La Rolling Stone ha aprovechado la reedición del “Screaming Life” y “Fopp” de Soundgarden para charlar con el guitarrista Kim Thayil.

Habla del tema “Sub Pop Rock City”:

Sale del genial recopilatorio “Sub Pop 200″. Ese es un disco imprescindible, “Sub Pop 200″ – es una cajita con un puñado de canciones que captura casi todas las bandas que estaban en Sub Pop por entonces además de otras bandas que nunca habían sacado discos en Sub Pop pero estaban en esa comunidad y escena. Aportamos la canción “Sub Pop Rock City”. Creo que yo compuse la música y escribí la letra con Chris (Cornell).

Sobre la escena que empezaba a cocerse en Seattle:

Sabía que algo había ahí porque el álbum “Deep Six” salió en el 86, se grabó en el 85 y eso era un puñado de colegas nuestros de Seattle – U-Men, Green River, Melvins, Malfunkshun y Skin Yard. Los seis hicimos conciertos juntos y había otra media docena de buenas bandas como Feast, My Eye, Bundle of Hiss, Girl Trouble, 64 Spiders. Había una comunidad potente. Las bandas de Seattle superaban en asistencia a las bandas de punk rock o metal que venían a tocar aquí y tocaban ante quinientas o mil personas. Y luego Green River, Soundgarden o Mother Love Bone tocaban y atraían a mil trescientas o mil quinientas. La cosa marchaba. Así que éramos muy conscientes de ello.

Antes de hacer un disco, ya era bastante grande. Ya llenábamos locales en los que tocaba una banda local o indie – bares o clubs. Marcábamos records de asistencia y había una grandísima escena ahí. Muchos skateboards y mucha ropa oscura. Éramos muy conscientes del crecimiento de la escena y de que había muchas otras bandas.

Del álbum de caras B que prepara:

Es casi exclusivamente -quizá haya una o dos excepciones- material publicado, centrándonos en material original publicado por Soundgarden y material publicado que nunca antes había sido recopilado en un álbum de Soundgarden. Cosas de discos recopilatorios, como por ejemplo, “Sub Pop Rock City”, saldrían en el disco de caras B.

Hicimos covers como el “Girl U Want” de Devo o el “Homicidal Suicidal” de Budgie pero si nos centramos solo en originales, hay suficiente para un álbum y más. En la época de “Badmotorfinger” hicimos el tema “Cold Bitch”, que era original. Hicimos “Birth Ritual”, que salió en la banda sonora de “Singles”. “Birth Ritual” lo pusimos en el álbum “Telephantasm” pero eso es un recopilatorio de canciones ya publicadas. Pero en cuanto a recopilar un álbum completo de material original que no había sido recopilado en otros álbumes de Soundgarden, esto sería como otro álbum de estudio.

Aparecerá “Heretic”, quizá “Toy Box”. “Toy Box” se grabó durante el periodo de “Screaming Life”, un ocho pistas con Jack Endino. Quizá haya algún interés en juntar eso con otro material de aquel periodo de tiempo.

Sobre los próximos planes de Soundgarden:

Ahora mismo, un par de chicos están comprometidos en otras giras – Chris está haciendo una gira acústica en solitario y Matt (Cameron) está en la carretera con Pearl Jam. Así que este año va a ser complicado salir de gira. Pero yo iré mirando el catálogo, recopilando el disco de caras B, que anuncié por primera vez allá por 1995… Lleva casi 20 años ahí en la despensa de forma negligente. Los últimos cuatro años he tomado algo de acción para que la banda echara a rodar. Ahora es cosa de Jeff Fura de A&M Records y que esto funcione. Y por supuesto, la reedición de “Screaming Life” y la posible remezcla y reedición de “Ultraomega OK”.

La banda ha hablado de la continuación de “King Animal”. Es algo que miraremos en los próximos dos años.

