It’s common knowledge that the James Bond producers are in the habit of considering multiple themes for the movies - Radiohead admitted as much when they released their rejected effort for Spectre. Now Luke Spiller, frontman with British rock band The Struts, has revealed that he and late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins lost out to Billie Eilish on 2021 film No Time To Die.

“I’ve always been ob­sessed with a lot of the Bond songs,” Spiller told The Sun. “I had a crack at it, but got beaten by Billie.”

Despite this disappointment, Spiller still believes in his unheard effort. “It’s a fantastic song,” he says. “I called Taylor [Hawkins] and we cut the drums in his home studio.”

In 2022, Spiller was one of the artists to appear at the Taylor Hawkins tribute show at Wembley Stadium. He’s recently been working on his debut solo album, which he says sounds very different to The Struts’ material.

"It's all piano-based love songs, loads of big strings,” he says. “I recorded like a 20-piece string section with it. It's very Bondy. It's really, really, really over the top. It's great."

Does this mean that Spiller is hoping to attract the attention of the 007 producers in the future, then? It would seem so.

“Hopefully the people making the next Bond film can listen to my record and appreciate the potential I have to create an incredible Bond song,” he says.

In fact, Spiller suggests that he already has something in mind: “I’ve got another up my sleeve,” he reveals. “I’m waiting for the call because I know it’s going to happen.”

While we admire Spiller’s self-confidence, he odds appear to be against him providing the theme for the next Bond blockbuster. Dua Lipa is the current bookies’ favourite, with names like Lady Gaga, Ed Sheeran, Lewis Capaldi, Celine Dion, Lana Del Rey and - inevitably - Taylor Swift also being bandied about.

Don’t expect an announcement any time soon, though: although ‘Bond 26’ is believed to be in development, it hasn’t even been confirmed who’s going to play the sardonic spy just yet, and there’s no word on a title or release date.

Jane’s Addiction guitarist, Dave Navarro has opened up about unreleased material from NHC, his project with late Foo Fighters drummer, Taylor Hawkins and former Jane’s Addiction bassist, Chris Chaney.

NHC (Navarro/Hawkins/Chaney) began as a lockdown project for the three musicians to focus on, before releasing a handful of songs starting at the tail end of 2021 with a collection of singles. 

These were followed by an EP titled Intakes and Outtakes featuring a further four songs (One and the Same, I Could Be Somebody Else, Something About You and Fearless). Tragically, the EP was released just weeks before Hawkins’ death on March 25, 2022 while on tour with Foo Fighters.

In a new interview with Rolling Stone, Dave Navarro gives some insight into the finished-yet-unreleased material, adding that he’s unsure when it could see the light of day. 

“We have a completed mastered album, but this might be a little soon. I don’t really know where that stands…” he says. “But I’ll tell you that I really believe that it deserves to come out, because that record, to me, really showcased what a brilliant all-around musician Taylor was, because he wrote most of the songs, played the drums, and sang them.”

Navarro goes on to explain that he encouraged Hawkins to use NHC as a serious platform to display those abilities, rather than defaulting to what he believed to be a more self-deprecating, humorous approach the late drummer had taken with his previous side-projects.

“His overall musicianship, I think, really deserves to be known and highlighted. And he had other projects, Chevy Metal. He had Coattail Riders, and Birds of Satan. But they were somewhat tongue-in-cheek. 

“It’s like he almost kind of wanted to take the piss out of himself before anybody else could. But on the NHC material, I wouldn’t let him do that. I was like, ‘No, dude. We’re not making this funny. We’re making this real.’ 

“And so I really hope it sees the light of day. But yeah, that was one of the most happy experiences of my life making that record with him, and just obviously, I haven’t been able to listen to it since.”

Recently, the Jane's Addiction guitarist also revealed that, combined with a bout of Long Covid, he couldn’t bring himself to play music following Hawkins’ death. He told Guitar World, “I'll be honest – I didn't pick up the guitar for about a year. Then, about a year into it, I picked up the guitar, started playing some cover songs, and just kind of got used to the instrument in my hand again.”

Meanwhile, bassist Chris Chaney (Jane’s Addiction, Alanis Morissette and many more) is currently on tour with rock titans, AC/DC, having been confirmed as the replacement for founding member, Cliff Williams in February.

It’s been nearly two years since Taylor Hawkins’ son Shane took to the stage at Wembley to honour his father, joining Foo Fighters for a performance of My Hero at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert. This weekend, the 17-year-old — who has been playing regular gigs with his father’s covers band, Chevy Metal — joined Foo Fighters at the band’s back-to-back London Stadium dates to play drums.

First up, Thursday's show saw Shane take to Josh Freese’s monstrous double-bass drum DW kit for an energetic run-through of I’ll Stick Around, which features on Foo Fighters’ debut album, where Dave Grohl played every instrument on all but one song. 

“Hi Shane, thank you for waiting three hours to come play drums with us” Dave Grohl announced as he introduced him, adding “We particularly like it when he plays this song. It’s called…I’ll Stick Around”, as Shane launches into the machine-gun 16th-note snare intro.  

Hammering at the kit with all the ferocity you’d expect, Shane’s playing style, body language and mannerisms are at times uncannily similar to his dad, while also including a healthy influence from the former Nirvana drummer’s playbook as he beats his way through the song’s ankle-cramping groove and fills around the kit.

It’s not without a couple of minor slips, as pointed out in the comment section of the video, perhaps caused by Grohl’s accidental rearranging of the second verse giving Shane a different cue. But overall, the first performance prompted many fans to declare that Hawkins Jr is capable of to taking on his father’s gig full-time.

