Jeff Ament habla sobre el proceso creativo detrás de «Getaway» y toca el riff de la canción
Jeff Ament talks about the creative process behind «Getaway» and plays a riff from the song
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Sacado de // From: http://portalternativo.com and http://noisey.vice.com/
Jerry Cantrell, guitarrista de Alice In Chains, ha conversado con la gente de Noisey sobre diversos temas relacionados con la banda, como por ejemplo la no inclusión de “Fear The Voices” en un álbum, tema que acabó apareciendo en la caja “Music Bank”.
Era un descarte. Esa canción era algo que monté… No llegó al nivel, eso es lo que pasó. Así que nunca se supuso que fuese a entrar en un álbum pero terminó en la caja. Supongo que es material de fondo interesante. Con la excepción de los dos últimos discos que hicimos (con Layne Staley), la mayoría de veces no había material extra.
Del título de su último disco, “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here”:
Es un título en plan ‘qué-cojones’. Es único. Busqué por ahí, nadie había titulado un álbum así. Hay un par de otros títulos que consideramos pero ya se habían usado en varias formas. Algunas críticas decían que el disco es directamente “anti-políticos”, “religión esto”. ¡Es solo una canción! No es anti nada. Lo único “anti” que hay es supongo “anti-estupidez”. Anti-intolerancia. Anti forzarle las ideologías los unos a los otros. Hay temas con los que hemos estado luchando y matándonos y haciendo guerras durante cinco mil años. Y aún no nos hemos dado cuenta de que está bien que creas lo que quieras pero también todo el mundo tiene derecho de creer lo que quiera creer. Y porqué alguien no suscriba lo que quieres creer, no hace que esté equivocado, no te da ti más la razón. No les da el derecho a forzar las creencias en alguien, legislar en su contra, legislar lo que alguien puede hacer con su propio cuerpo. Como mujeres o el rol de la mujer en la iglesia. Que está bien forzarle a alguien la ignorancia y la intolerancia.
Preguntado si tiene algo que ver con la formación actual de la banda, siendo William DuVall afroamericano, afirma:
No se dirige a eso especialmente; no es específicamente sobre eso, no. Pero hemos tenido un puñado de gente, un puñado de desafortunados individuos amigos de la banda que han hecho comentarios en ese sentido. Pero somos una banda multiracial, ¿sabes? (Mike) Inez es filipino-americano, William es afroamericano, Sean (Kinney) y yo somos chuchos americanos. No estamos exentos del mundo en el que vivimos, y eso son algunas cosas con las que William y Mike han lidiado más que Sean y yo.
Y preguntado por si tienen intención de hacer un EP al estilo “Sap” o “Jar Of Flies”, asegura:
Es algo que hemos hecho en el pasado y, por supuesto, ¿quien sabe lo que haremos en el futuro? Los últimos años creo que hemos llegado todos a la conclusión de que la mejor receta es la del momento y lidiar con lo que estás lidiando en el momento. No diré que nunca hagamos uno pero creo que en los últimos dos discos hemos metido elementos de esos dos EPs, con guitarras acústicas que se mezclan con los elementos más heavys. Quizá este más que el anterior pero hay algunos momentos realmente bonitos en “Black Gives Way To Blue”, “When the Sun Rose Again”, “Your Decision”, en el último disco. Este disco quizá tiene un par de canciones en ese rollo de la banda. Este es más una mezcla equilibrada entre esa cara de la banda, los EPS y el Unplugged, pero también el material más heavy.
Cantrell se reconoce ajeno al movimiento de las redes sociales:
Me la suda (risas) No quier ser parte de ello. Creo que a todos nos va mejor sabiendo que nadie va a meter el genio de vuelta a la botella así que me mantendré alejado de ello. No tengo cuenta en Facebook, no twitteo. A mi no me va. No diré que no le vaya a otra gente… Obviamente, mucha gente en el planeta está muy metida en ello así que eso solo es mi visión del tema. Pero creo que nos iría mucho mejor si se dejara algo de misterio de magia. Todo es tan instantáneo, no tienes que pagar por ello, no tienes que esperar o invertir nada para tenerlo… No es como hago yo las cosas así que supongo que es algo de lo que me mantengo alejado. Eso si, cada vez que haces un comentario al respecto acabas pareciendo un capullo.
