Foo Fighters released There Is Nothing Left to Lose in the United States on November 2, 1999. Their third studio album took shape in Dave Grohl’s Alexandria, Virginia, basement, where he worked with bassist Nate Mendel, drummer Taylor Hawkins and co-producer Adam Kasper. “Learn to Fly” captured the record’s melodic reach, putting a broad, ringing chorus at the center of an album made under unusually relaxed conditions.
Grohl had moved back to Virginia after living in Los Angeles, and the band entered the sessions without a record deal. That gave the musicians control over both their surroundings and their timetable. In CMJ New Music Monthly’s December 1999 interview, Grohl described finishing the album before asking labels whether they wanted it. “There’s no label. There’s no clock. We had no deadline,” he said. He also explained that they deliberately avoided computers and Pro Tools, allowing flaws to remain when they gave a performance personality. The title reflected the freedom they felt making the record.
That freedom extended to the guitars. Speaking to Guitar Player in October 1999, Grohl described getting much of the album’s overdrive from a loud Vox AC30, with fewer distortion pedals and clean parts layered into the arrangements. He and Kasper generally spent less than ten minutes finding a guitar sound. Some provisional guitar performances survived into the finished mixes, and a rattling amplifier tube became something Grohl liked hearing. He had learned the value of precise playing while making The Colour and the Shape, but this time he was willing to keep small differences between parts. Two guitars didn’t have to land identically to work together.
Hawkins had a harder time finding that ease. In a June 2021 interview with Rolling Stone, published in full in 2022, he recalled being frightened by the pressure of recording and telling Grohl he didn’t think he could do it. Grohl encouraged him to keep going. Hawkins said he ultimately played drums on roughly half the album, an achievement he remembered with relief and pride. His account adds an important distinction to the relaxed basement story: having time and a supportive bandmate didn’t automatically erase his uncertainty in front of the microphones.
“Aurora” gave him room to hear his own identity in the band. Hawkins identified its drum performance as his and remembered Grohl encouraging the marching-style snare figures near the end. Those touches came from Hawkins’ own instincts, and he singled out the song as one of his favorite recordings. Elsewhere, the album found different ways to open up its arrangements, from the talk-box guitar hook in “Generator” to the gentler melodic pull of “Next Year.”
The sessions eventually moved beyond the house. Kasper told EQ in December 1999 that they went to Los Angeles for mixing and additional overdubs, including percussion and guitar. He wanted the facilities of a larger studio for that finishing work, while crediting the independence of the home sessions with letting them trust their decisions.
At the 2001 Grammy Awards, There Is Nothing Left to Lose won Best Rock Album, with Foo Fighters and Kasper credited as producers. “Learn to Fly” also won Best Short Form Music Video. They were the band’s first Grammy wins.
