Chris Shiflett finds solo life 'challenging'

Chris Shiflett finds being a solo artist “challenging”.

The Foo Fighters guitarist released his third solo record, ‘Lost at Sea’ this year, but he admitted it took a lot of time to adjust to being the sole figure in the spotlight.

Asked how it was transitioning from sideman to frontman, he told Clas Rock magazine: “Challenging.

“Guitar playing is my comfort zone.

“But to be the singer and then also have to talk to the crowd, I had to work at that.

“What you realise is that people want to have a good time.

“They’ve hired a sitter, bought tickets, bought a few drinks,maybe bought a t-shirt, they’ve invested in the evening.

“So that’s my job up on stage, to provide them with a good time.

“Once I figured that out, things got a lot better.”

The 52-year-old muian also hosts two podcasts, ‘Walking The Floor’ and ‘Shred With Shifty’ and he admitted he was driven by a desire to always be busy and not waste time.

He said: “To be honest, I’m not good at downtime.

“I have to be playing, learning something new all the time…

“The older I’ve gotten, I’ve been sort of gripped by this feeling of, ‘Damn, I wasted so much time when I was younger!’

“And you never get that back.

“I’m lucky that I’ve been able to do mu full-time. And I want to keep doing it.”

When it comes to writing mu, Chris is determined not to get too nostalgic.

He said: “I think we’re all overly nostalgic and kind of overly sentimental.

“With songwriting, I’m constantly digging into earlier periods in my life.

“And I find myself pushing back against that because too much nostalgia is a dangerous thing.

“I try to write in the present.

“I have a pretty happy life, but I’m not comfortable with happy-go-lucky, zip-a-dee-doo-dah songs.

“There’s real life stuff that happens over time – friends dying, thoughts of mortality – and some of these songs really sort of speak to that.”