Dave Grohl has stepped up to support an unsigned metal band in Cornwall, England, that has been denied the privilege of practicing in a family garage due to local noise ordinances.
The Foo Fighters frontman and former Nirvana drummer wrote a letter to Cornwall’s local council, after the teenage members of Black Leaves of Envy sent him a letter asking for his help.
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“That’s the story of Nirvana basically, young musicians starting off in a garage,” the band’s 17-year-old frontman Adam Jones told AFP. “It’s pretty surreal, we sent the letter off to ask for his support… We were all shocked when we got the reply.”
Black Leaves of Envy have been unable to practice for months due to the threat of fines for breaking a noise limit of 30–40 decibels — a level Grohl characterized in his letter as “approximately the level of a dishwasher at 15 meters distance” in his letter.
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One of the band’s fathers, Andrew Plenty, told The Plymouth Herald that they only have one immediate neighbor, who has not complained. “The other houses are a farmer’s field away,” he said. “They used to practise no more than one or two hours a week and it was always in the afternoons, not at antisocial hours.”
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In his letter, Grohl relayed his own experience as an aspiring musician to the plight of this local band “and the generations of young musicians that they may eventually inspire” asking the council reconsider the sound restrictions put upon their rehearsal space.
“Like many musicians, I started in a garage in my neighborhood. Together with my friends, my adolescent years were made better by playing music with others,” he wrote. “Music is not only a healthy pastime, it is a wonderful, creative outlet for kids, and fosters a sense of community necessary to the emotional and social development of any child. It is tremendously important, and helped me through those otherwise difficult years growing up in Springfield, Virginia.”
He went on, “For musicians that lack the resources to rehearse in professional facilities, a garage or basement is the only place they have to develop their talent and passion. I believe that it is crucial that children have a place to explore their creativity and establish a sense of self through song. The preservation of such is paramount to the future of art and music.”
Foo Fighters social media accounts posted the full letter and also offered some suggestions on how the band — and others — might soundproof its practice space.
Learn how you can help the Cornwall campaign & to sound proof yr practice space: https://t.co/y2rJaVhr8R @BLOENVY pic.twitter.com/q1ysHphCap
— Foo Fighters (@foofighters) March 23, 2016