October 15, 2008 19:35

Foo Fighters man discusses side project Foo Fighters Tickets

Chris Shiflett's Jackson United tour gets underway

Photo Gallery: Foo Fighters
Photo: Dean Chalkley

Foo Fighters' Chris Shiflett is embarking on a US and UK tour with his sideproject band, Jackson United, and is about to release a new album 'Harmony And Dissidence' in the UK.

The guitarist has taken the lead role in the band, writing all of the songs and singing vocals. He recruited Foo Fighters' frontman Dave Grohl and drummer Taylor Hawkins to do drum duties on the album.

"They play drums between the two of them on the new record," Shiflett explained. "They're both such ridiculous drummers that they just listen to the song and play it the right way and it's better than anything you could've thought of. There wasn't a whole lot of instruction involved."

Shiflett admitted that he's enjoying playing in a band that's relatively unknown compared to the hugely successful Foo Fighters. "We're just starting out, people don't know who we are, but that's sort of the fun of it for me," he said.

"This is definitely as diametrically opposed to the Foo Fighters as I think you could possibly be. You're playing to like 100 people in a bar and they don't know who the fuck you are. You gotta earn it."

Jackson United's new album was just released in the US and is due out in the UK on November 3.

"We made (the album) pretty fast," he said "We recorded 16 songs in 16 days. My main motivation was to have a forum for my songs. I worked on a lot of stuff while Foo Fighters were on tour. Touring there's a lot of downtime--a lot of hurry up and wait. We're probably not gonna tour again for a while and we'll probably take the next year off. It's worked out well because I'm off the road with the Foo Fighters and I have the time to go out and do these Jackson United shows."

Shiflett explained that his Foo Fighters band mates won't be joining him on tour. "It's one thing to get them to come into the studio for a couple of days -- it's another thing to get them to commit to touring for weeks in a van. They're certainly nice guys but maybe not that nice," he joked.

Jackson United have just begun a West Coast tour and will play a handful of dates in the UK in mid-November.

--By our Los Angeles staff.
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