Shane returned for Saturday’s gig, reprising the song that has in many ways become recognised his own tribute to his late father. Foo Fighters have been playing a much more subdued version of the tune since touring for 2023’s But Here We Are, forgoing the iconic drum intro in favour of a guitar/piano/vocal introduction.

However, on Saturday Hawkins Jr brought it back, as Grohl told the crowd, “Watch this motherf**kers, he’s not fu**ing around!”. The band opted to go ‘classic’ adding the extended live ‘jam’ section to the song, which sees it modulate through the song’s original tempo, to a swung feel, into a double-time groove. 

To close, Shane — all the while being encouraged by a visibly proud Grohl — delivers an impressive solo, before Grohl brings him to the front of the stage for a hug before addressing the crowd while laughing saying, “Who invited this punk!”.

Foo Fighters are currently on their Everything Or Nothing At All tour in the UK and Europe. For a list of dates click here. 

It’s been a year since Josh Freese was officially unveiled as Foo Fighters’ pick to fill the void left by the late Taylor Hawkins, who passed away on 25 March 2022 while on tour on Bogota, Colombia. Freese has now taken to social media to mark the occasion, saying, “I continue to miss Taylor, as does the band, his family, friends and the rest of the world.”

Freese’s position within the band was announced via a pre-recorded performance titled 'Foo Fighters: Preparing music For Concerts', filmed at Foo Fighters’ Studio 606. 

Following a skit where a precession of drummers including Chad Smith, Tommy Lee and Danny Carey individually arrived at the band’s rehearsal under the guise of trivial reasons - all of which were revealed to be clues pointing towards Josh Freese.

Finally, Freese interrupts his bandmates from behind a double-bass drum kit, shouting “Excuse me! Guys, could we just, like, I don’t know…play a song?! Or two, something?”

Posting footage of the session to his Instagram account, Freese said, “A year ago today this aired and I got to stop keeping quiet about what had been referred to as “the worst kept secret in the music business” at the time (though I thought we did a pretty good job on our end.) 

"Foo Fighters released an hour long special of us playing some songs at rehearsal. Here’s three clips of the first song. I love the way it came out and am proud of it. I joked that all we really needed was “All My Life” and then move on (because it’s so goddamn good.) 

“That being said, I continue to miss Taylor as does the band, his family, friends and the rest of the world. We also continue to try and make the most of the situation by moving forward and doing what we love doing…playing music, honoring Taylor and staying positive."

Freese’s appointment as the drummer for Foo Fighters ended months of speculation following the triumphant Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concerts, during which, Freese put in some impressive, faithful and respectful performances honouring his fallen friend, leading many to see him as the natural fit if the band were to continue.

More recently, Freese filled his Foo Fighters downtime by making a return to A Perfect Circle for the first time in 13 years. While he was on tour with APC, Freese sat down with Rick Beato for an in-depth, candid interview where he spoke about every aspect of his career, from being hired to replace other drummers’ parts on recordings, his beginnings as a pro drummer as a child at Disneyland and of course, getting the call to join Foo Fighters.

"It continues to be bittersweet, in the way that part of me wants to say 'I wish I wasn't there at all.' You know? Like, 'I wish there wasn't a reason for me to be the drummer in the Foo Fighters…

“I think that my coming into the band wasn’t something that I wasn’t planning on by any means, even after Taylor’s passing. The first thing I thought was ‘How are these guys going to move on from this?’. Taylor was such an important component to that band, on and off stage. 

He wasn’t just a drummer, he was such a big personality…I wasn’t talking to those guys at that time, just letting everyone have their space. I couldn’t imagine what was going on in that camp, and really, my heart just went out to all of them.

“On my childrens’ lives - I had zero plans of being called to be the drummer…I didn’t ask them that question…I wasn’t going to be another guy coming at Dave going ‘So, dude, if you need a drummer I’m around, just saying.’

"Months went on after that LA performance…right before Christmas 2022 I got a missed call from [Dave Grohl]…I called him back and we small-talked about Christmas and our kids…just silly small talk, family stuff. 

“I said ‘Hey, did you go record?’ and he goes ‘Yeah, we recorded a bunch of stuff, I played drums, I’m really happy with the way it sounds. We had the drummer talk, and we want you to be the guy.’

“It felt like someone socked me in the stomach. I didn’t go ‘Wow! Yippee, this is so cool!’ I didn’t get excited like that, it was almost more like getting the wind knocked out of me. I was like ‘My god, here we go.’ Because I knew…what do I say, ‘No’?”

Meanwhile, Foo Fighters are set to begin the next phase of touring for 2023's But Here We Are in June, with a 25-date run taking in the UK, Europe and US. For a full list of dates, click here. 

Josh Freese is one of the most talked-about drummers of the last few years. In 2022, he – alongside an all-star cast of musicians – sat in with Foo Fighters at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concerts, paying their respects to the late drummer through two emotional, marathon sets.

By May 2023, Foo Fighters revealed that the band not only intended to continue, but had tracked a full album as well as announcing tour dates that summer. Rumours circulated naming potential candidates to fill the drum stool, with Josh Freese’s name a constant frontrunner, and the band finally unveiled Freese as their new sticksman during a streamed performance, Preparing Music for Concerts. 

Now, Freese has sat down with Rick Beato for an in-depth, 90-minute conversation which you can watch below, with topics spanning Freese’s early days as drummer, meeting world-class session players at a young age, his incredibly prolific session career, and landing one of the biggest gigs on the planet.

