Chris Cornell discussed writing Soundgarden’s new album in a new interview with DC101, and also criticized rock reunions, particularly ones with only one original member. Alternative Nation has transcribed Cornell’s comments.
“Once we were done with King Animal, I felt like we didn’t skip a beat really, we’re still the same band we always were. Everybody still has the same capabilities they always did have, plus some new tools in the toolbox that we developed in the decade that we weren’t together.”
“Without comparing to specific other bands, a lot of things can happen when a band takes a decade or more off, and then reform. Sometimes there’s personnel changes, sometimes there’s kind of a directional shift, where they dramatically will sort of go for something that is the sound of the moment, and kind of abandon their own identity to the degree that it’s really alienating, and I’m speaking as a fan now of bands where they’ve done that. I think the thing that happens the most is one guy with a bunch of new guys, and still calling it the same band, and pretending it’s the same band.”
He added, “It’s different people, and that’s something we never would have done.”
Chris Cornell’s Soundgarden bandmates also ripped ‘one man bands’ in a 2013 Gigwise interview, with many fans assuming they were talking about Smashing Pumpkins frontman Billy Corgan based on his comments criticizing their reunion for being a cash grab.
Kim Thayil: “It’s not possible for us to do a bad record. Here’s how it’s possible to do a bad record. You’ve got one jackass who runs the whole thing, and a bunch of guys they hire around him.”
Matt Cameron: “Who you talking about?”
Ben Shepherd: “You mean the yes men?”
Kim Thayil: “Now you can make a bad record because your stupid ideas aren’t being bounced around, going to the fucking ether.”
Ben Shepherd: “Some are like a yes men thing, we’re like a no men thing.”
Kim Thayil: “If you’ve got a band where one guy calls the shots, that’s a band that’s going to suck. Because the guy might have bad thoughts in his head. Well I just came out of sobriety and I’ve got this idea for a rock record, I just married my third wife and I have this new idea for a rock record.”
Ben Shepherd: “How we deal with it is we just control ourselves so we just focus on what we’re going to do, how and what we’re going to be and that’s all you can really control in life, not what some dickhead says about you, so you just don’t worry about it.”
