Chris Cornell on New Solo Album, ‘Scream’ Hate and Future of Soundgarden
Cornell and O’Brien played the vast majority of the instruments on the album themselves, though former Pearl Jam drummer Matt Chamberlain, pianist Patrick Wong and violinist Anne-Marie Simpson contributed to select tracks. “Most of the songs with drums are either loops that I made electronically or that Brendan basically recorded just playing a little drum kit he had,” Cornell says. “We just made loops, layered things and played some percussion stuff.”
Many of the tracks on Higher Truth, like “Worried Moon” and “Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart,” have an undeniable layer of sorrow to them. “That’s not unusual for me,” says Cornell. “Often times, especially in the context of an acoustic song, I’m motivated to write by some amount of melancholy. I listened to a lot of other acoustic albums going into this. There’s a sort of chipper, uptempo nature to a lot of records, like with Jack Johnson, where it sounds great and there’s an intimacy to it. But I don’t have that in me.”
The record is nearly certain to get a warmer reception than Scream. (Trent Reznor spoke for many critics when he Tweeted, “You know that feeling you get when somebody embarrasses themselves so badly you feel uncomfortable? Heard Chris Cornell‘s record? Jesus.”) “I don’t think there was any reference for [Scream] at the time,” says Cornell. “And obviously the world of recorded and released music is a world that required reference 99 times out of 100. I mean, even for me, I could stand on a soap box and say that art shouldn’t require reference and then still make references to you. When I hear a band I’m gonna say something like, ‘It’s a cross between Abba and the band Swans.’ So I get it. The response to the album didn’t surprise me. But I do think there is more context for it now.”
That said, don’t expect to hear many Scream songs on Cornell’s upcoming solo tour, which kicks off September 17th in Phoenix, Arizona, and runs through early November before it heads over to Australia. That won’t leave a lot of time for Soundgarden, who last played at Big Music Fest in July, but Cornell says the group is alive and well. “We’re already working on new material for an album,” he says. “And then I’ve got several other irons in the fire and things going that I won’t mention now. There’s a lot of things coming in addition to Higher Truth, as well as a new Soundgarden album.”