Josh Freese: Getting the call from Dave Grohl to join Foo Fighters

Straight out of the gate, Beato addresses the fact that Freese has stepped into the position left vacant by his friend, Taylor Hawkins, with Freese admitting that part of him “Wishes there wasn’t a reason for me to be the drummer in the Foo Fighters” describing getting the call from Grohl asking him to be his new drummer as “like being socked in the stomach.”

"It continues to be bittersweet, in the way that part of me wants to say 'I wish I wasn't there at all.' You know? Like, 'I wish there wasn't a reason for me to be the drummer in the Foo Fighters…

“I think that my coming into the band wasn’t something that I wasn’t planning on by any means, even after Taylor’s passing. The first thing I thought was ‘How are these guys going to move on from this?’. Taylor was such an important component to that band, on and off stage. 

He wasn’t just a drummer, he was such a big personality…I wasn’t talking to those guys at that time, just letting everyone have their space. I couldn’t imagine what was going on in that camp, and really, my heart just went out to all of them.

“That summer when they were putting those tribute shows together, I was really happy to be a part of it. To be there with a bunch of fellow drummers, fellow musicians who were all really close buddies of Taylor’s…it felt therapeutic to be able to be around other people who knew him very well. That part was healing in a lot of ways, at least for me…it was special.

“On my childrens’ lives - I had zero plans of being called to be the drummer. Everyone and their mother, my neighbour walking the dog, ‘Hey Josh! Foo Fighters call you yet?’, other drummers, Reddit forums, and I’m going ‘I don’t even know if they’re going to continue on.’

"I didn’t ask them that question…I wasn’t going to be another guy coming at Dave going ‘So, dude, if you need a drummer I’m around, just saying.’ I was busy enough and making a good enough living already that I wasn’t freaked out about it. I wasn’t going ‘God, I hope they call.’ More like, whatever happens is going to happen, and that’s how I like to roll, right?

"Months went on after that LA performance…right before Christmas 2022 I got a missed call from him. I was on a walk with my wife and some of our dogs. I go ‘Oh, Dave just tried calling me 20 minutes ago.’ My wife’s like ‘I know why he’s calling you!’

"I swear to god, that’s not why I thought he was calling. I called him back and we small-talked about Christmas and our kids…just silly small talk, family stuff. I said ‘Hey, did you go record?’ and he goes ‘Yeah, we recorded a bunch of stuff, I played drums, I’m really happy with the way it sounds. We had the drummer talk, and we want you to be the guy.’

“It felt like someone socked me in the stomach. I didn’t go ‘Wow! Yippee, this is so cool!’ I didn’t get excited like that, it was almost more like getting the wind knocked out of me. I was like ‘My god, here we go.’ Because I knew…what do I say, ‘No’?

“It couldn’t have gone down any other way after being asked. Being asked by someone who I’ve respected forever, not just as a songwriter and a singer-guitarist, but as a drummer first and foremost for me. Dave is such a bad motherfucker, man.”

But, as well as talking about his new gig, Josh Freese has a wealth of experience with bands ranging from punk and hardcore heroes to pop megastars and rock royalty from which to draw anecdotes. Here are five other highlights of Beato’s interview.

Replacing other drummers' takes can and does get awkward

There was an urban legend in drummer circles during the early '00s that if you risked taking a bathroom break during a recording session, you could find that your drum tracks had been replaced by Freese by the time you got back. Freese (admitting that he himself has been replaced on songs), addressed the subject of being hired to correct and replace other drummers' parts on record, revealing that it could sometimes get awkward. 

“I’m not going to mention the name of the band, but it was a famous band. They’d made a record, and there was one song that they were just not happy with. I knew the guys in the band, I knew the drummer. Not well, but I knew him. My buddy, the singer - I’m laughing, not that it’s funny, but it’s just one of these… – he goes ‘Hey, can you show up at the studio on Saturday?’

“I’m about 10 minutes away and I get a text, ‘Where are you?’, and I’m like ‘Five minutes away!’. He goes ‘Go to Starbucks and hang tight. We’ve been mixing for two weeks and the drummer hasn’t been by the studio once and he just randomly stopped by on his way out of town.’ 

“Drum Doctors, my cartage company were pushing these road cases in the back of the studio that say my name all over them. The drummer saw and goes ‘What’s going on in here?” and they told him ‘Oh, Josh Freese is playing drums’, ‘I’m like, Oh, man!’. So I’m sitting in the coffee shop going ‘Oh, god. What’s going to happen?’

“There’s been situations before where the drummer will be like ‘Fucking Josh, man’. I’m like, ‘Don’t get mad at me, get mad at your producer or your singer. I didn’t decide that they want me to play on this, they decided. If it’s not me, it’s going to be somebody else because they decided they have to do something to get this track to where they want it.

There was another time at Henson about 25 years ago, I’m recording with the band and as I’m playing I see through the glass into the control room. I didn’t know anyone in the band, I knew the producer, but I see a guy I didn’t recognise come into the control room, all tattoos and looked like he was in a rock band. Then I see the body language and I’m thinking ‘Oh, god. What’s happening in there.’ I finish playing and [mimes the talkback] ‘Yeah man, give us a minute.’ The drummer showed up.

