Bassist Mike Inez discussed Alice in Chains’ new album in a new Let There Be Talk interview (transcribed by Ultimate-Guitar):
“We are [working on a new album]. We loaded the truck up, and it’s on the way to Seattle right now.
“We’ve got a lot of stuff and we just gotta get there and get in a room, because every album is so funny.
“You go ‘OK, this is a single! This is the song! This is the shit!’
“And then you go record it, and at the end of the day, you’re like, ‘Eh… I don’t know if that’s good enough to be on the record! I thought it was, but now that we recorded it, it just doesn’t have that magic.’
“But then, another riff, you just came up with it that day, or Jerry had from like 20 years ago, whatever – it pops up, you jam on it, and all of a sudden, that one like shines. And you can never tell which one is gonna shine, and which one isn’t.
Focusing on William DuVall:
“Oh yeah, [William’s killing it on the new album]. We’re super blessed by Will.
“Just to stand up there… The thing i respected about him is at first couple gigs – we were doing some club gigs – he just went right to the front, put his foot on that monitor, and stuck his chin out.
“Like, ‘I’m the one standing here! Fuck it, I’m gonna bring it as hard as i can!’ I was like, ‘Fuck yeah, let’s do this together!’
“William had been playing with Jerry for a while, and we’re just real blessed to have him come on board. It’s been 10 years and we’ve done so many shows with Will; maybe even more than we ever did with Layne at that time.
“So I think Will comes in soon, and we’ll start recording. We’re waiting for another band – they’re in the studio right now that we want to go to, so we got pushed back like a week.”
Focusing on the studio, Mike said:
“Yeah, this will be at the ‘Studio X,’ which is where we did ‘The Dog Album’ [1995’s ‘Alice in Chains’].
“The last two were in LA, they’re cool and I just feel in 2017 it’s time for Alice In Chains to go back to Seattle. Drink that water, breathe that air.
“Same guy [who produced our previous two albums will be producing the new one] -Nick Raskulinecz. Seattle is a really special place, especially this time of year. It’s the best.”
