News The musician Dave Grohl called his songwriting “opposite”
There are no set rules for where any song can go for every songwriter. Whenever you pick up a guitar or sit at a piano, it’s always about making something that will outlive you before pleasing any kind of corporate suit that wants nothing but the latest single. While Dave Grohl may have started out making grunge rock catered towards the alternative scene with Foo Fighters, his time was much better spent following his own muse.
In the aftermath of Nirvana, Grohl initially wanted to make songs based on the demos he was working on when his old band was on tour. Despite getting the call to tour with Tom Petty, Grohl only lasted one gig with the heartland rocker before returning to his new outfit, thinking he could make something that would satisfy him musically.
Putting together the rest of the band after making the original demos, Grohl would turn in some of the greatest post-grunge of his generation, daring to ask the question, ‘What if grunge music could actually sound optimistic?’. Even though Foo Fighters fit like a glove in the late 1990s, Grohl had no intention of going along with the trends when working on his next albums.
Across the 2000s, Grohl would steer Foo Fighters through some of the strangest sonic detours he could think of, including one album where half of it was comprised of arena rock and the other half included mellow acoustic tunes. That mentality would continue with every record the band released since, as Grohl pushed himself to work outside of his comfort zone on releases like Wasting Light and Sonic Highways.
Although Grohl was determined to follow his heart, Rivers Cuomo of Weezer had taken a far different approach. Ever since following his heart after the power pop band’s highly successful album, the harsh reception to their sophomore record Pinkerton led to Cuomo questioning what his fans wanted, leading to somewhat of an identity crisis spread across their 2000s material.
While many songs would show the spark of classic Weezer, albums like Raditude represented the band catering to the masses, looking to write songs that would be able to compete with the latest pop stars of the time. As far as Grohl was concerned, though, this was everything that went against what rock and roll stood for.
When talking to Rolling Stone about how Cuomo writes songs, Grohl wanted to get as far away from the pop mentality as possible, saying, “He said, ‘So you don’t write songs to try to get on top 40 radio?’ And I said, ‘No, I kind of write songs for the stage or a setlist, and I write them for Foo Fighters fans.’ And he said, ‘Wow. So you write for the show?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, don’t you?’ And I don’t think that he does. I think that we’re sort of on opposite ends of that spectrum. Which is funny”.
Even though Cuomo and Grohl may have differing ideas of who they are writing for, they have seen their fair share of resurgences over the years, with fans looking to follow them on every step of their musical journey. While they are both mainstays of rock history at this point, Grohl is much more suited to be a child of the stage than worry about whether he’s outselling the next pop star.