I’ve been replaced in the studio, and it hurt. It doesn’t feel good, you go home and go ‘I’m doing it all wrong, my career is over, I suck and everyone hates me.’ No. I’ve worked with great musicians who have gone into play on something and even to my own ear I’ll go ‘That just didn’t feel right’. Doesn’t mean this guy’s not a fantastic guitar player, it’s just not working for that particular track.”

He once tracked a song using his fingers on an upside down snare drum

From his work with a Perfect Circle, to Evanesence, The Vandals, Nine Inch Nails and more, Josh Freese is known for being a hard-hitting rock machine. But that doesn't mean that he can't be subtle. Here, he recounts how important dynamics and lighter playing are to him. 

"It’s funny because I get hired so often – more so a couple of years back – ‘If you want the heavy-hitting alternative rock drummer, you’ve gotta hire Josh Freese’, right? And it would bum me out because I like playing soft, quiet, sensitive things. 

"I think I like the extremes, I like stuff that’s hardcore and intense, I like stuff that’s really light and beautiful. Then the lukewarm part is just lukewarm…

"Slow and quiet is way more difficult than hard and fast, any day of the week. So for me that’s always a little more interesting. Being a songwriter myself and a fan of songwriters, I love getting a chance to do that stuff. 

"I love the stuff I recorded with Ron Sexsmith, the album is called Long Player Late Bloomer and it’s beautiful. One of the songs, I remember we flipped the snare over and it’s almost like a train beat. I was playing on the bottom of the snare, but because the head’s so thin and just the way the mics were and the amount of compression in the room, I played it with my fingers, I’m not even using sticks.

"The track sounds so good to me, I’m just as proud, if not more proud of a track like that, as I am some hardcore track that really sounds like it took a lot to do. That [dynamic] stuff takes more. It’s like walking a tightrope, it’s just so delicate. The delicate, naked stuff for me, is really challenging in a good way."  

Josh Freese appealed to Sting not to mess with Stewart Copeland’s drum parts on Message in a Bottle

As one of the most widely hired session drummers of the last three decades, Freese knows a bit about drum parts: what's important, what isn't, and what you absolutely must include when you're playing the canon of the biggest-selling artists on the planet. 

During his first rehearsals with Sting, Freese went out to bat for Copeland's drum part on Message in a Bottle, even if it meant disagreeing with Sting 24 hours into his new gig. 

“There’s certain things that you’ve gotta hit, certain marks or figures. And then there’s certain things where I’ll inject my own style into something, I’m not playing every fill like it is on the record.

"I’ll never forget, this one thing in particular. We were playing Message in a Bottle, during the ‘I hope that someone gets my…’  and I’m playing the tom thing. We finish it and Sting goes, ‘Can you not do that tom thing?’. I’m like, ‘Dude. I know that I’m the new guy and I’ve only known you for 24 hours, but I have to play that tom thing.’

"I’ve air-drummed that on my steering wheel since I was 16, as has every other drummer or maybe even non-drummer. It’s just so cool. He’s like, ‘Well, I don’t know…’ Then I go up to him later that day and I go ‘I really want to play that tom thing on Message in a Bottle.’

"I think he appreciated sometimes that I was still thinking about it, that I would care at all rather than like, ‘Ok, I don’t have to play the tom thing. Who cares!’. I felt strongly about it, it’s an important part of the song and it’s going to be sacrilegious to not hit it. It felt like I wouldn’t be doing it justice, it would be a crime to not play it."

That said, judging on live performances, it seems that Sting ultimately made the decision.

Dave Grohl and Josh Freese asked Pat Smear’s permission to use two bass drums, and one of them is 23-inches

During the London Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concerts, Josh Freese wowed millions of viewers with his rock solid playing, and effortless navigation of Van Halen's Hot For Teacher (alongside Wolfgang Van Halen, Justin Hawkins and Dave Grohl), complete with the famous double kick intro and groove.

Fast-forward to his debut with Foo Fighters and one of the first things drummers noticed was the dual-bass drum kit. It's an irrelevant detail to many fans, but one that ushers Freese in with his own identity. However the drummer was initially hesitant to suggest using two bass drums, until his new boss read his mind, but Foo Fighters guitarist Pat Smear got the final say.

“When we were in rehearsals, I was busting out some double pedal stuff, and Dave was like ‘That’s awesome, I love that double bass thing you’re doing!’. I said ‘Really? I was just kind of messing around.’ and he’s like ‘Do it, do it!’.

It’s so crazy, I showed up one day to rehearsal and we were on the exact same page. I’d thought a day or two before ‘Am I going to have the same setup I always have? Do I dare have two kick drums, is that totally ridiculous?’

I show up to rehearsal and Dave’s like ‘I was thinking about it man, you should just go for it and have two kick drums.’ I’m like ‘No way! I was thinking the exact same thing, I thought you’d never go for it! We ran it past Pat. Pat Smear is like the punk rock elder statesman, if it’s cool with Pat then it’s cool. Pat was like ‘Oh yeah, double kick all the way!’.

My main kick drum is a 23”. DW started making 23-inch kicks a couple of years ago, and I’ve got two or three of them, I really like them. A joke I have with a friend of mine, my old drum tech is ‘I like it because, it’s a little bit bigger than a 22”, but it’s not quite a 24” - it’s a 23”!”

He still gets surprised hearing himself sometimes

It's a well-known story that Josh Freese once forgot that he played on an Avril Lavigne record, but when you've clocked-up circa 500 recording credits, you're bound to let a few slip your mind.

