A Conversation with Nate Mendel of The Foo Fighters

Riding the success of their new album, Wasting Light—not to mention the documentary Back and Forth, which follows the creation of that record—The Foo Fighters haven’t lost the rock ’n’ roll chemistry that continues to pack stadiums around the world. We caught up with Foo Fighter’s bassist, Nate Mendel, in July, as the band prepared to embark on its big U.S. tour this fall, including a September 17 show at the Scottrade Center.

St. Louis Magazine: So you guys just wrapped up the second leg of your tour, including a sold out weekend at Milton Keyes National Bowl. Dave Grohl mentioned that the show was the largest Foo Fighters show in a long time. What was that experience like?

Nate Mendel: It was incredible. We did two shows at this giant field about an hour outside of London. It’s a big, flat field and then there’s a semi-circular, gigantic berm that goes around it. It’s a perfect circle. It’s pretty incredible to look out on that and see this gigantic field of people ringed by another layer of folks back there. We had some pretty cool guest appearances. Seasick Steve came by. John Paul Jones played. Alice Cooper came out and played. We had Roger Taylor, the drummer from Queen there. We had all of our families there. They set up the backstage as basically a little carnival for the kids… So we got to hang out with our kids all day and then walk out onstage and play to this really amazing, energetic crowd. If you haven’t been there, it’s hard to describe how powerful it can be.

SLM: What was meeting the legendary John Paul Jones like?

NM: Well, it wasn’t the first time we’ve done a project with him. He’s come to a few of our shows, and I’ve gone to a couple of [Them] Crooked Vulture shows, so I’ve met him before. He’s an icon, man. The last show I finally had the guts to tell him, “The next time you come to one of our shows, you’re going to have to pay a tax. You’re going to have to show me some blues licks.” He’s a great bass player and has a really strong blues background, which I don’t. We are doing some things now that having that blues background would be very handy to know. So I asked him to show me some stuff, and he said he would, so that will be cool.

SLM: So you’ve got some R&R before you hit the road again in August. What do you like to do during your downtime between tours?

NM: I went to Legoland last weekend. It’s stuff like that. You come home and there’s a bunch of stuff at your house that’s broken, and you’ve got to figure out a way to fix it, spend time with your girlfriend, hit the Legoland. Normal life stuff, you know?

SLM: After a few international shows, you’ll be beginning your U.S. Tour, which you’ve added more dates due to popular demand. Do you feel this tour is the most anticipated tour of the band’s 16-year career?

NM: I don’t know. I’d like to think that, but I don’t know. We just kind of put the shows up for sale, and they seem to be doing OK.

SLM: Do sold-out stadiums and thousands of screaming fans still surprise you or has it become a part of the job?

NM: In some ways it has. You want to say that every show is totally unique, and it’s just as exciting as the first time, and that just can’t be the case. The good part about that, especially in Europe where we’ve been able to play larger shows for a few years now, is you get better at it. There’s definitely still moments, and they’re frequent, where you look out and you’re like, “This is incredible. I have to remember this.” You appreciate it for the truly unique and incredible powerful experience that it is, but then in a way you become a little more used to it too, and you can concentrate on how well the band is playing under that much pressure, and what the show is going to be like. You can put together a few shows in big places and construct a set list that is going to be entertaining for a large group of people where there’s a lot of people who aren’t anywhere near the front of the venue. So as you go on, you get better at it.

SLM: You guys have been pretty busy, releasing Wasting Light and the new “Back and Forth” documentary, which both reached #1 on their respective Billboard charts. Before we get to the album, can you talk about “Back & Forth” and your experiences making that documentary?

NM: Far in advance, months before we got together and started writing the album, Dave said, “let’s make a documentary.” [I said,] “OK. We’ve never done that before.” I mean it’s a film, a feature film. So we had to get in negotiations with a production company, find a director, and figure out what it was going to be about. Is it about the history of the band? Making the new record? Can we combine the two? Then there was a massive interview process, and we had the film crew out a lot of the time when we were recording the record. We were all scraping together old footage and photos. They were doing research, trying to get clarification for some things. So it was a big project, and it was spearheaded and controlled by James Moll, who ended up being the director, did end up finding a tone that was agreeable to everyone. It was his idea to base the film on the personal relationships within the band, rather than career milestones, or what it’s like creating music, or another aspect of being in a band. It was more about the personal relationships. So that was something we dived into a lot when we were doing the interviews, and it became the backbone of the film. It made for a good film, but also at times it was a little uncomfortable for us because we are revealing frankly, with candor, or feelings about being in this band for however long each of us has been in it, and our feeling about working with Dave and working with the other guys in the band and other things. So that’s a lot to put out there in a way that we haven’t really spoken of in the past and also so publicly.

