William DuVall said that the seeds for Alice In Chains’ current lineup with him as singer/guitarist were first planted in 2001 in a new Premier Guitar interview.
As part of Cantrell’s touring solo band in the early 2000’s, DuVall had all the opportunity he needed to learn the ins and outs of Cantrell and the late Layne Staley’s unique sound. “2001 and 2002 were heavy groundwork years,” DuVall says. “Everything happening now is a result of that.”
William DuVall also discussed his songwriting, “It’s just myself. Even if I write something I know those guys will respond to, like I wrote ‘So Far Under’ on the new album and the lyrics to ‘Never Fade,’ and a song like ‘Last of My Kind’ on the Black Gives Way to Blue album, or the riffs I wrote for ‘A Looking in View’ and ‘Phantom Limb,’ those are all things that, even if it’s being adapted to the certain sonic signature of this band, it’s still me.”
Jerry Cantrell said, “He always comes up with some really important stuff for each record, just like all of us do, ‘So Far Under’ in particular. From ‘It Ain’t Like That’ [Facelift] on, there’s always a song or two that’s based on a weird, bendy riff. On the last couple records, there was ‘Stone’ and ‘Check My Brain.’ But on this one, I didn’t write one of those. And the funny part is that the signature bendy Alice-type song, Will wrote this time. And that’s cool because Layne did the same thing with ‘Hate to Feel’ and ‘Angry Chair.’ So it’s a tradition, and it means he’s really in there.”