“There’s lots of stories like that, one of my favourite ones I’ll never forget. I was having lunch with my mum about 7 or 8 years ago. I’m in this restaurant, and there’s music playing. Some song…I call a certain style of music NASCAR Rock, you know? Real middle of the road, vanilla, not that interesting…

I’m listening to it and rolling my eyes thinking ‘God, I’ve played on so much crap like this.’ I didn’t recognise the song, then it gets to the chorus and I’m like, ‘Oh! This is me, I know this song!’. So that’s definitely happened more than once.”

In 2017, Robert Adam Stevenson had a life-changing decision to make: stay in Oxford with his band, A Silent Film, or move to LA and follow his real passion: recording other bands. “I didn't like being a front person in the band,” he admits, “and I was so much happier being buried in the studio.” So bury himself he did, and during every recording session he drove his band's engineers and producers mad by asking endless questions, but he quickly became knowledgeable enough to record and mix the group. So when they split, Robert had something to fall back on, to become a studio producer/engineer himself.

“It turned out I loved helping other people get through that creative process,” he smiles. “I just wanted to make records all year round and now I can with different people!” And if you're going to fall back on something, you might as well do it in LA, right? At least that's what Robert thought, and in 2017 he decided to relocate there to practise his new craft.

“I just risked it all, sold the band's backline on eBay which got me three months of Air BnB in LA!” Robert almost winces at the decision he made back then, but seven years on it appears to have paid off. Through perseverance, taking every job he could (including “writing some terrible K-Pop”), some good luck, knowing his way around a studio, and being able to help artists unleash their creativity, Robert has worked with some of the biggest names, from co-producing Johnny Depp and Jeff Beck to engineering Queens Of The Stone Age – and being nominated for a 2023 GRAMMY in the process. 

We caught up with him in his LA home studio to talk recording and mixing guitars, Johnny Depp's fanboy Jeff Beck excitement, recording the late great Taylor Hawkins, and even how Josh Homme got into a scrap with a band in Oxford. There's insider info on the notoriously secretive QOTSA recording process – ok, not much, but what did you expect from the Area 51-level security that surrounds Troy Van Leeuwen and Josh's guitar processing? But we do find out is how an engineer/producer gets the best from a band in the studio – and the best guitar recordings. And that it might not be so much about the gear in that studio, but more about getting on with – and the best from – the people within it.

“Oh yeah,” laughs Robert. “that's 90% of the job!”

The studio role 

What is the difference between a producer and engineer? The definitions seem to be blurred…

RAS: "You're right. On a business level, an engineer will get a day rate, but with a producer you are in for the long haul, and get points on the record and a fee per song. So you have to be a bit creative on how you are booked. It's important to me to be a part of the creative process, so I'll push my luck. Sometimes you are not supposed to speak your mind but fortune favours the brave! Read the room, build the trust.”

What is a typical day in the studio?

"It is completely different every day. I consider myself hands-on with the computer and positioning mics – actually being an engineer. But I also come at it from a musical and producer mindset. I'm listening intently to the main creative forces in the room, learning those personalities, and working out where they are hitting their walls. If you can realign someone's perspective, then they can be far more creative. They crave that as well, which is something I learned from being the front person in a band myself."

So your own band experiences have been an advantage…

"It seems to have worked for me with some of the really big names that I have been lucky enough to be in the room with. Sometimes they are not looking for me to produce, they want me to engineer, but all my gears are moving. I'm thinking 'how can I help' and I'm trying to be ahead of the curve of their thought processes."

So you could be doing anything from miking up to sitting on a Pro Tools session and suggesting notes changes?

"Oh yeah. I'll push my luck!"

How much of the job is dealing with the personalities rather than gear?

"90%?! [laughs] The vibe and how people feel, and the type of people in the room are all super important. Also, trying to keep focussed on how inspired someone is, and never letting the gear get in the way. There are some people that love it, but there are others who can't stand it. Jeff Beck could not stand talking about gear; he would just sit back and pretend to be immediately disinterested. My job was to just have it all up and working so he could focus on the music."

LA connection

Ok, talking of Jeff, how did you get to work with such big names when you moved to LA?

"I happened to be working in a studio where Johnny Depp's nephew, Billy Rassel, came in – only in LA, right? He's an aspiring producer and came in to record an artist and I grabbed the reins and finished the project. He said, 'my uncle is really going to like it' and I was like, 'whatever, that's another world'. 

“But Johnny loves making music and I got the call one night: 'Can you come over?' I ended up working through the night, listening to his stories, and helping them make some music. And it just turned out that – and how lucky am I?  – that music happened to be him preparing ideas to give to Jeff Beck because they'd just struck up this friendship.

"I then did the Depp/Beck record [the album 18]. They were so kind to give me a co-production credit. Afterwards Jeff  – and again this is mind-blowing – asked me to play keyboards on tour. I ended up doing the UK, rest of Europe and the US in 2022. It was crazy!"

How did you meet Queens of the Stone Age?

"Through Johnny as he and Josh [Homme] are very good friends. Josh was literally over at the house hanging with Johnny. I'm a huge Queens fan. I remember seeing them play for their first record at Reading thinking, 'This is insane, this is the guy from Kyuss [Homme's former band] doing his new thing!'. I had all those stories that I could talk to Josh about. There was this great incident in Oxford when QOTSA came and had a fight with this Oxford band called Winnebago Deal in an Indian restaurant. It was legendary in the Oxford scene, that Josh Homme had come to town and had a fight with one of the cool bands. So I brought that up in front of Josh and Johnny, and his eyes lit up and he said, 'Oh my god, I remember, yes!'."

Who won the fight?

