Former Rage Against The Machine guitarist Tom Morello was recently interviewed on The First Time on BBC Radio. Alternative Nation transcribed his comments.
The host said he had spoken to Dave Grohl about the recording of the first Rage Against The Machine album at Sound City Studios, and that the secret to how great it sounded was it was all recorded live.
“We were talking about Sound City Studios and the first Rage album. He was like, ‘You know that was all done live?’ Is it true that the majority of that record was you with a bunch of friends around?”
Morello responded, “We couldn’t get it right, we were trying to make a record in a more conventional way at Sound City, and even while we were recording the record we would go on the weekends and play gigs, and it was just roaring. Then we would come back to the studio, and it just didn’t sound like the band, so I humbly raised my hand one day and said, ‘Why don’t we just invite some friends over and play the set a couple times through and just see what happens? This isn’t working.’
So we did that, and got 7 or 8 of the basic tracks in 2 hours. At the end of the day it’s obvious, and then every record that Tim, Brad, and I made, the Rage records and the Audioslave records, we always did it like that. Not always with friends in the studio, but we’re toe to toe, eye to eye, looking at each other and making the songs.”
