Tag: chris shiflett

BGS 5+5: Chris Shiflett

Posted on by Editor

Artist: Chris Shiflett
Hometown: Santa Barbara, California
Latest album: Hard Lessons
Personal nicknames (or rejected band names): Shifty, Jake Jackson, Boat Plastic

What other art forms — literature, film, dance, painting, etc — inform your music?

I remember a few years back I realized that I only ever read books on current events, history, politics, etc… and wasn’t reading much fiction, so I dove into some classics and took a couple creative writing classes. You have to put good ingredients into your brain to get the ideas flowing.

What was the first moment that you knew you wanted to be a musician?

It was the summer between 8th and 9th grade. I went to visit a friend of mine down in Los Angeles and it was right when the glam rock thing was kicking off in the mid-’80s. We walked all over Melrose and everyone looked like Hanoi Rocks. I was hooked.

What’s the toughest time you ever had writing a song?

If a song is too hard to write than I usually give up. When they’re too labored they never sound very good.

Which elements of nature do you spend the most time with and how do those impact your work?

I try to surf as much as I can. Sadly, it’s never enough. I don’t know if there’s a direct correlation to song writing but surfing just makes me happy. Puts me in a good frame of mind.

How often do you hide behind a character in a song or use “you” when it’s actually “me”?

Almost never! I’ve tried writing songs in character but they never seem to come out very good. I think sometimes we all use “you” when we mean “we” but that’s just life, right?

Photo credit: Brantley Gutierrez

The Show On The Road – Chris Shiflett

Posted on by Chris Jacobs

This week, Z. speaks with Chris Shiflett, a renegade guitar slinger who has spent 20 years prowling stages around the world with the Foo Fighters and has become a soulful songwriter in his own right.

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His new record, Hard Lessons, is coming out June 14, and he talked with Z. about the vulnerability of striking out on his own, the whiplash jump from rocking Madison Square Garden one night and a rowdy bar the next, and how growing up with three brothers in Santa Barbara helped him navigate becoming a dad to three young sons of his own.

For those about rock, we advise you listen to this man. He’s been to the mountaintop and has had to start over more than once, but most of all, he can write rock ‘n’ roll songs that make you roll the window down and sing at the top of your lungs.

Walking the Floor: Chris Shiflett Talks to Patterson Hood

Posted on by Editor

As the Foo Fighters' guitarist, Chris Shiflett rocks … a lot. To add a little country swagger to his repertoire, he also fronts the Dead Peasants. Shiflett's Walking the Floor podcast is where those two worlds collide. Since late 2013, Shiflett has hosted bi-monthly interviews with everyone from John Doe and Mike Ness to Merle Haggard and Sturgill Simpson. 

On this week's episode, Shiflett chats with Drive-By Truckers co-founder Patterson Hood about the band's evolution over the years, including its rebuilding in the post-Jason Isbell era. Of the stripped down tour the Truckers did earlier this year, Hood says, "It's fun to go out and do it without all the baggage of having to do it for some negative reason. We're at the absolute pinnacle, best time of our band's history. The line-up is killer. Everybody gets along great. We're having a good time."