Alice in Chains drummer Sean Kinney recently discussed feedback he expects for the band’s new album Rainier Fog. He told United Rock Nations (transcribed by UG):
“I’m waiting to see like, ‘IT’S ALL FILLER!’ I like that. That shit cracks me up. I think it’s funny because everybody’s got an opinion as they should. But whenever somebody’s sitting next to me… If I was like ‘Track 6 is filler,’ it might be Mike’s [Inez, bass] favorite song. So music is so subjective, it’s just personalized.
“So it’s cool. If people care enough, they make it their own and it becomes theirs and they can do what they want. I feel like we already won that we’re still moving forward.
“We’ve made another record that we dug, we’re still making music. We still live our lives in a pretty straightforward true way. We haven’t been affected and chased trends. We just kind of forged our own little way of going through life and going through all the same thing that everybody has to go through.
“All the losses and ups and downs and high points and low points… The only difference is that sometimes you have to do it in public a little bit and that you’re doing it with your friends and doing it for the same reason when we started the band.
“It’s a really cool thing. Never really could even wrap your head around, all which has happened, that would happen and how it has. And that’s the cool thing with life – you get knocked down, keep going. Try to do what you like.
“If you can make a living supporting yourself and not being a financial or emotional burden on anybody else and you’re just making coffee cups but you’re good at it, you can make a living and supper yourself, then that’s as good as life gets.
“So we’re fortunate to be able to do what we like for a living. We get to play. We’re middle-aged guys and you get to play with your friends. Kind of living the life we have you get this youthful existence which is kind of cool.
“You’re not sitting in traffic being forced to go to a job that you don’t like but now you took it and you’re just hoping that you can grind it out for 20 years for some guy that has a clip on tie who hates his life and his wife and tells you that you’re not productive enough.”
“We don’t live by anybody else’s rules. So we’ve kind of been able to forge our own which I think is kind of a victory to it all.”
