Sonic Highways

Foo Fighters are (almost) back with their 8th studio album, Sonic Highways. To celebrate the release and the 20 years together as a band, they’ve put together an 8 parts documentary with the same name of the album.

You can catch the documentary on HBO in the US or BBC4 in the UK.

Behind the documentary (directed by the band leader Dave Grohl) there’s the intention to show the creative process that stands as the foundation of the album. Each of the songs in the new album was recorded in a different studio across the U.S. and each song is consequently a tribute to the place it was recorded.

Not only a tribute to a physical place, but mostly a tribute to the people living and playing on the local scene.

So far the first two episodes have given us an inside look at the punk rock scene in Chicago

and Washington D.C.

What I found most fascinating about this project is that we can really take a peek behind the scene, observing first hand how the creative process brings the song from inception to final product. Specifically you can make a clear connection between the lyrics of a song and the place it comes from. When I first heard “Something From Nothing”, I couldn’t get all the references. After seeing the first episode of Sonic Highways I know all the homages made by Grohl & Friends.

For me this documentary is also a way to learn something new about music. I always try to find new groups or rediscover old ones and already these first episodes gave me places to look at. I have to be honest in saying that punk rock is not my no. 1 genre, but I do appreciate it and hearing the direct experience of the people who basically invented it, made me reconsider it.

I think that Sonic Highways is a very ambitious project but at the same time something that I would like to see from many other mature bands. As a music listener I’m always interested in knowing how my favourite band thinks and comes up with all that great music. As a fan having this look behind the curtain gives me a different and special bond with the final product.

I can’t wait now to receive my vinyl copy of Sonic Highways.


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