Foo Fighter’s lead guitarist, vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Dave Grohl has released a two-part mini-documentary entitled Play. The documentary, filmed in black-and-white, begins with Grohl discussing his history and passion with learning how to play and master an instrument, in addition to the challenges faced during the recording process of part two; which is a 23-minute musical composition played by Grohl on seven different instruments.
Play will be available on August 10th onto various streaming and digital download platforms via Roswell/RCA Records. A teaser trailer was released today for the project, which is currently available for pre-order. A limited-edition vinyl release will be released for Play on September 28th.
Grohl announced this project in May, as the Concrete and Gold tour began to wind down. During the 23-minute piece Grohl uses several different guitars, three different drum kits, a bass guitar, various keyboards including a MOOG synthesizer and an assortment of percussion which include vibraphones.
“Watching my kids start to play music and learn to sing or play drums, it brings me back to the time when I was their age listening to albums, learning from listening… and when I take my kids to the place where they take their lessons, I see these rooms full of children that are really pushing themselves to figure this out,” Grohl explained in a press release. “And even now, as a 49-year-old man, I’m still trying to figure it out… it’s not something that you ever truly master. You’re always chasing the next challenge, and you’re always trying to find a way to improve on what you’ve learned.”
Play is Grohl’s latest directorial feature, following the 2013 documentary Sound City and the 2014 HBO Documentary Mini-Series Sonic Highways. Mark Monroe, who collaborated on these two projects, assisted with Grohl’s directorial duties on Play. Other collaborators include sound engineer Darrel Thorpe, who worked on the Concrete and Gold tour, and cinematographer Brandon Trost, who worked on films such as This is The End and The Disaster Artist.
This latest multi-instrumental foray is nothing new for Grohl, who launched his career as the drummer for grunge legends Nirvana back in 1990. After Nirvana folded in 1994 due to the suicide of its front-man Kurt Cobain, Grohl thought about taking a break from music, until being invited to perform as part of the Back Beat Band that June, which reignited his passion.
Later that year, in October, he recorded a fifteen-track demo, which set the stage the Foo Fighter’s debut studio album. This demo and the proceeding self-titled album featured Grohl playing all of the instruments on every track, with the exception of “X-Static,” which featured Greg Dulli on guitar and “Big Me,” which featured his former Nirvana band-mate Krist Novoselic on bass.
While Nirvana ended over 24 years ago today, Grohl made a recent announcement regarding the band back in May, stating that footage of the band’s 2014 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame After Party may be released. This featured the three remaining Nirvana members, Grohl, Novoselic and Pat Smear, who toured with the band as a guitarist from 1993-1994, at the Brooklyn club St. Vitus. The three were joined on stage by Joan Jett, St. Vincent, J. Mascis of Dinosaur Jr. and John McCauley of Deer Tick.
Photo Credit: Andrew Stuart
Leave a Comment