Nate Mendel finds reinvention
Foo Fighters bassist tackles first solo project
I knew I had this backlog of ideas ... so I felt I could do music that was beyond writing bass parts for a rock band
Nate Mendel is used to peering at the spotlight from the outside in. Holding down the lowend for the Foo Fighters (you may have heard of them) and emo pioneers Sunny Day Real Estate, Mendel has been the ‘other guy’ for over two decades. But at the dawn of 2014 — as the Foos were preparing to tour America for their HBO series/album Sonic Highways, and with Sunny Day on long term hiatus, Mendel finally decided to step out into the light with his first creative solo project, Lieutenant. As he tells The Post’s Jon Dekel, it was a long journey made on the shoulders of giants. Q Is Lieutenant a band? Side-project? A I don’t know what to call it either. I started about five years ago writing things on guitar but didn’t have any plans. Sunny Day Real Estate tours were occupying my time. I jammed around with those guys a little bit on a couple of my ideas but it was really surreptitious.
Q This isn’t your first foray into songwriting. You have credits on Sunny Day songs.
A Yeah, back when we were writing it was four guys sitting in a room writing stuff out but it was really the guitar players who were in charge. Then I got into Foo Fighters and Dave’s a songwriter and we’re (aiding each other). I was always fine with my contribution being through bass and I had Sunny Day on the side to feed another part of what I wanted to do with music and that just ran its course. So I knew I had this backlog of ideas and I’d done a score before so I felt like I could do music that was beyond just writing bass parts for a rock band. I was a little fearful it wouldn’t turn out so I just didn’t tell anybody about it and made music in my basement.
Q How does life in your own band compare to the Foo Fighters?
A I take the Foo Fighters very seriously. I’m proud of it and I feel some ownership of it but ultimately if we get a bad review, the creative direction of the band is so on Dave that I feel bad for
the organization, for us as a band, but I don’t take it personally. Same with a good review. Whereas this, obviously ... it’s exciting for me.
Q You’ve been in successful bands since 1992. Why go solo now?
A I was ... busy. A less charitable way of saying it would be distracted and lazy. Until now I’d found things to take up the space between Foo Fighters projects: I did a score years ago, did a band called The Fire Theft and took a couple of years to just burn my life down and grow it back up from scratch, did a Sunny Day reunion.
Q Does that mean there won’t be another Sunny Day Real Estate reunion? A I don’t think so.
Q Do you see being in the Foo Fighters as a safety net?
A In a way I don’t because I have to go out and do something. It gets back to the title of the album, there needs to be an aspect of reinvention. That’s what makes for a successful life, so I don’t have a safety net.
Q So will there be another Lieutenant record after this Foo Fighters tour?
A I want to do all kinds of music. I hope I continue to do Lieutenant. But regardless of that it opens up the possibilities of what I can do now. I can go and play guitar in someone else’s band now. I couldn’t do that before.
To hear Foo Fighters bassist Nate Mendel play Rattled, his first single off the new album, visit nationalpost.com/sessions.
Lieutenant’s debut If I Kill This Thing We’re All Going to Eat for a Week is available now. The Foo Fighters play the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto on July 8 and 9 before heading across Canada and the U S. Tour dates and info available at foofighters.com.