Legacy of Nirvana
The band Foo Fighters came together in 1994 in Seattl, their past closely related to the legendary band Nirvana. Dave Grohl, Nirvana’s drummer, decided to create a new band after the death of Kurt Cobain, Nirvana’s main vocalist. Now its leading guitarist and vocalist, he named the group “Foo Fighters”. It’s how many UFO sighting by Allied pilots during World War 2 were officially called.
At the start the name Foo Fighters was just a one-man band with Dave Grohl as the only member. He received many offers from different bands after the disbandment of Nirvana, but he decided to record 15 self-written songs alone and handed out cassettes to his friends for feedback. Dave wanted to keep his identity hidden but his recorded songs soon started circulating through the music industry and various record labels became interested.
Soon after Nate Mendel joined as the bass player, William Goldsmith as the drummer and Pat Smear as the guitarist and Foo Fighters were born.
A Foo Fighter in the sky
Foo Fighters went live for the first time in 1995 in Arcata, California. They performed at the Jambalaya Club and in Portland. The visit to Portland was a benefits performance to aid the murder investigation of Mia Zapata, lead singer of The Gits.
The year 1995 was also Foo Fighter’s first tour as the opening act to Mike Watt, one of the most famous American singers, songwriters and bassists. This gave Foo Fighters the confidence to release their first album named after the band in the same year. They also traveled overseas to England and appeared on the Reading Festival to promote their album.
The Colour and the Shape
Foo Fighters spent the spring of 1996 touring, and soon after started recording their next album “The Colour and the Shape” in Woodinville, Washington at the Bear Creek Studio. Gil Norton became the producer of their album while Dave wrote all of the songs.
New album, new start
Foo Fighters traveled to Dave’s home to record their new album in Virginia. They spend several months working at Dave’s home studio and produced several songs that became hits like “Learn to Fly”, band’s first song to climb the US Billboard Hot 100.
