In a new Metal Wani interview, Alice In Chains bassist Mike Inez discussed Pearl Jam, Nirvana, and Soundgarden not really being Grunge bands, since everyone considers the term a ‘marketing tag’ and not real. He mentioned Eddie Vedder and Dave Grohl, two key figures in the Grunge movement, not even coming from Seattle. You can watch the full interview below.
“It’s funny, because I don’t think you would talk to any one of the people in any of the bands like Soundgarden or Pearl Jam or Nirvana, and they’ll never use that word ‘grunge,’ really. It was kind of a marketing tag that other people put on it. It was interesting to watch. Eddie [Vedder] is from San Diego, I’m from Los Angeles, Dave Grohl is from Virginia, so we had a strange view to watch it from kind of an outsider’s [perspective], in a way.
We weren’t playing those clubs early on like the other guys were. The camaraderie with all those bands was really amazing. They would be very supportive. I think the secret was that all those bands had time to be a band and kind of percolate their styles before they got big record deals and all that. Soundgarden was a band for 10 years before they got a major label deal I think.
I never thought Soundgarden sounded like Alice In Chains, sounded like Pearl Jam, sounded like Nirvana. I think it was really just kind of this weird confluence of energies up there in the Pacific Northwest just jamming and jamming in the rain, and that’s what came out of it. You couldn’t have planned that sort of global movement. That kind of thing just kind of happens.”
Jerry Cantrell discussed his guitar sound in a new Music Radar interview.
“I have to give credit for that to Dave Jerden. When we were recording Facelift and Dirt, he’s the guy who turned me on to [baritones]. He had a couple of Jerry Jones baritones and we would use them to thicken up the choruses, just a little bit behind it. A similar thing again in that it’s not so much that you hear it but you know when it’s not there when you take it away.
“And I learned a lot from Dave as far as layering, doing multi-tracks and doing the same thing with different amp combos for frequency and painting a picture. And I’ve picked that up and kind of expanded on that throughout our career.”
