For Soundgarden, There's No Deadline Like No Deadline (Chris Cornell Interview)

No sooner had Soundgarden announced the band would tour in 2011, than singer Chris Cornell took off on a self-dubbed “songbook” solo trek himself. For a short time, fans were left wondering about the fate of the mooted brand new Soundgarden album, which the reunited proto grunge quartet was supposed to be recording. Several fall show dates for Cornell solo and with Soundgarden doesn’t do much to allay fears, either. KOvideo caught up with Cornell, whose post Soundgarden solo career was augmented by a stint fronting Audioslave, to find out what’s happening with the much anticipated Soundgarden record, which marks a recording hiatus of over a decade, and why he decided to do mix band activity with these solo shows.

KOvideo What with the  Soundgarden activity, it seems like this solo tour is the last thing anyone expected you to do.
Chris Cornell Really? That’s good then. [Laughs]

KOvideo What, keep people on their toes?
Chris Cornell Exactly.

KOvideo Is it keeping you on your toes?
Chris Cornell It seems like I’ve been waiting a long time to develop [this] and see where it goes, especially with an acoustic tour without other musicians. It seemed to be really different in terms of how the audience focused on the lyrics, focused on the songs. The songs themselves being a different approach, obviously.

KOvideo You did a couple of solo shows in your adopted hometown of LA, and before that in Sweden some years back.
Chris Cornell Doing it one time felt like, okay this would be great to take this little group of songs to as many places as I can. It’s just taken that amount of time to get to.

KOvideo But why do a solo acoustic tour when Soundgarden is back up and running?
Chris Cornell I sort of started out wanting to do [it] and getting back together with Soundgarden and working on new material with them, it was more about finding time.

KOvideo Is it refreshing to play like this, without the ballast of rock band behind you?
Chris Cornell Yes, certainly. It’s more different than I thought it would be. It’s more of a relaxed connection with the audience that more or less has to happen. there is no choice. When you’re amplified and you’re not in the mood for that to happen, you don’t necessarily have to. You can just go out there and play your songs, and have that sonic wall be between you and the audience. But if you do want that intimacy, you can have that: You can jump into the crowd, you can talk to them between songs. But in terms of an acoustic show, it's there no matter what. It’s up to you, do you want it to be an uncomfortable one [Cornell chuckles], or how do you get inclusive. That part is what created the most difference.

KOvideo You are the second Audioslave member to go acoustic and solo, following guitarist Tom Morello’s project The Nightwatchman. Did you get any tips from him?
Chris Cornell I didn’t, but I thought about having him come up and do some songs with me if our paths ever crossed.

KOvideo So, what of the Soundgarden album? Will there be a new Soundgarden record?
Chris Cornell I was actually recording with Soundgarden right up until this tour started. We’ve been pretty busy and having a great time.

KOvideo Any time frame for releasing it?
Chris Cornell No, I mean, the only thing I can say about that is that we haven’t put a date on it on purpose. Because it really sort of was one of the things that made it difficult for us to continue as Soundgarden,  was  just  the constant deadlines and release dates and tour dates, and mastering dates...  All of these different goal lines that had nothing to do with being creative and making a record. Getting rid of those was kinda high on our priority list, so we could just make a record.  That has an interesting effect, which is, it seems like we have worked faster than I ever remember us ever working -- without all the deadlines. Whereas when we had deadlines hanging over us, it seems like it would kinda get bogged down.  It hasn’t done that at all, which is an interesting experiment for us.