Chris Cornell, best known for being the front man of the iconic 90's rock band Sound Garden, has been venturing into unknown territory lately. After a 10 minute conversation with the king of quirky collaboration Timbaland, Cornell unabashedly dove head first into the land of EDM in an attempt to redefine his artistry, which is better known for disillusioned excess than dance floor revelry. The resulting collaboration, Scream, hit the scene last month to a vast array of criticism and congratulation.
Clubplanet was lucky enough to interview Chris Cornell and chat about his new record, working with Timbaland, and the way people listen to music.
Clubplanet: The album dropped last week. How does it feel to have something so different finally realized and in the hands of the listeners?
Chris Cornell: Pretty great, actually! This album I’ve listened to a lot more than any other album I’ve made. In a lot of interviews (recently) they would put a kind of montage of songs from throughout my career (together) where they will play songs from the Sound Garden days, and the Audioslave days, and when they finally get to the Scream songs, I’m pretty thrilled, really. It’s a puzzle to me because of the ride. When you listen to the musical ride that I've taken kind of condensed in that format, just sort of chopped up, you know its like here’s a moment there’s a moment and here’s where you are now, it’s pretty broad and pretty ridiculous. I'm pretty lucky to have been able to do a lot of this stuff and find an audience for it.
Clubplanet: Do you believe that this will be a cross genre record?
Chris Cornell: I think its sort of an album that can cross over in a lot of different directions and in a lot of different ways. There’s been some negative ones (responses), and a lot of really positive ones. I kind of get the sense that these people have never heard anything I've done up until now, and that’s the point I think. There’s going to be a certain amount of people who are my fans that are going to love it, and there is going to be a certain amount that aren’t. This album definitely seems to be one that polarizes people; there isn’t a whole lot of, "Yeah I kind of like it." There is more "I really love it or I really don't.” And then there are people that hear it in a lot of different places than albums I’ve recorded in the past. In those different places, (the album) reaches different ears. If I look online, I see comments by people that don’t even know who I am, and that part is kind of interesting to me, because I don’t really pay much attention to that normally, I don’t think about it. I don’t think about where people listen to music, where do people hear it? In one context I'm not the kind of person that listens to the radio much. I view music more of a kind of escapist kind of I’m sitting at home and I’m listening to music on headphones. It’s what I’m doing, it’s not just going on in the background. It’s interesting because I’m making an album that kind of makes me sit and take pause and kind of realize that different people will receive music in different ways and in different places, and depending on what kind of record you make it reaches different ears. It’s an unusual thing (that) I never really thought about before.
Clubplanet: How did you settle on Timbaland as a producer?
Chris Cornell: I wasn’t really looking at the time for any producer, I wasn’t even really that focused on making a new album yet. I was looking for some remixes, and that’s when I kind of got on the subject of talking to Timbaland. He wasn’t really interested in doing any remixes, but he was looking to do new material. After speaking with him on the phone it really became real. After about a 10-minute conversation about going in and making a whole album, that was when we came up with a plan, it really was that quick. The whole idea was the connection and we decided to make the commitment to do it.
Clubplanet: Was the creative style that Timbaland brought to the table a lot different than producers that you have worked with in the past?
Chris Cornell: To be honest most producers don’t bring musical ideas to the table. (laughs) It depends. There a lot of different kinds of producers. The ones I have worked with usually are the ones that are based on the idea of pre-production. You know like, "Your in a band, you sound like you sound so lets go ahead and capture that.” Most of it focuses on pre-production, on making sure that you have a great body of songs, and than it’s your job to be in the studio and just be you. The producer is just kind of connecting the dots. It’s kind of like the fifth Beatle, another ear that adds a comment or two. And then there is something like I do with Timbaland, where in a sense we are two members of a band, where he is doing what he does and I’m doing what I do. He is more of a musical collaborator than just a producer. He would bring in musical ideas to what I wrote to on every song, so that in and of itself has been completely different than anything I’ve ever done with a producer. The recording process was very different too. I’m writing and recording vocal takes to digital tracks of a beat and arrangements that are being changed after the fact. All instrumentation is being added after the fact, all of the guitars are being done after the fact, everything was kind of a mirror image of what I would do in a rock band.
Clubplanet: Do you believe that you could have made this record ten years ago?
Chris Cornell: I definitely could of in terms of technology, as far as in terms of wanting to do it I’m not sure. If you were to turn back the hands of time 10 years and handed me the record, and I listened to it, I would definitely be happy.
Clubplanet: Timbaland predicts that you will be the first "rock star in the club." How do you feel about that?
Chris Cornell: I think that that technically has already happened, I think in the world of remixes pretty much every rock band has been in the club by now.
Clubplanet: Has the concept of the album been realized in your opinion?
Chris Cornell: The initial spark and inspiration that has brewed it has been more than satisfied. I have gotten out of it so much more than I ever imagined. I was imagining 10 or 12 songs co-written and produced with Timbaland, but what I got was almost an hour of continuous music where each song has elaborate orchestration that brings you out of the mood of one song and into the next, that I have then been able to take out and perform live from beginning to end and these are things that I've never even thought about. It has more than satisfied the what my initial inspiration to do it was.
