Alice In Chains: Back From The Edge
The troubled grunge legends speak to Click
Alice In Chains were one of the darkest, most acclaimed and biggest-selling bands of the grunge era. Following 1995's self-titled third album, the band embarked upon a lengthy hiatus that ended with the drug-related demise of singer Layne Staley in 2002. The band reformed in 2005, with new man William DuVall recruited to vocal duties in 2006. Having toured extensively, the band released well-received, solidly-selling fourth album Black Gives Way To Blue back in September. Recently Click spoke with founder member and chief songwriter Jerry Cantrell about the new record and its star-assisted recording process.
Could you point to a defining moments in the recording of the new album and working with producer Nick Rasculinecz?
Yeah, working with Nick is an experience and he came recommended from our friend Dave Grohl. Dave offered us his studio to work at too, so it was cool for us to be able to do both those things, work with Nick and to have Dave’s studio. We really worked really hard on the new record. We started writing material in November of 2007 and we finished the majority of it around March – so that was a good few months of ’08. We spent most of that summer with the guys running through all of that stuff figuring out what we had, going into the studio around what I believe was October of 2008 and we finished everything in March of 2009.
How have you enjoyed playing live shows since reforming? Has there been a moment that sticks out for you, where it’s like: "right, we're back"?
I don’t think there’s been just one moment, I think it’s been a lot of moments that add up. We’ve been building toward this since 2005 and it wasn’t the inevitable outcome by any means, but we’ve continued to work together and become tighter as a band. We toured around and we started coming up with new ideas and just decided to continue working on them and after we figured out just what we’d come up with we decided to take it further. It’s all been good, even the early-on stuff from a few years back. It’s always great when you make a record that you are proud of and we are very proud of this one for so many reasons. First and foremost, we are pleased with the quality of the music and we really stand behind it, we put our back into it and didn’t leave anything off of the table. Everything we had is on that disc and that’s a good feeling. Then, on top of that to have people respond to it the way that they have is incredibly satisfying.
Do you have a specific fond memory of working with Elton John when he came and played piano on the album’s title track?
Sure. I think that just having him involved period is something that we never expected and it’s very meaningful to us because he’s a big part of our musical background and all of us are really big fans of Elton’s. We just thought that we’d give him a call, kind of on a lark actually – we were very sure that he would have plenty of other things to do rather than come and play on our song you know. But, we sent him the song and write him a little letter and explained the significance of it and the fact that it was something that we are very proud of and that it was a song, basically where we were saying goodbye to Layne [Staley] and he got that and really felt something for the song and he said, "I love the song and its sentiment and I really love what it’s about, it’s sad but I think it’s very beautiful and I would love to play on it". So we were really blown away by that, but meeting one of your musical heroes is always a cool thing and getting to hang out with him for a period of time while we tracked that song – we tracked his piano anyway after we were already finished with the song – he’s just a great guy, he’s very sharp and quick, also extremely funny and tremendously talented. Elton’s got this knowledge and hunger for music still.
Is there a consistent theme that comes across on the new record – it’s been said before that it’s an honest look at the band’s life now and the desire to get back out there? But was it actually planned?
Well, it’s a collection of work. I think that we have a lot of years of experience to draw from so I don’t think that we’re trying to put out any particular message – I think that the album is like a lot of albums and probably all of ours – they are snapshots of a couple of years within a group and all of those experiences and viewpoints. All of the shit is thrown in together to reflect where you are at that time and I think that the new album definitely represents all of that stuff, without the intention of sending out any sort of message. That’s never really been the intention with anything that we’ve ever done and we’re really just speaking from the heart. I am really proud of the level of song-writing on the new record and the playing and performances of the individuals in the band that make up this group. Everybody really threw down and I think that comes across when you listen to it.
Throughout the band’s long history, and your own solo career, what has served as constant inspiration?
There are some things that remain the same and some things that change a little bit. Most of those changes are for the better. I mean, I still get to make music with my friends and that we get to do this for a living together – that’s pretty cool. There are a lot of people out there that the music speaks to and so that’s great. I think the things that remain the same are the reasons why you do it – you feel compelled to and it’s something that you still enjoy creating. The fact that we have been together for so long and been through so much - those things mean a lot.
The sound of the new album still stays true to Alice In Chains but there’s definitely some progressive elements with both ethereal and heavy sides – how do you feel that Black Gives Way To Blue represents the sonic progression of AIC?
I think that we sound like ourselves, I think we sound like Alice In Chains and there’s only one way we can sound. I think that the three of us stepping up and taking on more responsibility than we have in the past was pretty important and obviously William [DuVall] has been involved and a part of the team and the family – he has really brought something new to the table. It’s a combination of both us stepping up and William coming in. Had it not sounded like us originally I don’t think it would have worked, and if our sound hadn’t been allowed to grow and be a little different then it wouldn’t have worked either. The new record had to keep the musical identity and unique fingerprint that this band has and the sound that we have created by just being ourselves, and it also had to be allowed to evolve and grow a little bit with the addition of a new member but also with the three other members of the band having to operate in a different way than ever before. So there’s been a lot of growth everywhere.
