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Soundgarden's Cornell Seeks "Higher Truth" On Latest Solo Album

Chris Cornell

One of rock’s greatest singers, Chris Cornell scaled the music world decades ago with Soundgarden, selling millions of records, packing arenas and helping to define the sound of a generation.

But Cornell has always written solo songs as well — and in the last few years, happily remarried and sober, he says he wanted to challenge himself as a musician and performer.

To that end, Cornell has come through our region several times on his Songbook tour, when the show is largely a showcase for his intimate and powerful songs for guitar and voice. Now, Cornell has released his fourth solo album, Higher Truth.

Originally aired September 2015.

Why did you want to do a solo album at this time? Soundgarden’s back together and you've got a lot of stuff going on.

Well, when I started doing the “Songbook” touring, which is the solo acoustic touring, it was around 2010. And kind of right around the time that Soundgarden was talking about getting back together and actually doing some things other than just restoring our website and making t-shirts and doing reissues. You know, it seemed like suddenly, maybe we were really we're gonna do some things. And I ended up doing these solo acoustic tours pretty much everywhere that I can play, you know, in Europe, South America, Australia, North America. And I would come off tour and get together with Soundgarden and start to rehearse Soundgarden music, and we started doing shows, and we started writing. It occurred to me at that point that that it was really almost ideal because there was no confusion between the two things creatively. They were so completely separate in every possible way, the performance is absolutely this extremely intimate storytelling environment where you can hear a pin drop, versus like, super loud, aggressive experimental rock band. And just kind of going between the two has been a very satisfying thing.

Somewhere in, I think, the early stages of the acoustic tours, it occurred to me that I should make an album of original material that kind of supports that style of performing. And I’d thought for years about doing an acoustic based record. One because I'm a fan of several records that I feel are kind of just that really: mostly singing and a guy playing an acoustic guitar. And that was a that was a direction as a music fan I’ve started going into after years of being in an aggressive rock band and touring with aggressive rock bands all the time.

So, a little bit of it felt to me like it was something that I always wanted to do anyway. I got a lot of really great positive support for some of the things I've done in the past like the song “Seasons” that was on Cameron Crowe's “Singles” movie soundtrack, other soundtrack work I did where I'm just singing to an acoustic guitar. I think it made sense to fans too: ‘OK, if he's the singer of this really aggressive band when he's doing his own thing, and it's an acoustic guitar, then it's like we don't have to confuse the two.’ So the plan really was hatched right around the time Soundgarden reformed, so you know, it was never not going to happen. And again, I think that the two coexist so well that it's pretty satisfying space to be in.

When you're sitting down to write a song, do you have an idea from the start that this is going to be something I do in my solo career, as opposed to this will be a Soundgarden song?

Pretty much. Yeah. You know, I'm always open to there being some kind of crossover. Absolutely. And it just doesn't come up that often. I remember Kim from Soundgarden saying after he’d heard “Seasons” that that could have been a Soundgarden song. And it could have been, I think. And I also remember, when I wrote “Black Hole Sun” and played it for the band, I wasn't sure it was gonna be a song that that they wanted to do. And in my memory, everyone really liked the song, but the guys in the band weren't necessarily sure that it was right either. It wasn't until we recorded it really where we just sort of made its way through somehow. And every time anyone heard it, they liked the song. So that ended up on the record, but for the most part, it's kind of an artistic direction.

So if I'm thinking about writing a song for Soundgarden, I'm imagining this band and I'm imagining contributing to the soundtrack of this band. And every part of its musical history is somewhere in there in that creative space. And the other three individuals and their personalities are in that creative space, you know, in my own imagination. And I think all four of us do that. And though we all have our own definitions of what Soundgarden should sound like, I think we're also always trying to push the boundaries of what that is as well. And we're pretty eclectic. So almost anything is valid. But there are still elements of music that I like that I personally don't necessarily think would be appropriate for a singer and so on. And definitely on “Higher Truth,” I had to some degree, you know, criteria by which each song had to kind of work in order for me to want to put it on this album. They were all kind of written on an acoustic guitar sitting in a room and I needed to be able to perform them before I ever even bothered to demo them. I needed to be able to perform it from beginning to end and have it feel like it was all making sense.

It is a solo record, but it's a very full record in terms of the instrumentation. There's a lot of different instruments and different neat sounds on the album. You worked with Brendan O'Brien, who did the mixing on “Superunknown.” Was that the last time you two had worked together before this?

No, he produced “Revelations,” which is the third Audioslave record. And I think that more than anything had to do with me wanting to use him on this album. Mainly because I think from “Superunknown” on, I was recording my own vocals and engineering and producing my own vocals and didn't really have a very good time with other producers or engineers doing it. I just felt like it was faster. I stayed in more of a creative space , was more raw when I just did it by myself. And I think right before we started recording “Revelations,” obviously when we were on tour, we went through Atlanta where his studio was at the time and we decided to go in and just record a song to see how that would go. And right away he put up a microphone and I got in the middle of the room and started singing and it just felt right. And he just did a great job. He has an amazing ear. He's an amazing musician, and it just worked. And when he says to me, I think your take is great, that's it. He's right. I agree with him and with other guys I almost never do. So that that was how it started. His pace of working also is very concentrated. He doesn't do a lot of takes of anything. And that keeps me as a as a singer or an instrumentalist, even as a songwriter really, kind of focused and in the moment, and everything stays sort of live and raw. And so nothing's pored over or overproduced, and there's a realness to everything, to all the performances, and then there's also the sonic quality to it. I kind of know what his records sound like. And I knew that that would work for my album, and that I needed him to do it.