Noisey: Hey Jerry, nice to meet you.
Jerry Cantrell: What’s up dude?
Before I start asking you questions, I just wanted to let you know this story: when I was a kid I was in a CD store that had those stations where you could listen before you buy, and I picked up Dirt. I didn’t realize the player was on all the way at top volume…
[laughs]
So the first thing I ever heard from the band was like, “Them Bones” just being blasted—
“Them Bones” at stun volume. [laughs] That’s how it should be heard for the first time.
It was an ideal first time. I almost fell out of the chair.
Oh, cool.
That pretty much sealed Alice in Chains being one of my favorite bands. You have a unique playing style and—I’m probably going to ask some nerdy musical questions—
Go ahead!
You have a unique playing style, and some of the stuff you’ve done like “Fear the Voices” and [Cantrell’s solo single] “Cut You In,” the guitar sounds like horns. It’s hard to tell if there’s actual horns on the song; I think there are, but even the guitar sounds like that.
Yeah, actually on those two songs you mentioned, I think there are horns on those songs. Had a lot of players on that solo album [Boggy Depot] Les Claypool plays on a couple tracks, Mike Inez. It’s cool that you mentioned that, and there are some horns in there. But a lot of the guitar lines I write I’ll hear, ‘that’s like a sax playing,’ or I’ll hear like a horn section or something like that. I’ve heard a lot of guitar players talk about guitar lines and melody lines in that way. It’s not something I do intentionally, but I definitely notice after the fact that it’s very conducive to a horn playing those lines.
Stuff like that really stands out to me about the band; people harp on how many bands copied the vocal style of Alice in Chains, but there are so many elements that no one’s even trying to copy about you guys.
Hahaha, yeah. there’s a whole lot left there to rip off.
By the way, why was “Fear the Voices” (circa-1992 unreleased track until the Music Bank box set) never released on an album?
OK, I know what song you’re talking about now, I was answering about “Cut You In” on my solo record, but “Voices” was an outtake. That particular song—there isn’t any horns on that by the way—was something I put together…it didn’t make the grade, that’s just what it was. So it was never really intended to make an album, but it ended up on the box set. Some interesting background material I guess. With the exception of the last two records that we made [with Layne Staley, “Get Born Again” and “Died”], most of the time there wasn’t any extra material.
So the new album (The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here), in a weird way, seems like the most positive, optimistic album you’ve ever made.
It’s funny, I’ve heard people take it both ways. There’s a camp that sees it as a very dark record, and there’s a camp that sees it as a very “up” record. I guess sonically it reaches a little further back to classic rock and there’s some pop elements, and metal as well. All those elements reach a little further back in time. Lyrically…[laughs] it’s as harsh as any record we’ve done. Lyrically it’s pretty dark. Sonically it could be taken to be a more “up” record. But I think that’s always been the trick with this band, even if the music is kind of soothing or sparse, the lyrics always bring things back to reality. I’ve said this a few times about our music, but it’s like saying something horrible in the most beautiful way.
I think that’s a lot of music! But also, most past Alice has been referred to as very “personal,” while songs like “Voices” and “The Devil Put Dinosaurs Here” seem like you’re more overtly talking to an audience.
You know, we were aware we were gonna have this conversation a lot by calling the record that, but it certainly wasn’t our intention to start a dialogue about it. It’s just comments…we just wanted to go in about a subject that no one’s really written about before. I always write from a very personal point of view. Layne always did that too, but being an individual you’re a part of society. Maybe you’re writing from your viewpoint or somebody else’s viewpoint, but it’s a personal thing. But that song to me is more of a reflection, a mirror reflecting back what I see in that arena. We didn’t call our album that to have some big political, anti-religion manifesto. It’s just a take on a subject, reflecting it back, you know, some of the uglier elements of both of those arenas. When people say to me that we’ve started making social commentary, well, every song is a commentary. [laughs] There’s nothing different…our first big hit “Man in the Box” dealt with issues…
Oh yeah.
