Country Gentleman

Away from his Foo Fighters day job, Chris Shiflett bleeds country. Now on his third solo album, Chris has teamed up with alt-country linchpin, Dave Cobb to deliver his finest solo work yet. TG sat down with the guitarist to talk tones, Teles and writer’s block…

- Stuart Williams

This is your third album, do you feel more comfortable as a frontman?

“Well, it definitely gets more comfortable every time. This one wasn’t really done with a band exactly, because I used Dave Cobb’s go-to session guys out there – who were absolutely fantastic. I really tried to just defer to Dave on a lot of the shaping of the record, and he had a huge impact. I tried to soak up what him and his guys did, and just to be totally open to whatever direction he guided me down. It was really fun, I honestly felt like a lot of the time I was hardly paying attention to what everyone else was doing, and just trying to keep up!”

You co-wrote four of the songs with your friend, Brian Whelan, is this the first time you’ve collaborated on your solo work?

“It’s something I haven’t done a lot of until this past year. It’s fun, with Brian it was great because I had these song ideas that I felt stuck on. So it was just great to have another person’s take on it. He made some tweaks that I feel like made the songs way stronger. Just little changes that I hadn’t thought of, sometimes it’s good to get another set of ears on them. I’ve known Brian for years, he’s a good buddy and a solo artist in his own right, an incredible multi-instrumentalist and singer/songwriter, I knew that he could bring something good.”

How does the writing process work for you personally?