"Josh, obviously."

How did it work in the studio with Josh, Troy and the band?

"I was coming in, being the engineer and getting that album done [In Times New Roman]. It was incredible to see how it unfolded: a lot of tape and everything on outboard. Basically the rule is never to use computer plugins. I had been making records trying to make them sound like tape on computers my whole life, and to just finally be let loose on a tape machine with a proper budget on a record like that was an incredible learning curve."

How did you find the process?

"Josh had said, 'we're going to do a lot of tracking on tape' and I was like, 'are you sure because I haven't actually recorded onto tape?'. But because he has this 'do everything in a roundabout different way' attitude, the idea of me struggling to use a tape machine actually appealed to him! It was still a Queens record that was going to break the rules and bend everything that you think is conventional. Things would eventually ended up on the computer, but again, with no plugins as it would come through an analogue console."

Did that unconventional approach extend to recording Josh's vocal?

"With many artists you shouldn't just have this 'use your most expensive microphone' [approach]. They [QOTSA] were quite fond of having a few microphones set up at a time, and of course ambient mics set up as well that are very important. I hadn't done as many multi-microphone setups before working on that particular record."

What can you reveal about the QOTSA guitar sound and how they get it?

"That it is a very specific world that Josh keeps secret!"

Ok, how involved did you get with him and Troy in terms of their guitar sound?

"They know [it] themselves inside out and don't need anybody to point them in any directions. And the language they speak to each other in is incredible. They have code words and descriptives for the sounds that they have used in the past that they know work. 

"I was loving just hearing how they communicate about guitar tone. And that filled in so many blanks for [QOTSA] records that I love, so 'why does that record sounds so extraordinarily special?' And it's because of their processes and how they go about things in a roundabout way. It's very much 'find something that's not normal and now where can we make this work?' Combinations are key: light and shade is a massively important thing for them, and they just know the process. And Dean [Fertita, keys and guitars] is a very important part of that process too."

Is there anything that would surprise people about how QOTSA get their guitar sound? It's a vague question, I know…

"No that's fine and I'll give you a vague answer! [Laughs]. I mean, it's everything unconventional. Constant change, try this, try that. Sometimes the rule to get interesting guitar sounds is to go with small amp, single-miked and then loud in the mix, but then they'd do contrary to that in the studio too."

So basically, whatever they do and use in the studio, is unconventional…

"Yeah. I tell you what, I don't remember using an SM57!"

Guitar production 

How does your work vary with other guitarists in shaping their tone?

"Out of all band members, guitarists know their stuff and have the pedals and amps they love. I'd never get in the way of someone's enthusiasm for that, but it's great to show other options and see if it inspires them. And they appreciate being shown new things they can add to their arsenal."

How do you adapt to different personalities and styles?

"I just did a lot of guitar tracking with The Kills and they are so cool, absolutely wonderful, and Jamie [Hince], again, he knows his guitars. It was a joy, and we had a great session where it was set up with a wall of his favourite amps. He had his favourite mics and I added some too. It was lovely just thinking about guitars and having lots of options to play with. It's nice to be able to shake it up and have a lot of colours."

Do you have any tips for recording guitars?

"Yeah, the standard is a dynamic [mic] and a ribbon – we all love that combination and it becomes addictive. You can't quite imagine just recording with one or the other. I've become a fan of not miking too close to the grill. It used to be that you'd have the mic close to avoid bleed playing live. Once you're in the studio and not thinking about those things, it's lovely to pull the mic back six inches or a foot off the cabinet – it really changes the sound. 

"A lot of times I'll have a DI line running because it's become a common thing in music – everyone assumes there's a DI and you get to the end of the process where you've just recorded the mics and someone will say 'hey can I re-amp that?' So we have to DI everything now, just in case."

Do you have favourite mics for recording amps? Is it the dreaded SM57?

"Oh yeah absolutely. The SM is not dreaded! I did pick up some older Unidyne versions and I swear they sound a little richer in the midrange and less sharp. For the ribbon a Royer is great, but other interesting choices are a Coles, especially on a 4x12 – it just works. And then a Beyerdynamic M160 – an amazing microphone."

How do you approach acoustic guitar recording?

"Acoustics are very hard to record – I'm always wishing I had more time. I will often use whatever the vocal mic is as a starting point. The low end is hard to deal with, and I've also started using big valve mics but in omnidirectional mode – that gets a more balanced recording, and then I can boost the low end. Recording an acoustic at the 12th fret with that setup is a good place to start – no rules though! And of course dual mics help; it's nice to have a ribbon set back to capture the room."

What about mixing the guitar?

"It's usually to double track or not, a process that a lot of guitarists say they have to do. But often you are just taking up double the real estate and adding nothing interesting. So use different guitars, switch up the tone, multi mics are useful, or switch up the mics and add tons of ambience. It is nice to have the space recorded in on the finished recordings as it's unique."

Are bands (QOTSA aside) more open to using plugins in the studio these days?

"Yeah, sometimes I'll find that someone who has a great ear will have carved something out in a demo [using plugins], and that when you re-track it with a great guitar and a great vintage amp, they are not that impressed, and that's ok!"

What have you been impressed with on the digital emulation side of things?

"One company is Neural DSP. Those plugins have been really surprising with how good they are. Others I use are Plugin Alliance/Brainworx ones that matches well with UAD's, so I can swap between them. It's common to use a DI bass and add those Plugin Alliance bass sims on top in the studio. Sometimes it's better than the real thing, to be honest."