And got picketed for that “Jesus Christ, deny your maker” line. There’s also a song called “God Am” on the dog record, which deals with the subject matter too. “Voices,” in terms of songwriting, is very internal, it’s not external. It comes from a very personal place, but of course it can be applied to anything, from any place in society.
I figured you just picked “Devil” as the title tune so you could go “Yeah! We can put some dinosaurs on the cover now!”
It’s just a what-the-fuck title. It’s unique. I did some research on it, nobody had called an album that. There’s a couple other titles that were under consideration, but they’d already been used in various forms. But some of the reviews just said the record is flat-out “anti-politics,” “religion this.” It’s just one song! It’s not anti-anything. The only thing “anti-” it is is I guess anti-stupidity. Anti-bigotry. Anti-forcing ideologies on each other. These are subjects we’ve been battling and killing each other and fighting wars over with each other for fucking five thousand years now. And we haven’t figured it out yet, that it’s okay to believe what you want to believe, but everybody else has the right to believe what they want to believe too. And because someone else doesn’t subscribe to what you want to believe, doesn’t make them wrong, doesn’t make you any more right. It doesn’t give them the right to enforce a belief on somebody, legislate against them, legislate what someone can do what their own body. Like women, or women’s role in the church. That it’s okay to enforce ignorance and bigotry on somebody.
If I can jump out on a limb with it, I wanted to know if it was partly inspired by this lineup of the band, if anyone has made any racist comments or anything like that, which is a totally new thing that the band would be experiencing.
It didn’t specifically address it; it’s not specifically about that, no. But we’ve had a handful of people, a handful of unfortunate individuals who are friends of the band, who’ve made comments in that area. But we’re a multiracial band, you know? [Mike] Inez is Filipino-American, William is African-American, Sean and I are like American mutts. We’re not exempt from the world we live in, and those are some things that William and Mike have probably dealt with more than Sean and I.
Getting back to preaching, how do you feel about so many bands expressing themselves on Twitter and social media, which isn’t your style at all?
Yeah, I don’t give a fuck. [laughs] I don’t want any part of it. I think we all do a lot better to know there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle so I’ll just stay out of it. I don’t have a Facebook account, I don’t Tweet.
There’s something to be said for a band that solely wants to express themselves through the songs, because it’s just rarer and rarer for people to do that now.
It doesn’t work for me. I’m not gonna say it doesn’t work for someone else…obviously a lot of people on the planet are fucking involved with it so that’s just my particular take on it. But I think we’d be a lot better if there was a little bit of mystery and magic left in it. Everything’s so instant, you don’t have to pay for it, you don’t have to wait for it or invest anything in having it…it’s not the way I go about things I guess so it’s just something I stay out of. Every time you make a comment about it you end up looking like a prick though.
No, no, I know where you’re coming from. Do you think you’ll ever do another EP like Sap or Jar of Flies again that’s a departure from the harder-rocking albums?
It’s something that we’ve done in the past, and of course, who knows what we’re gonna do in the future? Over the last couple years I think we’ve all come to the conclusion that the best recipe is in the moment and to deal with what you’re dealing with now. I’d never say we’d never do one but I think the last two records we’ve put out have elements of both those EPs, with acoustic guitar kind of blended in with the heavier elements. Maybe this one more than the last one, but there’s some really nice moments on Black Gives Way to Blue…”When the Sun Rose Again,” “Your Decision,” on the last record. This record has maybe a couple more songs geared toward that vibe of the band. This one’s pretty much an equal mix toward that side of the band, the EPs and the Unplugged, but also the heavier stuff.
What aspect of the band do you think doesn’t get enough credit?