Do you have to do anything to take care of your voice, which is an amazing instrument, now that you didn't do when you were younger?

Probably all the same things. And I just, I think as time goes on, you know, anyone's voice gets a little less nimble. And it requires that you kind of figure out ways to stay warm and stay in it. But you know, it's all the same things. I smoked when I was younger, that probably wasn't a good thing. But I did. And probably would be a bigger detriment now. In terms of what my voice sounds like, I'm sort of guessing. And otherwise, you know, it's not that much different in terms of range, in terms of…you know, the general rules still seem to apply, really.

I have to ask you about the title of the record, which is also the name of one of the songs: “Higher truth.” You sing about what a higher truth means in the song, but did you have any trepidation about naming the record “Higher Truth?”

Yeah, for about a half hour, I sort of thought…I really liked the idea. And in terms of it just seemed like, on a gut level, like it was the right title. And then my reluctance was simply that it would, it would come off as kind of this heavy handed obnoxious, sort of new agey, neo-spiritualist title. And that's something that can happen, often with a solo record from a guy that's known from being in a band, like one of those things that his band always stopped him from having stupid titles like that. But now there's nobody there to say no. And, and so that went, that went through my head.

But what it what it meant to me is sort of almost the antithesis of what some people might think, or how some people might perceive it, which is that truth doesn't actually really have geography and that one person's truth isn't necessarily better, stronger, faster than the other ones. And that, you know, all it really is what's right in front of you. And I relate that to, to just experiencing watching my children sort of discover life and paying attention to it. And paying attention to the fascination and in some of the simplest, most beautiful things that that we become distracted from as grownups, you know, there is, you know, there's so much to be exposed to as a child grows up and kind of absorbs the world around them, and so many fascinating things to become engrossed in.

But then there's also the, like, tons of frivolous distraction. And there's all this corruption of that that happens. And I think as humans, one of the things that the that is part of the human experience that we all experience, on one level or another, is circling back to that. You know, rather than looking for some amazing spontaneously combusting miracle outside of anything we can imagine, we reach a point in our lives when we stop and just pay attention to simple things that are those things already that are right under our noses all the time. A baby being one of them. For example, I had an experience one day when I was sitting, looking at my daughter's parrot, and he was just sitting on my finger. And I was talking to him, and I was watching him look back and making his weird little head motions and making noises and seeing how his eyes moved around. And thinking about all of these enthusiasts that are interested in the idea of extraterrestrials and life on other planets, and you know how miraculous and amazing these other creatures from some other part of the galaxy or the universe must be and what would be like to meet one and then I'm looking at this parent and thinking there's no way in hell there's any creature somewhere that's crazier looking than this thing that's sitting on my finger. And why are we so obsessed with things that aren't earthly when there's stuff here? That essentially we're not even really taking very good care of. And it's right, in this case was literally right under my nose. Take

I hope you'll permit me kind of a strange question. I saw you on the “Songbook” tour in the Hudson Valley. And you did something very cool. You brought a kid on stage who was maybe 14,15 years old? I forget his name. And I think you two sang “Hunger Strike” together. And the kid was incredible. You remember what I'm talking about?

Yeah, I think so. Because I've done that a couple times. And I only remember one that was incredible.

As an audience member, he was incredible. And I just wondered if when I was watching that night, if that had ever happened to you  – if anyone had ever brought you up when you were starting out?

No, I don't think that…certainly nothing spontaneous like that ever happened. If it did, it was planned, you know, and I also don't know that that is my personality. You know, he had the guts to just kind of get up there and do it. He had the confidence, somehow. He knew that everybody would like what he had to do. But like I said, I've seen it. Usually it's the other way. Especially on that song. There's always somebody in the audience that that wants to come up and sing it. And most of the time, it doesn't turn out so well. And this particular time, the guy opened his mouth. And he you know, he sang from his heart, he sang with his own voice, not someone else's. He wasn't trying to copy another sound. And the audience really reacted to it right away. It was like one of those moments that that you see on “The Voice,” I guess, where it's maybe sort of like a Susan Boyle moment or not quite as dramatic. We had the idea that there's possibility that he could sing, but it was pretty great. I think it's important to be able to kind of make the stage the audience's stage sometimes, but I have to be, I sort of have to be the filter. I use my faculties the best that I can. But they have never happened to me that. I actually had a band behind me of people that I knew before I ever went and sang in front of people. The exception of one talent show, I think, in school.

As a fan of yours, Soundgarden, your solo work. I'm glad you did. Thank you so much, Chris Cornell. He has a new record out called “Higher Truth,” Soundgarden’s together and even some rumblings about an Audioslave reunion. And I'm just very excited for all of it. So thank you so much.

Thank you.

A lifelong resident of the Capital Region, Ian joined WAMC in late 2008 and became news director in 2013. He began working on Morning Edition and has produced The Capitol Connection, Congressional Corner, and several other WAMC programs. Ian can also be heard as the host of the WAMC News Podcast and on The Roundtable and various newscasts. Ian holds a BA in English and journalism and an MA in English, both from the University at Albany, where he has taught journalism since 2013.
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