Dave Grohl on Directing: ‘Once My Heart Clicked, I Just Dive Head First Into Whatever It Is’
Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl recently spoke to Rolling Stone about the Foo's latest music video for "The Sky Is A Neighborhood," due off their upcoming album Concrete and Gold that he himself directed. He spoke at length about the process developing the idea for the video and his directing goals moving forward.
The initial idea for the video came from a Neil Degrasse Tyson interview set to music. "It basically talks about the atoms that comprise life on Earth and make up the human body are traceable to the beginnings of our universe," Grohl said. "Stars that go unstable and collapse and explode and just scatter their guts, their fundamental ingredients of life are all over the universe and forming solar systems and stars orbiting planets have the ingredients for life itself. And when you look up at the night sky, you realize that you're not only part of the universe, but the universe is part of us. It really moves me."
The Foo frontman later connected it to working with his two daughter. "It seemed like all that imagery fell into place with the lyrics of the song," says the singer. "This video was special to me because I got to direct two of my daughters. They've seen me make videos before and they've watched the process and always asked, 'When can we be in the video? When can we be in the video?'"
The interviewer jokingly asked if Grohl was grooming them to be future actresses, and he explained the straight up joy his two daughters experienced. "Oh my God, no. They're like creative consultants. I'll explain a video to them, and they'll say, 'Dad, you should do this...' and I wind up using their ideas in my videos. They're both brilliant kids with really outside ideas. So when I asked them if they wanted to be in the video, they were so excited. And I said, 'Okay, you guys realize, you're gonna have to levitate, right?' And they couldn't f--king wait. We had to put them in these harnesses and they were suspended by these wires. And to them it was like an amusement park ride. They just felt like they were on swings at a carnival. And I'm standing on top of this cabin yelling down at them, 'Are you guys okay?' They're like, 'YEAH! Let's GO!'"
He capped off the interview by revealing he was approached to direct a feature film. "Last year, I was approached to make a feature film and I was a little hesitant at first, and then I got into it. I started working on production and getting into casting with these big names. And at first, I wasn't sure if I would be able to do it. And once my heart clicked, I just dive head first into whatever it is. And I really got into the script and visualizing this story, but I didn't have time to do it," revealed the singer.
"Someday, I'm going to wind up doing it," says Grohl. "But the Foo Fighters always get in the way. [Laughs] I can see myself doing more and more of it as the years come. That film's still in rewrites and once we get the rewrite happening, I'm sure that the casting will kick in and pull our teams together. But I like my day job. I really enjoy my day job."
You can check out the video right here, and read the full interview with Dave over at Rolling Stone.
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