I don’t know! As time goes by, the story seems to kind of change a little bit. We’ve been around for a long time, and we were part of a very significant moment in music, not just in our hometown, but around the world in the late 80s and 90s when music took a turn. And it meant a lot to us even just to do it. As for where we didn’t get credit, I mean, we get a lot of credit. Some camps like to rewrite our history as if we didn’t exist, or that we didn’t come from the town that we came from somehow. I’ve seen a few things happen that way, that somehow we get bumped out of the story. At the end of the day, we’re not doing this for someone else’s interpretation of what our life was. I know how it went, I’m still living it, I’m still doing it, and I’m still adding to it. I’ll think about that shit when I’m sitting on the porch unable to do anything else. Maybe I’ll have had a little time to look back at it then But like I was saying earlier, it’s good to stay in the moment, think about the next few steps in front of you. I’ve been doing it more or less with my friends for the last 26 years and we’re still on the journey, still in the process.
Sacado de // From: http://portalternativo.com and http://www.alternativenation.net
Brett Buchannan de Alternative Nation ha tenido la oportunidad de departir con Eric Kretz, batería de Stone Temple Pilots, con quien ha hablado de pasado, presente y futuro del grupo, rememorando sus inicios en la banda o su amistad con Scott Weiland.
De su audición para entrar en Swing, la banda previa a STP en la que estaban Scott Weiland, Robert DeLeo, Corey Hickok y Britt Willet:
Dios, creo que fue en el 86 o 87. Yo tocaba en varias bandas en Long Beach donde me había mudado desde San Jose, California. Así que empezó en Long Beach y dándome cuenta de lo difícil que es encontrar una banda que inspire la música que quieres hacer decidí poner un anuncio en una revista de por ahí, “Batería disponible”. Robert me llamó y hablamos por teléfono de 2 a 3 horas de todo, desde Steely Dan a Led Zeppelin, de Mahavishnu Orchestra a Neal Part pasando por Bill Bruford. Las similitudes eran tan increíbles y el hecho de que él creciera en New Jersey y yo en la costa oeste en San Jose pero creciéramos con el mismo tipo de música (era increíble). Me decía que en su primer año del instituto se metió en el “Hemisphere” y el “Permanent Waves” de Rush. Tocando en fiestas y ‘riffeando’ esas canciones. Así que organizamos una audición, creo que conocí a Scott antes de la audición. Entonces que en el Sound-o-hull -creo que se llamaba así- yo y Robert nos pusimos con este ritmo funky de bajo y batería. El guitarrista Corey (Hickok) estaba tocando los micros mientras decía, “Oh, estoy conmocionado, estoy conmocionado”. Lo siguiente es él volando en mi batería, con la cara azul, sus zapatos ardiendo. Fue horrible, estaba electrocutándose. Logramos quitar el cable (pero) estaba en mal estado. Afortunadamente sabía que el hospital estaba a la vuelta de la esquina así que fue “seguidme todos” y condujimos al hospital. Y ahí estaba sentado en urgencias y Scott me mira y dice, “Joder, eso fue raro, supongo que eres de la banda”. Sin tocar una canción completa. Creo que les mandé una cinta de vídeo tocando un solo de 10 minutos que vieron pero no creo que llegara a tocar una canción entera antes de que se electrocutara pero se recuperó por completo.
De “Trippin’ on a Hole in a Paper Heart”, tema del que compuso la música:
En aquellos momentos andaba escuchando mucho Tower of Power. Dave Garibaldi era un batería jodidamente genial, esa clase de (ritmo), componer esa clase de ritmos que hacía. Yo tocaba mucha guitarra por entonces así que cogí la guitarra e hice una especie de cruce entre un poco de Tower of Power, un poco del “Peg” de Steely Dan. Junté todo y empecé a ver que tienes que acentuar el ritmo de batería de 2/4, y luego metiéndole ritmos no convencionales. Recuerdo que alguien me dijo una vez, “Hey tío, un gran estribillo siempre tiene los acentos en los ritmos no convencionales”. Pensé, “sabes qué sería genial, si compones una canción que tiene ritmos graves en el 2/4 y luego en los ritmos no convencionales”. Así que era cosa de jugar con material y montarlo. Tenía una línea de bajo bastante simple. Cuando la monté, Dean se metió enseguida y le mostré a Robert la línea de bajo y lo cogió desde ahí y le añadió algunas notas más. La canción se tocó básicamente como se compuso. Grabamos la canción sin que Scott no le pusiera ni una idea vocal. Scott era capaz de hacer eso a veces, diría que el 30% de las canciones de STP se grabaron así, sin idea preconcebida para la voz. Pero aún teníamos estribillos, puentes, partes a mirar. Entonces Scott, tenía su día milagroso en el estudio, sacando las letras y el resto. Teníamos la canción completa. Por estresante que fuese, algunos grandes éxitos salieron de ese modo.