You guys have made use of the internet recently and you made the album's first single ‘A Looking In View’ a free download – will the net play a part in future releases for AIC?
We don’t really look at it as a single, I mean it’s a seven-minute song and it doesn’t really qualify by definition! That was done more for the fans and for everybody to be able to take a look at a big nasty chunk of music and it gave everybody a sneak peak. The title is ‘A Looking In View’ so it’s kind of tongue-in-cheek as well to actually use that song as the first sample of what we were doing. It’s interesting, the music business is changing and I really don’t know what it is any more. I think it’s trying to figure out what it is as well. Things have changed a lot and technology is so different, and as an artist you don’t really have control over your own music anymore and you can’t dictate when it gets released because it gets leaked and everybody else steals that opportunity from you. That’s something that I still can’t quite get used to but now you really just have to accept that and move on, but it still seems so wrong to me that someone can dictate what you create and what you have spent years creating with your own hard earned money, and all of your time, blood, sweat tears and yet still, you don’t have any control over even putting it out there – that’s one of the things that I don’t like about it. On the flipside, you are able to get music everywhere and there’s such a wide variety of stuff that you can get and it’s probably one of the best platforms for an unknown band to be able to get a lot of people to hear your music without them being from your small town or having to go out there and get somebody to listen to your demo tape. So there’s pluses and minus.
At this point, how do you see the future of Alice In Chains?
We’ll see. I will use the title of the Joe Strummer movie – I just watched that last week, and it was pretty cool so I guess I could grab that quote and say, “The future is unwritten”. That’s the cool thing about it. Nothing is written and you have to make it up as you go along. We’ve come this far and I would hope that we would continue to make music together but who knows? Maybe this is all we had left to give. If that is to be the case I’d feel pretty proud of that new fucking record if I had to walk away today. I mean, you try to feel that way about every record that you do, because you might not get the chance to do another one, for whatever reason. You’ve got to try and make it the best that you can and hopefully we will have the opportunity to make some more music together.
Going back to your solo career how is it different writing that material in contrast to your work with Alice In Chains?
I don’t think the process is really any different for me writing, no matter what venue I am writing in. Writing is just that and the cool thing about being in Alice of course is that Mike [Inez] and Sean [Kinney] helped me a great deal when I did my first solo record and they both played on it for a good portion and Sean went out and toured it with me. They really lent themselves to that process and there were a lot of other great musicians that did to, on both of my solo records. I don’t approach things any differently; the thing that is always different is the band. There’s only one Sean Kinney, there’s only one Mike Inez and one me, and together we sound a certain way. It’s a unique-ness in the way that we play and that inherently, just the people that are involved in the process and that are helping to shape and form the music.
Is there a particular place you draw inspiration?
It comes where it comes and I don’t think the place necessarily matters just as long as you’ve got something to play and something to record it. It’s all about having an instrument to play, a piece of paper and a pen to write something down and something to then record that. If you keep doing that over and over again, before you know it, you’ve got a lot of ideas. You just keep cataloguing things – that’s generally how I go about it, I am not a one for starting as song and just going all the way until I am done and I never really have been. I mean, occasionally I get to do that, and that is really nice, because it means less fucking heartache later, to have to go back to something and make it great or take small pieces you have been working on for a while and complete it. Every once in a while you will get a song that just goes from beginning to end and you’ll get it done and be able to knock it up really quickly, but more often that not, it’s about coming up with a part or two and finding that they fit together, or a vocal or lyric line – it’ll be fragments of ideas and I will catalogue all of that stuff any time that I can, so that after a period of say a year or two of doing that, you’ve got a lot of ideas to pick through and you can go back. It’s like, "let’s see what we can do with this", and if that doesn’t work it’s like, "let’s see what we can do with this thing over here"; it’s whichever way I can make it work.
Can you explain the inspiration behind your latest single, ‘Your Decision’?
It’s a really strong song. I don’t think I had a real subject in mind; it’s kind of a little bit more open and abstract. Musically, the message of the song is that you get what you choose in this life and sometimes what you choose isn’t very good, or it’s not as good as it could be. On the flipside of that, you can always choose to start again and change your decision, take that risk and try something different. So, I guess the song generally speaks to that idea.
Would you say that there’s a particular song from the new record that defines the state of Alice In Chains in 2009?
I wouldn’t say that there is any one song that defines us. I think that the whole record does. It’s more about the whole record than any one song. The cool thing about making records and the music that I enjoy is that, you’ve got all these really great individual songs that make up these different vibes but all together they create something that’s much larger and so it takes on a life of its own. So, it’s really tough to single out just a part of that because it’s a whole and our record has more impact as a whole.
If you could sit over dinner and share ‘Black Gives Way To Blue’ with anyone who would you pick and why?
I would probably pick my mother. She passed away when I was 21 and she never got to see any of the stuff that I created as a part of this band, so it would definitely be my mum.
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