Music

Four questions with Chris Cornell

Spencer Patterson

Reviewing the different phases of your career for these shows that span Soundgarden, Audioslave and all points in between, did anything stand out as better than you’d remembered?

Yeah, in particular, with Soundgarden, going back and listening to a song like “Loud Love”—which is essentially a sort of riff-rock song—I was impressed with the amount of attention that was given in terms of layers and depth and arrangement and just getting the most excitement possible out of it. Going back and listening to old material when you’re not just listening but you actually have to learn it is like smelling someone’s perfume that’s just like your grandma’s. You immediately reconnect with the moment when you wrote that part and recorded it or when you wrote a line in a song. It’s a time machine, like it was just yesterday and no time has gone by at all. That’s pretty incredible. And it’s fun to play songs that were never played [live] or not played that much, like “Zero Chance” and “The Day I Tried to Live” from Soundgarden and “Pushing Forward Back” from Temple of the Dog. I’m enjoying experimenting with them, changing the melodies and the attack.

The common perception about the demise of Audioslave seems to be that you stepped aside to clear the way for the other three guys to join up with Zach de la Rocha and re-form Rage Against the Machine. Is that accurate?

No, that’s not true. It was really more the opposite—me going my own way. The Rage Against the Machine reunion happened after I told them I wasn’t gonna tour with them, and I was gonna go make my own record, and we’d sort of stopped communication. I don’t think them doing [Rage] had anything to do with my feelings on whether or not to continue being in Audioslave. I was just moving along, making my solo record and feeling really happy about the writing process, the freedom of creating the music alone, feeling a kind of levity that you don’t necessarily have in a band situation. But the attitude still seemed to be that we weren’t going to break up Audioslave; we’d take some time apart, and at some point we’d get back together and do something. Then, when my record was winding up, I realized that in my heart of hearts I didn’t want to be in a band anymore. I didn’t want to be in Audioslave anymore. I felt like we’d made three amazing records, and I didn’t really see it being the same going in and making a fourth record. I felt like I would rather spend that energy on my own, and I didn’t want to spend the next six months lying in the press saying, “Yeah, we’re great. We’ll put out another record sometime.” It didn’t feel right. And I didn’t want to embark on a solo career with the idea of it being a vanity project or a side project and that somehow a band is more important. So I just decided it was time to quit, but not with any sense of feeling negative about the band or the individuals in the band at all.

With Audioslave behind you, can you envision a scenario that would cause Soundgarden to reunite?

We haven’t really talked much. It tends to be through other people—if I run into somebody that knows someone in the band, they’ll say, “He says hi.” It’s not something that can happen without someone really rallying behind it, and no one has ever done that. We were really happy being Soundgarden when we were Soundgarden, and when we stopped doing it it was something to almost be protected in a sense. And I don’t see anyone really running around trying to make it happen, within the four of us. That’s what it takes. It takes something like that. And also I don’t see a reason for it.

What aspects of being in a full-fledged band, if any, do you miss?

I miss the individuals, the three guys in Soundgarden. You really bond, I think, when you’re out on the road becoming a band and creating some type of a legacy. And it’s the same thing with Audioslave. I miss them as individuals. But I think everybody that’s a fan of music and a fan of rock bands has seen that combination of people at some point start to not yield the same spark that they started out with. That’s why bands break up. The important thing to me is that bands break up while they’re vital and making great music and not wait eight or 10 years to figure it out [laughs].

With Earl Greyhound. November 23, 8 p.m., $40-$45. The Pearl, 942-7777.

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