De como compuso la letra de “Plush” junto a Scott Weiland:
A principios de los 90, Scott era mi mejor amigo, hacía años que éramos compañeros de piso. Siempre discutíamos de poesía, literatura, películas, vida, política, amor, guerra, ¿sabes a lo que me refiero? Era mi mejor amigo. Así que cuando llegó el momento de “Plush” me dijo, “Tío, no sé de qué escribir”. Estábamos de coña en el jacuzzi, en los Oakwood Apartments haciendo “Core” y de hecho ahí había un jacuzzi. Estábamos bebiéndonos unas birras y empezamos a trabajar en material del que siempre hablábamos. La intriga de todo, la intriga de esas cosas: la política del amor, de la literatura, de las películas. Al mismo tiempo tratábamos de rapiñar palabras, hacíamos una especie de cuenta de tu dices una cosa, yo digo otra. O él diciendo algo y yo contrargumentar con algo, era algo muy natural, amigos montando juntos la parte de la letra de una canción.
Del estudio de grabación que abrió cuando los hermanos DeLeo se embarcaron en el proyecto Army Of Anyone:
Yo estaba muy emocionado por montar mi estudio. Podrías decir que estabas montando un estudio pero sabía que quería montar algo especial porque había tenido la suerte de grabar en Record Plants, Southern Tracks, The Village y otros estudios de América. Quería montar algo especial, un lugar con magia. Cuando terminé Bomb Shelter casi de manera instantánea Fu Manchu se metieron ahí, luego fue como un tren en marcha. Entraba el Henry Rollins Show y a la mañana siguiente Slayer, por la tarde Aimee Mann y al día siguiente New York Dolls. Era como, ¡hostia puta! Era lo que quería hacer, hacer un sitio donde no solo hacer música genial sino tener una historia y ser parte de algo. Los 6 u 8 años que estuvo en marcha fueron maravillosos. El año pasado lo vendí, era momento de seguir adelante. La industria musical ha cambiado y todo el mundo trabaja en casa ahora. Tener un estudio de 500 m2 ya no tiene sentido.
Hey Eric, it’s Brett. I actually met you are the rehearsal last month which was great, thank you for doing that.
Oh that’s right Brett, how are you?
I’m good. When I was there I only got to talk to you briefly, but I mentioned the Talk Show song “Ring Twice” to you. What was the inspiration behind that song?
I know I was trying to go for a little something off of Magical Mystery Tour. Lyrically I was definitely kind of going for the dichotomy of Shinto religion as opposed to soldiers fighting in battle. I was reading a bit about the Shinto religion over in Japan and how its separated from Dalism. Not to make it sound too complicated, the samurai soldiers are the biggest religion. They’re so fantastic in how they just sacrifice themselves, to fight with no fear of death because if you die in battle it’s an honor. You don’t want to write about battles like that or death so you try to find hearts and florals to kind sprinkle amongst the lyrics and kind of put that together and put it behind a gritty rock song, if that makes sense.
I never knew there was such a story behind “Ring Twice” after all these years, but I really enjoy that song. Getting into High Rise, “Black Heart” to me is the standout track for you on the EP, your beat really drives the song. Now discuss the process of writing and recording that song. I actually spoke to Dean a few days ago and he said Chester didn’t finish his vocals until 3:45AM.
