Home Entertainment Dave Grohl talks about the analogue documentary SOUND CITY

Dave Grohl talks about the analogue documentary SOUND CITY

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If there’s one band that has always been consistently overlooked in my not so humble and completely biased opinion, then it’s the Foo Fighters. Dave Grohl and co have been belting out some solid rock hits for two decades now, with unconventional sounds and approaches to rock music.

An approach, that lives on in a rockumentary directed by the Former Nirvana drummer himself, as he chronicles the legacy of the infamous recording studio, Sound City.

Sound City originally debuted earlier this year at the Sundance festival, to some very positive buzz. Recorded at the studio with the same name in Los Angeles, it’s also the location of where Grohl and the rest of Nirvana recorded their Nevermind album.

Right now though, Grohl is looking to record a new album that features collaborations with various rock icons, from Paul McCartney and Stevie Nicks, through to Lars Ulrich and Neil Young. “My history with Sound City is pretty deep, so the minute I stepped into that studio in 1991 I was fascinated,”Grohl explained to Empire.

I thought, ‘how could such a shithole be responsible for so many legendary works?’ Then after we started recording, I realized it was the sound, it wasn’t the paint on the walls, it wasn’t the china in the cabinet, it was the sound of that board and that room.

And by board, Grohl meant the massive Neve 8028 mixing console from the studio, which he eventually purchased after the studio was forced to close shop for good in May 2011. Grohl installed that very analogue device in his own personal studio, something the documentary highlights as a clash of old and new technologies.

“That studio was so different than anywhere else, it was not a corporate studio, it was not in Hollywood, and it had a soul, and that fucking board is just as instrumental as any instrument that’s ever been and been run through it,” said Grohl.

Because it really does sort of embellish the sound in a way that makes it its own. Because of all those things, I always considered Sound City to be a perfect example of integrity, that was the place. If you could record at Sound City, you were fucking badass, because they were that studio that never bought a computer, they never went Pro Tools, they stood firm and, and represented the real human element of music for 40 fucking years.

Sound City is out right now on iTunes, and will hit digital disc formats on March 11.

Last Updated: February 19, 2013

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