Wolfgang Van Halen's band, Mammoth WVH, released their self-titled debut album last June. Van Halen recorded each of the instrumentals himself, and said he found inspiration in doing so from none other than Dave Grohl.

Grohl famously recorded each instrument on Foo Fighters' debut LP in 1995, after Nirvana disbanded following the death of Kurt Cobain. While he toured with a full band, and had them join in on recording Foo Fighters' sophomore album, The Colour and the Shape, the first record was a project that solely contained Grohl.

"I wanted to have a go at that, I guess, and I've always admired bands like Nine Inch Nails, where the project emanates from one person and grows from there," Van Halen said in a recent interview with Bass Player. "That's kind of how I view it, even though it is still me. I view it more as a band than [a] solo project."

Van Halen has since added a live band to help with touring, but there's no news on if they may make an appearance on his next record.

"I think the benefit of doing everything yourself is that when you're just one part of an album – like if you're just the guitar player or just the bass player –you tend to want to show off, so you can be like, 'That part is me!' But when you're playing everything, if you showed off on every instrument, it would just be a jumbled mess," Van Halen said. "It becomes about creating cohesive songs and doing everything best for the album."

Earlier this month, the multi-instrumentalist wrote an open letter to his late father, Eddie Van Halen. "You fought so hard for so long, but you were still taken away. It's just so unfair," Van Halen wrote in his letter. "I'm not ok. I don't think I'll ever be ok. There's so much I wish I could show you. So many things I wish I could share with you. I wish I could laugh with you again. I wish I could hug you again. I miss you so much it hurts."

Big Rig

Follow

Email