Overall, which have been your favourite studio moments during your time in LA?

“I was very lucky to be recording with Taylor Hawkins, around 2021 [for his band NHC with Dave Navarro and Chris Chaney] and just to see someone that brilliant recording drums, and seeing their reaction when they hear what you've recorded. Taylor loved all his Genesis and '80s sounding stuff – more than appeared on the Foo Fighters albums – so to be able to do that for him in the studio and him get really excited was a wonderful memory.

“The Jeff Beck album was just shockingly beautiful guitar playing. I'm keyed into these emotional experiences but watching Johnny [Depp] respond to Jeff's performances in the studio was amazing. Jeff would play things that he didn't necessarily think were special and Johnny would be laser-focused at the back of the room encouraging him and jumping out of the seat with excitement. To Jeff it might have been off the cuff but to Johnny it was just watching his hero, you know? A wonderful moment.

“And QOTSA. Oh my goodness, yeah. I just love that there was never a safety net. They just risk everything. Every song starts from a point of absolutely no safety net which I think is so crazy. Usually a band would come in with a demo and maybe you are playing to demo stems or maybe to a click track but [with QOTSA] it's none of that. It's just 'go at it and if it feels good, we're done'. The simplest things work sometimes but it's all about the people."

• Find out more about Robert's work at robertadamstevenson.com

As if there was any doubt, Shane Hawkins cemented his future as a drummer via his triumphant appearance at last year’s Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concerts, providing a hard-hitting, powerful foundation for Foo Fighters on My Hero in honour of his late father.

While some corners of the internet had Shane tipped to succeed his dad in the Biggest Rock Band in The World, the reality of a teenager joining a band with a combined age of well over two-and-a-half centuries never seemed wholly likely. However, what was made clear is that Shane Hawkins is one hell of a drummer.

The stage might have been smaller for his latest live show, but this past weekend Shane delivered even more proof that he’s inherited the knack for the family trade by sitting in with Chevy Metal - the classic rock covers band founded by Taylor Hawkins as a side project.

Shane joined Chevy Metal for their show at the Canyon Club, Agoura Hills, California, on 29 July, raising money for the Rock & Roll Rescue dog shelter/adoption service. 

Sat behind a mix-and-match kit featuring drums seen in Hawkins’ social media clips, he echoed his father’s drum setup, with his cymbals set just high enough to reach, and auxiliary toms placed above the hi-hat.

Among the covers were Black Sabbath’s The Wizard, and Led Zeppelin, Moby Dick. The latter giving Shane the chance to flex with an impressive drum solo channelling both John Bonham and some heavy inspiration from Taylor Hawkins’ own solos in Foo Fighters.

Skid Row frontman, Sebastian Bach provided lead vocals for run-throughs of Van Halen’s version of The Kinks’ classic, You Really Got Me and Mötley Crüe, Looks That Kill. Meanwhile, the band backed Elliot Easton for two songs by The Cars - Just What I Needed and Good Times Roll. 

In addition to Shane Hawkins, Chevy Metal were also joined by three other drummers for the set: session ace, Kenny Aronoff, Poison’s Rikki Rockett and Foo Fighters engineer, John Lousteau.

Foo Fighters have recently been gearing-up for the band’s first live dates since the passing of drummer, Taylor Hawkins, and now the band has shared a brief clip of what appears to be a new song.

The clip follows comments made in February by UK radio presenter, Chris Moyles, who claimed live on air that Foo Fighters had a new album coming “in March”. 

Posted to the band’s social media channels on 12 April, the 13-second, un-named clip is accompanied by the caption “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” 

The clip, featuring a syncopated, octave-guitar riff, harks back to a blend of the band’s sound on In Your Honour and There Is Nothing Left to Lose backed by some dreamy chords while the drums play flams on the backbeat, interspersed with flowing tom fills.

It might be short, but the clip is just long enough to have set the comments section alight with questions and speculation over who is drumming on the recording and who will be filling the drum stool for the band’s packed summer schedule.

Many fans are convinced that the drummer on the recording is Dave Grohl, and while there’s not much to go on, there’s enough to lend that theory weight: the huge snare backbeat and pounding toms for a start, coupled with the fact that Grohl is the most obvious candidate to play drums on a Foo Fighters recording in Hawkins’ absence. However, both stylistically and logistically this could quite easily be a Taylor Hawkins drum track recorded prior to his death.

Which leaves the big question: who will be drumming for Foo Fighters’ upcoming live shows? Comments from fans are still centred around three main candidates: Pearl Jam’s Matt Cameron, The Darkness’ Rufus Taylor and session drummer Josh Freese who’s played with, well…pretty much everyone.

Matt Cameron is seemingly out of the running, having said pretty clearly that “The internet rumours are false, I haven’t joined the Foos”.

Rufus Taylor has been another strongly-rumoured replacement for his “hero, mentor and big brother”, however following The Darkness’ recent announcement of an anniversary tour marking 20 years since the band released debut album Permission to Land (and the fact both bands have clashing live dates), we think this is also unlikely.

A quick look at Devo’s calendar shows that frontrunner Josh Freese will either be in Europe and the US at the same time in August, or depping-out Devo’s European dates in order for it to be him. But that’s not out of the question, given that former Devo drummer Dave Kendrick, former Offspring drummer Pete Parada and drummer/comedian Fred Armisen have all filled-in for Freese with Devo at times.  