SLM: You’ve had some theatric experience with your role in Our Burden is Light. Was the camera hard to get used to?

NM: It wasn’t difficult getting used to having the guys around. There are cameras around a lot when you’re doing a band. That’s the best way to describe it. There’re a lot of cameras around, not so personally like, it’s more like doing interviews or televisions shows or something like that. They’re not often in your personal space when you’re making a record, but you get use to it pretty quickly.

SLM: What was your reaction, seeing your entire career with the Foo Fighters on screen?

NM: My main feeling about that is I’m happy that it’s out there because it is such a unique experience doing a band, people don’t always understand it, understand how it works, what it’s like having this very close family-like relationship with a group of musicians. I’m proud of our story. The good and the bad I’ll take it all. It’s been a wonderful experience, and I’m happy to have a document to that. It helps people understand what we’re about, what it’s like being in a band, and it’s something I can show my kids when I’m older.

SLM: As the documentary mentions, the recording of Wasting Light was a departure from the band’s previous albums. What was your initial reaction to recording the album in Grohl’s garage?

NM: My initial reaction was pretty shortsighted. I didn’t understand why we would do that when we had a perfectly good studio down the road. Why would we create a studio in [Dave’s] house when we have this one? It ended up being a great decision, and a really good place to record because it was homey. How can it not be? It’s Dave’s house. It created another feel for the record that was more casual and relaxed, and more importantly than that, just different. It was nice making the two previous records in our studio, but to make a third one there—three in a row more importantly—that might’ve gotten a little stale. We needed to go out and be somewhere else and think about music differently even if it’s really subtle. Take any song on the record, like “Bridge Burning.” It probably would have sounded pretty much the same if we recorded it in our studio, but there’s this intangible quality about doing it somewhere else that just adds to the experience. I think it changes the general feel of a record.

SLM: Did you feel like a young kid in a garage band again?

NM: Not so much, because Dave’s house is nice, and his garage is nicer than a lot of the places I’ve lived. It’s very dissimilar from garages I grew up playing in or basements that I grew up playing in.  Sure it’s a garage, but it’s a different kind of garage.

SLM: Although you’ve held national fame for years, Wasting Light is the band’s first album reaching #1 in the U.S. billboards. Was that a special moment for you and the band, or was it just another day on the job?

NM: It wasn’t just another day on the job at all. It was pretty special. It had been a long time, and we had done something that we’ve never done. It felt good. We worked hard on this record, and we’d taken a long break and you get insecure when you’ve been away from the band for a while. Does anybody care anymore? Can we still make good records? Are we going to be able to get back together and have the same chemistry and ability to make a good record like we did in the past? It was just a moment of validation for all of that. It wasn’t something that was taken for granted by anybody.

SLM: What were your first thoughts when you heard it was the album reached #1?

NM: It’s not something that is just sprung on you because of the digital age, there are streams of information that are constantly coming in. It’s kind of like, “It seems like it’s doing well. I think you might get number one. It’s looking pretty good.” By the time you get the actual confirmation, you’ve kind of been prepped for it.

SLM: When you joined the Foo Fighters in 1995, did you ever imagine the band would have this much success?

NM: I did. I imagined, I fantasized, and hoped that we would. I was also just old enough and wise to know that it was a huge, huge long shot. Like any young musician, you’re hoping for the best and you’re dreaming that you’re fantasy version of being in a rock band is going to play out. I dared to hope, you can’t walk in and go like, “Yeah. We are going to be a gigantic rock band.” That’s going to be self-defeating.

The Foo Fighters play the Scottrade Center, 1401 Clark, on September 17; Rise Against opens. Tickets are $27, $37 and $47 and are available by calling 800-745-3000, or online at ticketmaster.com.