In this first episode of Season Two of “Dave’s Old Interview Tapes,” IndyStar reporter David Lindquist and guest Eric Klee Johnson (Monofiction, co-founder of the Pop Machine recording studio) revisit a past interview with late Soundgarden vocalist Chris Cornell. Hear Cornell talk about the Seattle album that summed up the 1990’s and hear him recall finding songwriting inspiration on the set of the movie “Singles.” Alternative Nation transcribed his comments.
Chris Cornell: Ever since Temple of the Dog I thought that there isn’t enough that that type of spontaneous collaboration in rock music. It shows up a lot in rap and it’s starting show up a little more in rock, but you know that often ends up as a ‘special guest star on one song’ kind of thing.
I think back to Ronnie Lane, Pete Townshend, rough mix, those kind of records. There’s not enough of those and I thought since Temple that it would be really cool to do other collaborations like that where it’s me and another person or two other people for the length of another album. The only problem with that is record contracts.
The only reason Temple of the Dog happened was because Pearl Jam was forming and they didn’t have a record deal. If I was to choose someone to do an entire album with that was under contract to a record company that wasn’t mine, it creates a whole lot of pushing and shoving and people being worried about it. Which is kind of too bad.