Oh yeah, that was a late night. Not only that but he had to start Linkin Park rehearsals the next morning for their tour in Asia. It was the last chance we had, and it was the last song. We knew we had to finish or else we couldn’t have a whole EP, it’d only be 4 songs and I don’t think that really constitutes an EP (laughs).
But as far as “Black Heart,” when Robert first started strumming that on acoustic guitar, my foot basically started hitting the floor. It’s almost like a porch stomp, it really gets that energy pumping. Drum wise it kind of fits in there like “Big Bang Baby” or “Hollywood Bitch” where it’s just full in the floor, it’s just a very simplistic drive of the drums. Also when you think about it, chicks really dig a big thunderous floor tom riding in a verse (laughs). But seriously it’s just a driving song, where it’s just fucking great man. It follows the guitar riff and the bass riff but it also helps drives that as well.
Yeah that song kind of reminds me of “My Sharona,” Aerosmith, and a bit like “Huckleberry Crumble” and “Hickory Dichotomy” off of self-titled.
I love every song you just mentioned. When you play songs like [those] down in South America, oh my god they love to jump during songs, especially songs with those kinds of driving beats. When you play a festival for 60 to 80,000 people, an outdoor festival, and they’re all jumping in unison, you actually feel the ground shake. The energy level just goes up, the crowd participation goes up. It’s really great to sprinkle in our set [some] songs like that, something a little different. They’re not rhythmically complicated, not a lot of polyrhythms or off beats, they’re just really straight ahead and it’s a nice blend in with the rest of the songs during the set.
There’s not much information about you on you on the internet. Actually on your Wikipedia page the picture is a picture I took at the Hollywood Bowl 5 years ago.
That’s right.
There’s not a ton on there. So what’s your musical background, when did you start playing drums and what were some of your early influences?
The first record I got was ELO’s Out of the Blue. Then I started taking drum lessons I think when I was 11 or 12 years old, right around that age. From banging pots and pans, my Mom just said, “You know what, do you want to take drum lessons?” I said sure. Once I started playing drums I took to it extremely well, it seemed very easy. Then you start hearing AC/DC, then eventually you move on and you hear Houses of the Holy by Led Zeppelin. I just said oh my god, that’s where I’m going. That’s the calling (laughs).
Then from there slowly progressing into the progressive rock phase. A lot of Rush, and then you get into Return to Forever [inaudible]. Then of course, Genesis. Taking it to extremes so when I graduated high school and moved down to Los Angeles I was just kind of getting over my phase of prog rock, and kind of going more back to the roots of early Aerosmith and AC/DC of course who have always stayed consistently great my whole life. There’s periods where sometimes the prog rock, still love it, but there’s times when you get a little tired of it and just say gosh, it’s moving in so many ways. But there’s parts there that can just fatigue your ear if you’re not in the mood for it. Where as you can listen to “TNT” any day any time and it still gets you excited, even if you’re half asleep.
Now getting to when STP formed, information on STP’s early days is very hazy. Scott’s book he released a couple of years ago added even more questions, though there were some good pictures in there. But what is known is that the earliest incarnation of the band was called Swing and it featured you, Scott, Robert, Corey Hickok, and a keyboardist. I think the Tooms brothers or one of them?
It was Britt Willet on keyboards.
Can you tell the story of how you met Scott and Robert and formed the band and what year it was?
