Famed Producer Butch Vig Talks About Reuniting With Dave Grohl For New Foo Album

When I read this I got a bit of the chills.  Nirvana’s Nevermind record was one of my favorites of all time and one that had a part in forming my love for music.  It was a breakthrough album that change the landscape of music forever, and subsequently played a role in the suicide of Kurt Cobain.  Here the interview MTV News did with Butch.

Producer Butch Vig spoke with MTV News late last week about the making of the new Foo Fighters album, on which he reunited with Dave Grohl and Nirvana bass player Krist Novoselic 20 years after working with them on Nirvana’s landmark album, Nevermind. Vig revealed,

“When Krist came up to Dave’s house, we sort of sat down and it was like, ‘Holy s***, man, we hadn’t been in a room together — the three of us — in almost 20 years’ . . . we just sat around and shot the s*** for three or four hours. Dave and I were sipping on some wine, and Krist started drinking some bootleg whiskey, and it was great . . . One story would lead to another story, and it was an amazing experience, just to be there, to open up all these things you may have forgotten about. It was really a pretty special part of the album

Novoselic laid down bass tracks for a song called “I Should Have Known.” Vig said about the track,

“I’m not exactly sure what the song’s about, but to me, it seems there’s definitely some references about Kurt Cobain, and it’s one of the most primal, raw things the Foo Fighters have ever done . . . it’s quite an emotional roller-coaster ride when you hear it.”

Vig, who has produced numerous records and also plays with Garbage, told us a while back that his association with Nevermind remains a high point of his career:

“Nevermind has been an album that, for me, is one of those things that, well, it changed my life. And it’s, I’ll always have it as something that I worked with and was associated with. And I’m really proud of it, because to me that record still sounds as vital as it did when it came out.”

The new Foo Fighters disc, due out this spring, was recorded on tape machines in Grohl’s garage to give it a raw, primal feel. Vig explained,

“You can fix anything with computers, Auto-Tune everything until it becomes perfect, and (Grohl) said, ‘I want the record to sound rawer and somewhat imperfect. As good as we play, that’s how good the record will sound.’ And, you know what? It sounds great. They’re f***ing badass players. It’s an honest record. It sounds real.”