In a new interview with KOMO News, Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil gave some insight into how the band’s upcoming new album came together.
Since the record features songs the band partially wrote and recorded with late frontman Chris Cornell before his death in 2017, Thayil explained that they had to take a different approach to completing the album.
“It was very different from other records. You don’t start at one point with song ideas and demos and kind of record the drums and build it. We kind of had to work in a different direction. We had to build our performances,” he said (via Blabbermouth).
“I mean, the songs were by and large done, but the recordings and the performances weren’t, except for what we had with the vocals and some drums. So then we had to just kind of… It was very forensic in nature. We’d kind of have to tear it all apart and kind of piece it back together.”
Thayil continued: “And, again, spending a lot of time in the studio listening to the material is both… It’s a great pleasure. It presented a lot of enthusiasm, an opportunity for us, but it’s also a little bit difficult.
“And you’re constantly balancing the responsibility and duty towards the material and towards a beloved friend’s work and our work together. So it was very unusual. It was a strange thing to do. And I know that we’re not the only people that have had to explore the work and the relationships with it in a similar situation.”
