CHRIS CORNELL: 'I'm Having The Time Of My Life'

Joe Baldwin of Baltimore's Undisputed Music and Entertainment Journal recently conducted an interview with former SOUNDGARDEN/AUDIOSLAVE singer Chris Cornell. A few excerpts from the chat follow:

Undisputed Music: Your latest solo project is titled "Carry On". Does recording a solo album differ from recording with AUDIOSLAVE or SOUNDGARDEN?

Chris Cornell: Yeah. A lot. SOUNDGARDEN was different from AUDIOSLAVE just like AUDIOSLAVE is different from recording on my own. TEMPLE OF THE DOG was different than all those. Anything you do working with other people, especially three or four other people, changes everything. With SOUNDGARDEN I was really hands-on with everything, from songwriting to the production, sounds, mixing….everything. I was involved in every aspect of it. With AUDIOSLAVE I was away from the producing side of it. (I just wanted) the producer to do their job. SOUNDGARDEN never allowed that. We would just shut them down. I just wanted to see what (not producing) was like. I was working with Rick Rubin also (in AUDIOSLAVE). It was comfortable to let that go. I was very in to the singing lyrics and the songwriting process but I didn't go in when Tom (Morello) was recording his guitar parts or anything like that. Making a solo record is sort of like SOUNDGARDEN but different.

Undisputed Music: So you haven't felt like doing a Trent Reznor kind of thing where you play all the instruments on the record?

Chris Cornell: No. I don't think that sounds all that great. I think when PRINCE has done it there's a coolness to it. I make demos where I play all the instruments and it's really mechanistic. My rhythmic sense is the same on guitar as it's going to be on bass or vocals. It's suddenly very machine-like.

Undisputed Music: I kind of feel like that's the way NINE INCH NAILS records have sounded recently.

Chris Cornell: Yeah. I noticed it on Lenny Kravitz records too. It was like his second album….there was a warmth that wasn't there that should be 'cause the guy knows how to do it. That's why I always tried to stay away from that. I like that living, breathing thing that happens when you get a bunch of musicians together. The beauty of a solo record is that if something doesn't come out guitar-wise like I wanted it I can just go back and change it.

Undisputed Music: So what happened with AUDIOSLAVE?

Chris Cornell: It was a combination of things. We never really came to an agreement on certain business issues. We ignored it for a while because we were busy and we were making great records. We would be out on the road and start getting into business shit that would be affecting our serenity out on the road. That started happening more and more. Clearly this stuff had to be worked out. We were meeting to do it but an agreement wasn't happening. Also the fact that we wrote so much music and put out so many records in such a short period of time caused us to be in a place where we were going to have to work very hard to come up with something new for me to be interested. We had a very straight-forward or minimalistic approach to songwriting which was great for me for a while but I like to move and there's a lot more stuff I'd like to cover. With the combination of all that, I thought, "If I'm going to figure out, in my own mind, a way to re-invent this band than I would rather just be doing my own thing." It's about freedom.

Undisputed Music: Was part of the reason you walked away so that the other guys in AUDIOSLAVE could do their own thing with the RAGE reunion and Tom doing NIGHTWATCHMAN?

Chris Cornell: Yeah, in some ways. I never felt like we were having a falling out or like we were never going to talk to each other again. I didn't feel like it needed to be said that we were breaking up either. That's kind of bullshit too. It's like saying, "Oh, we're not broken up." I don't want to say that for the next ten years. Yeah, "We're not broken up but I'm gonna do a bunch of solo records for the next ten years and when we feel like, we'll be AUDIOSLAVE." That's not how I'm feeling. I feel like I wanna make a bunch of solo records and just do that. I'm having the time of my life. I shouldn't even be in a band. I'm very focused musically. I like the freedom. I can write all the parts and play all the parts. There are people like me out there that have been doing this for years. There's also that sort of weird value of a band name.You mentioned NINE INCH NAILS but there's also MARILYN MANSON, MINISTRY…..

Undisputed Music: MEGADETH.

Chris Cornell: Oh yeah, him. It's like its not a band. They're doing the same thing I'm doing. I just didn't put a band name on it.

Undisputed Music: Will SOUNDGARDEN ever reunite?

Chris Cornell: I don't think so. Usually it's one guy who spearheads something like that and I don't think SOUNDGARDEN has that guy.