Soundgarden guitarist Kim Thayil was asked his thoughts on musicians releasing surprise albums with no promotion and no set release dates in a recent Loudwire interview.
“I think that’s great. I think that works for a certain artist. If Beyonce were to do something like that, that’s a big pop in the news and the internet for her fans, they just jump on it. That surprise is fantastic. I think there are certain bands it would have worked with when I was growing up or even in our heyday. But, it’s hard to tell. I think if you’re huge and an established act and you throw something out there and you already have an audience waiting for something? I think that could do really well. I think if you gotta get the troops and collect everyone’s attention to let them be aware of what’s going on, not just with ourselves but many other bands who share some of the fanbase. I think it might be a good idea, that’ll it’ll kinda let them know what’s going on.
But who knows. I think the surprise is ruined at least for this record because – but who knows. Maybe the next record. There are some other records that we’re working on. I guess this won’t spoil the surprise, because I’ve mentioned this before but Ultramega OK, our first full length album and our second album, but our first album that came out on SST Records, that’s been out of print now for about three years, we’ve remixed it, remastered it, we’re just tightening up the artwork and we plan on releasing that in early spring / late winter of 2017. Hopefully within five or six months we’ll be releasing that album on Sub Pop Records. And there is another surprise, but there, that’s something that we’re working on out of our catalog. It won’t be unannounced. [laughs]”
