Interview: Chris Shiflett Talks “West Coast Town”, New Foo Fighters Album, and Podcasting

By: Curtis Sindrey –
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Chris Shiflett. (Photo: Brantley Gutierrez)

Foo Fighters guitarist Chris Shiflett is set to release his new solo album, West Coast Town, on April 14th via SideOneDummy.

Working with Grammy Award-winning producer Dave Cobb and Grammy Award-winning engineer/mixer Matt Ross-Spang, Shiflett recorded the 10-track album at Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A during the summer of 2016. In addition to Shiflett on electric guitar and Cobb on acoustic guitar and percussion, the album features an all-star collection of studio musicians, including Robby Turner (Waylon Jennings, Chris Stapleton) on pedal steel, Chris Powell (Brent Cobb, Jamey Johnson) on drums and percussion, Adam Gardner (Southern Family) on bass and Michael Webb (Southern Family) on keyboards.

In our new interview, Shiflett discusses the making of West Coast Town, a new Foo Fighters Album, podcasting, and more!

What has the transition been like to go from more straightforward alt-rock projects like Foo Fighters, to a more country-flavoured album like West Coast Town?

You know, that transition began a while ago. I mean there was definitely a transitional point for me where I had to get used to playing with less distortion on my guitar. Or to play with a guitar that has a single coil pickup instead of a humbucker, those kind of things definitely took a minute to get used to. Just because it was so far out of my comfort zone, you know? But you know I sort of started that process years ago and I’ve gotten into certain sounds over the years, you know, just as life’s gone on. So by the time I got to make this record, I think I was pretty comfortable with that.

With the new album, you worked with a team that included producer Dave Cobb. How did he become involved with this project?

I just asked him. I had interviewed him for my podcast and I really didn’t know him at all, and he was just such a cool guy. I love his work, I love a lot of the records he’s made through the years, they are important records to me. So I just called him, a month or so after I interviewed him and I just asked him if he would produce my record and if he had some time, he agreed to do it and that was that.

What did Cobb bring to the table as a producer?

So much, you know. He’s an incredible guy to work with. He really added a lot to these songs, he tweaked all the arrangements, he tweaked the grooves, tweaked the chords, tweaked the lyrics, just everything. He made them better, he made the songs better. He also assembled all the musicians to play on the record. You know, we did it at his studio, he’s was wonderful.

You recorded this album in Nashville’s RCA Studio A. What was it like to create an album in such a historic setting?

We did. Well it was great, it’s a great sounding room. You know, with Cobb and Matt who engineered it those guys just know how to make that room sound amazing. And I mean you can’t think about that kind of stuff too much in the moment, you can’t sit there and go “Oh Dolly Parton recorded some of her greatest songs and we’ve gotta make it good like that”, you know you would just like kill yourself, haha. You could never stand up to the weight of that. You just have to go in and work like it’s any other studio. And to be honest like I was so focused on just kind of holding my part down, I wasn’t really thinking about it at the time. It’s one of those things you reflect on after the fact like I was just reading that Guy Clark biography there’s a section in there were they, were it talks about him making a record there. Man, that guy was in there too! Everybody was in there.

If someone wanted to start listening to country music, what would be the songs you’d recommend?

Country is such a big genre and there are some many different sounds and different flavors to it. And it’s been around for so long and you know it really depends on people’s taste and preferences. I know for me I would probably recommend “Close Up The Honky Tonks” by Buck Owens. I would recommend “Mama Tried” by Merle Haggard. I’d recommend “Playboy” by Wynn Stewart and what else, you’d probably have to get some Hank Williams in there and you know, there’s so much.

Some George Jones.

Some George Jones, yeah, you know what I’d recommend, I recommend “Grand Tour” by George Jones.

I’ve been listening to your podcast, Walking The Floor, for a few years now. Who have been some memorable guests? Who are some guests that you’d like on the show?

Yeah cool, thank you! Yeah I was going to say that I sort of, most of the guests, it kind of developed into a lot of Americana, Alt-Country, Country type people. But I sprinkle a few, the occasion writer or sports guy, punk rocker or somebody in there.

Shiflett recorded West Coast Town in Nashville’s historic RCA Studio A.

Yeah, you’ve had Mike Ness on there.

Yeah, one of my heroes.

Oh man, well, Merle Haggard is maybe one of the one’s I’m most proud of. Really happy that I got to talk to him before he passed away. That was really special.

What did you learn from him?

Oh man, he was such a, just a cool, welcoming, hospitable, gentleman of a human being. Well I think the main thing I learned from him was the preconceived notion of people are often times very wrong. I was really nervous going into it because he’s Merle Haggard, he’s a legend and has a reputation of being a little difficult, you know to talk too and that sort of stuff. But he just couldn’t have been any nicer.

So going into interviewing all these kinds of people, how do prep for them?

It depends you know… like if there’s somebody who like has a long career and I’m a big fan of them, those can be challenging because there’s just so much to talk about. I don’t have to do too much prep on them if it’s somebody I follow already.

For most people I try to just listen to their music a bunch leading up to it. Get my head wrapped around all that they are about. And you know I might watch some footage of them on Youtube playing. Maybe read some interviews with them just to see, to get a sense of their story, you know. And then usually just plan out a bunch of questions but my goal in every interview is to not look at question cheat sheet, haha.

Haha, that’s a good philosophy to have.

Haha, and it’s tough man. I always feel like if I don’t look at the page while somebody’s giving me the answer that’s where I lose my train of thought. And almost kind of remove myself from the moment, you know.

What podcasts do you listen to regularly?

