explained how he had no option but to lay down instrumental tracks in four days – or he’d miss the chance to finish the “self-indulgent” project.
Fortunately he was able to call on the talents of his covers band Chevy Metal to deliver the classic rock and prog influenced record, which was released last month.
Hawkins told TeamRock Radio Breakfast Show host Stephen Hill: “I literally had a week in the studio. I’d been super-busy with the Foo Fighters for the couple of years before. Dave put his Sound City band together and I did a couple of tracks on that, and we did touring and promotion stuff.
“After we were done with that, he started talking about doing Foo Fighters stuff. My window of opportunity was getting smaller and smaller.
“We cut all the music in four days, spent a couple of days working on the vocals – and that’s what you hear.”
Hawkins admits the name Birds Of Satan is “silly” but adds: “it’s got a ring to it,” and accepts he’s wearing his heart on his sleeve in terms of the influences behind their music.
He says: “I spent a lot of my teenage years smoking pot and listening to Pink Floyd, and a lot of silly prog which I still love. I feel like, as a musician, a lot of those years made me the drummer I am. There’s a lot of Queen, the Police, Rush and Van Halen.”
Asked whether the massive amount of side-projects he and his bandmates undertake has an effect on their Foo Fighters duties, Hawkins says: “Who knows how the year Dave spent with John Paul Jones informed him – or the time I spent learning Van Halen arrangements for my covers band? It informs us in a couple of ways – and side-projects help us get rid of excess nervous energy.”
And the drummer hints the UK could be seeing a lot of him in the coming months, saying: “I’m going to have me a good curry this summer at some point – do you know what I mean?”