God, I think it was ’86 or ’87. I was playing in various bands down in Long Beach, I moved there from San Jose, California. So it began in Long Beach and realizing how hard it is to find a band that is inspiring the music you want to do. I just happened to put an ad in the Recycler magazine down there: ‘Drummer available.’ Robert called me, and man we talked on the phone for 2 to 3 hours about everything from Steely Dan, to Led Zeppelin, to Mahavishnu Orchestra, to Neal Peart, to Bill Bruford. The similarities were so incredible, and the fact that he grew up in New Jersey and I grew up on the west coast in San Jose, but we grew up on the same types of music at the same time. He was saying in junior high school is when he got into Rush’s Hemisphere, and Permanent Waves. Playing parties and kind of riffing out those songs. So then we set up an audition, I think I met Scott once before the audition. Then the Sound-o-hull I think it was called, me and Robert went into this great little funky bass and drum groove. The guitar player Corey [Hickok] was touching the mics saying, “Oh, I’m getting shocked, I’m getting shocked.” The next thing you know he’s flying into my drum kit, his face is turning blue, his shoes are burning. It was horrible, he was fully getting electrocuted. We managed to pull the power cord, he definitely was in bad shape. Luckily I knew where the hospital was around the corner, so I was like everyone follow me and we drove to the hospital. [Then] I’m kind of sitting there in the emergency room and Scott looks and me and [is] like, “Fuck that’s so weird, I guess you’re in the band.”
Even though [Corey] was in the hospital you still made it into the band.
Yeah, without playing a whole song. I think I sent them a videotape too of me doing a 10 minute drum solo that they saw, but I don’t think we even played a full song together before he got electrocuted. But he did fine, he recovered fully.
Do you think you might write some more songs now with the new incarnation of STP?
Definitely yeah, because there’s so much excitement back in the room again. Actually having downtime that can be constructive, as opposed being in a big swirl of negativity. I’m looking forward to writing a lot more right now with them.
Did you consider drumming for Army of Anyone, and why didn’t you drum for them?
No, I didn’t consider drumming for them. The DeLeo brothers were definitely trying, they were out there producing as the DeLeo brothers, they were definitely trying to forge a career as the brothers. I was really excited about building my studio. You could say you’re just building a studio, but I knew I wanted to build something special because being fortunate enough to record at at Record Plants, and Southern Tracks, the Village, and other studios throughout America. [I was like] I want to build [something] special, a place that has magic. When I finished Bomb Shelter it’s like instantly Fu Manchu was the first band in there, then it was like a freight train it just kept going from there. When the Henry Rollins Show came in I’d have Slayer in the morning, Aimee Mann in the afternoon, the next day would be the New York Dolls. It was like, fuck yeah man! It truly was what I was searching out to do, was to build a place not only to make great music but could actually have a history and kind of be a part of something. The 6 to 8 years that it was going, it did an amazing thing. I just sold it last year and kind of said, you know what it’s time to move on. The music industry’s changed and everyone’s recording at home now. Having a 6,000 square foot studio just doesn’t make a whole lot of sense any more.
You co-wrote the lyrics to “Plush” with Scott Weiland in a hot tub, according to Dean when I met you guys. How was it writing lyrics to that song, because that’s the only song in the original incarnation of STP that didn’t just have Scott’s lyrics.
Back in that time in the early 90′s, Scott was my best friend, we were roommates for years. We would always discuss and argue about poetry, literature, movies, life, politics, love, war, you know what I mean? He was my best friend. So when it came time for “Plush” he was like, “Man, I just don’t know what to write about.” We’re jokingly in a hot tub, we’re sitting at the Oakwood Apartments making that record Core, and they actually had a jacuzzi there. We’re just drinking a bunch of beers, and just kind of started working on stuff we’d been talking about as friends for so many years. The intrigue of it all, the intrigue of those things: the politics of love, of literature, of movies. At the same time [we] were trying to prey on words, we were kind of [doing] a counter thing of you saying one thing, him saying another. Or him saying something to me and countering with something, it was kind of a very natural way of friends putting together a lyrical song. Then strangely enough, Opera Man [Adam Sandler’s SNL character] on KROQ was doing that song one year and it was pretty funny (laughs).
James Sherry (perdiodista) ha colgado en Internet tres cintas con una entrevista a Nirvana hecha en noviembre de 1990 que, aunque ya había sido publicada en CD en el año 2004, es la primera vez que aparece en la red. Aquí os dejo la entrevista (en inglés) para todos aquellos que estén interesados en escucharla:
James Sherry has released the audio of the interviews he did with Nirvana from 1990-1992 for Metal Hammer Magazine.