There are I listen to a bunch. I listen to you know I love Marc Maron, he’s great. There’s another called “Football Weekly” by The Guardian, like it’s mostly focused on the premier league. There’s a really good one it’s kind of new called “Intercepted” with Jeremy Scahill, that one is really good. That’s probably my favorite podcast at the moment. I listen to the “Jimmy Dore Show”, love that one. And there’s another one I kind of, I have kind of gotten into recently called “So That Happened”. I like that one.

So are you mostly listening at home or on commute or something like that?

It’s in the car, man I live in L.A., there’s not a happier day driving around in traffic, haha. That’s one interesting thing I’ve learned while being a podcaster. Is that the percentage of people listening to podcasts are in Southern California. And I have to assume, it’s gotta be because of the traffic here. You’re in your car so much.

In terms of your day job, Foo Fighters, I realize it’s still very early in the process, but what has the creative process been like so far?

Ah, nothing yet. We’ve got some shows coming this Summer and then beyond that I’m just not sure.

The music media was trolled in a big way back in March 2016 when rumours of Foo Fighters breaking up were spreading. How did the concept for that mockumentary video come about?

You have to understand with the Foo Fighters, for whatever reason there is always rumors that we are breaking up. As long as I’ve been in the Foo Fighters, and I’ve almost been in the Foo Fighters for 18 years, there has been a nonstop swirling rumor mill that we are on the verge of breaking up at all times. And that usually lamps up like when we are on a break. Or sort of out of cycle and nothings happening. I think something happened, I forget, I want to say Taylor was misquoted where, I can’t remember exactly what the catalyst was for that, for the last one but yeah there was some, there was the rumor that we were breaking up or whatever. And Dave was going to make a solo record, blah, blah, blah, blah. And so Dave wanted to make that video. You know just to stoke that fire a little bit and laugh at it a little bit.

Yeah, why do you think there is such a major scrutiny especially with you guys like ‘Oh they’re going to break up at any moment?”

I don’t know, I mean… yeah it’s bizarre, go figure. And there’s no truth to it. And it’s funny because you hear and see those rumors start going around and you’re like your first thought is ‘Wait a minute am I out of the loop on something?”, “Was there a band meeting that I missed?” Umm but yeah everything is good, so who knows man.

Chris Shiflett of Foo Fighters will release his new solo album, West Coast Town, on April 14th via SideOneDummy.

So when you joined the group almost 18 years ago, what did you feel going into that situation because you were coming from No Use For Name. So going into a new band, as you can recall what was going through your head at the moment?

Oh man, I was just so excited man. It just felt like a dream come true. I joined and we left for tour a couple of days later and it was just like off to the races. You know I felt like my feet didn’t touch the ground for a couple of years, so it was wonderful.

How do you think you’ve sort of evolved like within the group, you know, since then?

Well I think you know, things have changed so much over the years. When I joined the band I didn’t know the other guys in the band. I went and audition and I got the gig and I had never met any of them before, so we didn’t know each other. So of course it takes a little while to sort of find your footing but we’ve all been through so much together over the years that it’s hard to even answer that question. We’re all grown up now, you know. Our lives are different, we’re all married with kids and it’s just very different, my life is so different on all levels than it was at that time.

I read that the demo version for the track “West Coast Town” had a completely different groove than the released version. How would you compare the two versions?

Well the groove and phrasing in the demo version was very, very different. And I remember when I wrote it and demoed it before I went out there, thinking “God this is the most sort like mainstream Country thing that I’ve ever written”. I remember thinking like “God I hope they don’t think that this sucks”, haha. But I liked it and I like the lyrics and that was maybe the song Cobb turned on it’s head the most. Cobb really just turned that one upside down.

With your last album, 2013’s All Hat and No Cattle, what consideration did you put forward to maintain the original style of each of the songs you covered?

Well you know with that record it wasn’t like we were trying to recreate the sound of a 1960’s honky tonk record. It was more, I mean the whole idea for me at that time, I just wanted to go play a bunch of old Country songs. It wasn’t a style of music I had grown up playing and I never had the opportunity to do that, just kind of live in those songs for a while. And so it really started with we just got down a bunch of old cover songs and started playing gigs. And the gigs were so fun and the vibe of it was just so fun that we thought, let’s just record this and put it out, you know. And we did that for a while you know, we just sort of turned into a cover band for a while and it was great. Super fun. It was the first time ever with my solo stuff that people danced at the shows. You know, they really seemed to be having a good time, haha. It ‘s like “Whoa” this is totally different. And it was great to just you play that guitar style, you know with the Dead Peasants were just a bunch of guys who grew up for the most part playing Rock n’ Roll music, so we sort of treat those songs the way, you know the way a Rock n’ Roll band would play them. It’s not like it’s trying to be period correct, you know.

With your work in Me First And The Gimme Gimmes, you’ve covered everyone from Elton John to Boyz to Men. What do you think makes a great cover song, and are there any songs that you’d like to cover but haven’t yet?

With The Gimme Gimmes it’s gotta be, you gotta be able to turn the songs into a Punk Rock song and have the melody still work. Which sometimes does not workout so well. Usually the simpler Pop songs are the best ones. I think Fat Mike really has that worked out in terms of what songs are going to translate to a good up tempo Punk Rock song and keep the vocals, and keep the vocal melody working.

Are there any songs that you would want to cover with those guys but just you know, it hasn’t happened yet?

I know Mike talks about wanting to make a Beatles record. Maybe we’ll do that someday.

Chris Shiflett’s new solo album, West Coast Town, will be released on April 14th. Pre-Order here.