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Rock legend Dave Grohl of The Foo Fighters is a man of many talents, and now the former Nirvana drummer is making his own documentary film about a recording studio in LA that is very close to his heart.
This is not just any recording studio however, but the world famous Sound City Studios in the San Fernando Valley region of California.
This is the studio that Kurt Cobain, Dave Grohl and Krist Novoselic recorded the ground-breaking album, Nevermind, which turned 20 years old in 2012.
Grohl has championed this cultural significance of this historic building, saying it is “America’s greatest unsung recording studio” and the “birthplace of history”.
The Everlong singer proclaimed: “It was a witness to history. It was home to a special few, intent on preserving an ideal. An analogue church. A time capsule. The last bastion of a craft defied by technology.”
“It was rock ‘n’ roll hallowed ground. And it was our best-kept secret. Now I want to tell its story”.
Yet Nirvana were not the only monumental band to have recorded in this state of the art music institute, because so have the Arctic Monkeys, Metallica, Neil Young, Guns N’ Roses and Elton John. Even the psychopathic American criminal Charles Manson laid down some tracks here.
Unfortunately the Sound City franchise fell on hard times in the late noughties and the studio was haemorrhaging cash. It sadly had to close its doors in May 2011.
When it did fold, Grohl didn’t want the equipment to go to waste, so purchased the custom Neve 8028 Console from Studio A and integrated the hi-tech board into his personal recording studio.
The new film will be distributed by Roswell films, which is a branch of the Foo Fighters own label Roswell records. A release date for the film has yet to be confirmed.
According to Rolling Stone’s run down of the 500 Greatest Albums of All Time, Sound City has been instrumental in the recording of seven, which are:
1. 17 – Nirvana – Nevermind
2. 25 – Fleetwood Mac – Rumours
3. 71 – Neil Young – After the Gold Rush
4. 193 – Fleetwood Mac – Fleetwood Mac
5. 313 – Tom Petty – Damn the Torpedos
6. 368 – Rage Against the Machine – Rage Against the Machine
7. 402 – Dr. John – Dr. John’s Gumbo
Words by Martin Higgins, at www.mhfreelance.co.uk