Foos Guitarist Goes Country

Foo Fighter Chris Shiflett has unveiled a new side project, which will embrace the guitarist’s passion for Americana.

Chris Shiflett and the Dead Peasants release their self-titled debut album on 12 July and it moves away from Shiflett’s previous punk roots to a more unlikely avenue.

"One of my favourite kinds of music is old country and old rockabilly and modern Americana like Sun Volt, Wilco and Ryan Adams, I love all that stuff," he told NME. "There's really no real big loud Les Paul pumping through a Marshall amp kind of moments on this record. It is so far from anything I've been a part of with Foo Fighters and it was just really fun to do."

Recorded in Foo Fighters' 606 Studio between December 2009 and January 2010, Shiflett recruited The Mavericks guitarist Eddie Perez, Davey Faragher (Elvis Costello and The Imposters, Jenny Lewis, John Hiatt) on bass, Greg Leisz (Wilco, Lucinda Williams, Whiskeytown) on pedal steel, Stevie Blacke (Beck, Weezer, Colbie Caillat) on violin and mandolin, and Audra Mae on backing vocals

"I started doing some Americana shows with some friends and that kind of evolved into recording some demos," he revealed. "We did that and I thought, 'Well I've got this studio at my disposal, let's go make a record and see what happens'.