At which Washington studio did Foo Fighters begin recording The Colour and the Shape?

Foo Fighters began recording The Colour and the Shape at Bear Creek Studio in Woodinville, Washington.

The first sessions started on November 18, 1996, after the band completed pre-production with producer Gil Norton. Bear Creek was a farm-based studio described by bassist Nate Mendel as a converted barn with a salmon stream running through it, and the musicians stayed in a nearby cabin during the sessions.

The setting did not produce the finished album’s main body of recordings. Dave Grohl later regarded the Bear Creek sessions as unsuccessful and discarded most of what the band recorded there. The group regrouped in Hollywood at Grandmaster Recorders in early 1997, where Grohl re-recorded most of the drum parts.

That history makes Bear Creek easy to confuse with Grandmaster, the principal recording location, or Studio 606, a later Foo Fighters-associated facility. Bear Creek was nevertheless the album’s starting point, and two Goldsmith performances from those sessions remained on the finished record.