Another name that has been mentioned in relation to Foo Fighters recently is ex-Angels and Airwaves drummer, Atom Willard. Back in March, The Sun named Willard and Matt Cameron as likely replacements (possibly even sharing the live schedule) for Hawkins after the former posted footage of himself at Foo Fighters’ Studio 606, adding that he was using some of Taylor Hawkins' drum shells. 

However, while there’s no denying that Atom Willard would do an incredible job, the tabloid overlooked the fact that Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba — who Atom has previously played with — was also present in the video, making it likely that the two are working on new material.

That’s before we even consider other heavyweight drummers including Rage Against The Machine’s Brad Wilk, who appears to have a clear schedule following Tom Morello’s recent response to when RATM could play live again.

So, we’re none the wiser beyond the fact that, whatever it is and whoever will be drumming, there appears to be new Foo Fighters music coming very soon.

Foo Fighters are currently scheduled to make their live return on 24 May in New Hampshire. For a full list of tour dates, click here. 

It’s hard to believe that a whole year has passed since Foo Fighters drummer, Taylor Hawkins’ life was tragically cut short while on tour in Bogotá, Colombia, but today (25 March) marks the one-year anniversary of the beloved drum hero’s death. 

To pay tribute to the fallen rocker, Belgian band Black Box Revelation organised a mob of 100 drummers, and took over Belgium’s Sportpaleis stadium in Antwerp - the venue which was the scene of Hawkins’ final Belgian performance in 2018 - for a cover of Foo Fighters’ My Hero.

It begins with Black Box Revelation drummer, Dries Van Dijck beating out the song’s intro, before the thunderous crowd of 100 additional drummers - all dressed in black t-shirts sporting a silhouette of a Hawk - join in. 

The song, which featured as a single from Foo Fighters’ 1997 second album, The Colour and the Shape, famously features a double-drum intro. As was well documented in Foo Fighters’ own documentary, Back and Forth, Dave Grohl took over drum duties from original drummer, William Goldsmith during the album’s tracking process, recording My Hero’s drum intro on two separate kits.

Hawkins wasn’t in the band at this point, however since his passing, My Hero has become an anthem closely associated to him, due in no small part to his son Shane’s energetic and emotional performance of the song with Foo Fighters at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concerts.  

A statement from Black Box Revelation says, “Taylor Hawkins was the best drummer of our times. Honouring him with this tribute was an experience we will never forget.”

Foo Fighters are scheduled to play at a number of festivals this summer, and are yet to announce who will be behind the kit. For a full list of tour dates, click here.

At the start of the month, the Foo Fighters pulled together a who's who of rockstars for a musical marathon that will go down in history as one of the greatest lineups to ever grace Wembly's stage. The lucky attendees of Wembley Stadium were treated to the rock gig of the decade, with energetic performances from the likes of Queen and Brian Johnson, a reunited Them Crooked Vultures, and a masterclass of technique from Rush - not to mention a surprise appearance from Paul McCartney. 

Now, you'd think one concert of that magnitude would be enough, but today, Dave Grohl and co. are taking to the stage again to honour their late drummer and friend, Taylor Hawkins, with yet another mega-show. Taking place at the Kia Forum in Inglewood, California, this star-studded tribute promises to be just as thrilling as its British counterpart, with many big names added to the bill in the last few days. US fans can expect exhilarating performances from the likes of Tool's Danny Carey, Soundgarden's Kim Thayil and Matt Cameron, and Motley Crue's Tommy Lee, among many others. 

How to stream the Taylor Hawkins tribute concert

While the London concert was available to stream live on MTV's YouTube channel worldwide, unfortunately, that stream isn't available for the LA show. 

There is also no official word about whether the show will be available on-demand via Paramount+, like the London concert. We are really hoping that they release footage of the show in some capacity, as if it's anything like the first tribute, it will be a night to remember! 

Now, while you may not be able to watch the LA concert, the London performance is still available in its entirety via Paramount+. Paramount's streaming service is available for $4.99/£6.99 a month and contains a wealth of TV shows and films, as well as the Foo Fighters' love letter to their fallen bandmate. 

It should also be said that Paramount+ offers a generous free 7-day trial, so you can sign up and try it out before you part with your hard-earned cash. 

How to watch outside of your permitted broadcast area

So you want to join the celebration of this larger-than-life drummer, but unfortunately, Paramount+ is not available in your country? Well don't worry, all you need is a VPN. 

These Virtual Private Networks are used to change the location of your IP address, therefore tricking the streaming service into thinking you are, in fact, viewing from the USA - or any other country for that matter. Express VPN is our service of choice and is currently available on a 30-day trial.

Who is performing at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert?

Dave Grohl has made sure to populate the stage with Taylor’s biggest influences and favourite musicians, with the likes of Travis Barker, Geezer Butler, Matt Cameron, Geddy Lee and Alex Lifeson, Alanis Morissette, Miley Cyrus, John Paul Jones, Chad Smith, Brad Wilk, Brian May and Roger Taylor, Krist Novoselic, Nancy Wilson, Joshua Homme, Jon Theodore, and Alain Johannes, Joan Jett, P!NK, Stewart Copeland, Chris Chaney, Gene Simmons, Nikki Sixx, Mark Ronson, Omar Hakim and Chevy Metal.

Additional guests were announced a matter of days ago, with the likes of Danny Carey, Tommy Lee, Kim Thayil, Justin Hawkins, Taylor Momsen, and Kesha all being added to the bill. 

Now, Wembley were treated to a surprise performance from Paul McCartney, but we'll just have to wait until the night to see what Dave has up his sleeve for the LA audience.