Alice In Chains members Sean Kinney and Mike Inez discussed seeing musicians who have day jobs at Hellfest recently in an interview with United Rock Nations. Ultimate-Guitar transcribed their comments.
What do you prefer in your life as a musician? Is it freedom?
Sean: “Yeah. Like I said, it’s not easy to do and it’s not easy to solely support yourself being a musician. Especially anymore.”
Mike: “We’re totally unqualified to do anything else. [Laughs] What else to do but be a musician?”
Sean: “It’s a little late to become an accountant.”
Mike: “Me and Sean are gonna start our furniture reupholstering as soon as we get back to the States. [Laughs]”
Sean: “We know a ton of people that do this and they play this festival [Hellfest]. They’ll go home and they’ll get a day job. They have to. It’s a difficult thing but the passion is the same. We’re fortunate to solely focus on music. What we have put in Alice has given us our lives in return. So that’s good.”
What has changed since the beginning of Alice In Chains?
Sean: “Well, the obvious. And like I say, the way we operate, how we go about making music, why we do things – it’s pretty much the same. It’s almost exactly the same. My hair is shorter, we’re older…”
Mike: “Our knees hurt more. [Laughs] We keep it simple, I think it might be one of the secrets of the band. We like each other’s company, we go into a room, we plug our guitars in the fucking amps, Sean gets behind the drum kit, we make a bunch of fucking racket…
“Half the time, we like that racket and then we go, ‘Okay, let’s make a record with that racket. We’re gonna plug our guitars and we’re just gonna make a bunch of fuckin’ noise. When you keep it simple like that, then all of the sudden now we’re in 2018 but we’re still doing the same shit.”
Watch the full interview below.