 

 

Although the tour in support of their reunion album, King Animal has apparently ended, Soundgarden will keep up their profile in the coming months with a few new releases. The first will arrive Tuesday, when Sub Pop reissues the band’s first two classic EPs, 1987’s Screaming Life and 1988’s Fopp, together as a remastered single release (available as a CD, double LP and download), with a bonus track tacked on.

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Guitarist Kim Thayil recently spoke to Rolling Stone on several topics, including the Screaming Life/Fopp reissue, the early days and what’s next for the grunge band.

Why did the Screaming Life and Fopp EPs go out of print?
There was a little bit of neglect with our band and management together. The way we looked at catalog issues, we kind of thought, «We’ll get back to that. Let’s go forward.» So we were always looking forward. And unfortunately, the forward thinking of the band and management did not include having all the properties that we invested our creative and labor into keeping them active. For some reason, we let that slide, and that slid even more after the band broke up. So when we got back together again in 2010, it was really focusing on these catalog issues, merchandise and online presence.

What’s the story behind the extra track «Sub Pop Rock City»?
«Sub Pop Rock City» was off of the great compilation Sub Pop 200. Now that’s a must-have record, Sub Pop 200 – it’s a nice little box of a bunch of songs capturing just about every band that was on Sub Pop then, as well as other bands that never released records on Sub Pop but were affiliated with the community and scene. And we contributed the song «Sub Pop Rock City» to that. I think I wrote the music and I wrote the lyrics with Chris [Cornell].

Screaming Life was the second-ever band release by Sub Pop. At that point, did you realize there was something special brewing with other Seattle bands?
Oh yeah, totally. Because the Deep Six album came out in ’86, it was recorded in ’85, and that was a bunch of our colleagues from Seattle – the U-Men, Green River, the Melvins, Malfunkshun, and Skin Yard. The six of us played shows together, and there was another good half dozen bands, like Feast, My Eye, Bundle of Hiss, Girl Trouble, 64 Spiders. There was a really strong community. The Seattle bands would outdraw the national punk rock or metal bands that would come here and play for five hundred or a thousand people. And then Green River, Soundgarden, or Mother Love Bone would play, and they’d draw thirteen/fifteen hundred. It was going. So we were very aware of that.

I’m chronologically off by a little bit – by the time that Mother Love Bone, Green River, and Soundgarden were drawing really well, we had all made records. But prior to us making a record, it was pretty big. We were packing in all the venues that a local or indie band would play – mostly bars and clubs. We were setting attendance records, and there was a huge scene here. A lot of skateboards and a lot of black clothing. We were very aware of the growing scene and the fact that there were a lot of other bands.

There’s also the possibility of a collection of unreleased material. Will this upcoming set be just strictly B-sides, or also include some unreleased songs?
This is almost exclusively – there might be one or two exceptions – released material, focusing on original Soundgarden released and published material that has never been compiled on a Soundgarden album. Things from compilation records, like «Sub Pop Rock City,» for instance, might have been on the B-sides album.

I recall around the time of Badmotorfinger, a lot of non-album cover songs were issued overseas, like Devo’s «Girl U Want» and Budgie’s «Homicidal Suicidal.»
Those are covers, but if we focus on originals, there’s certainly enough for another album-plus. Around Badmotorfinger, we did the song «Cold Bitch,» which was an original. We did «Birth Ritual,» which was in the movie soundtrack for Singles. «Birth Ritual» we put out on the Telephantasm album, but that’s a compilation of already released songs. But as far as compiling an album’s worth of original material that hadn’t been compiled on other Soundgarden albums, this would be like another studio album.

So originals such as «Heretic» and «Toy Box» will be included?
Yeah, «Heretic,» maybe «Toy Box.» «Toy Box» was recorded during the Screaming Life period, eight-track with Jack Endino. There might be some interest in putting that together with other material from that period of time.

What’s next for Soundgarden?
Right now, a couple of guys are committed to other tours – Chris is doing a solo acoustic tour and Matt [Cameron] is out on the road with Pearl Jam. So this year [2014] is going to be kind of tough for touring. But I will be tending to the catalog, compiling the B-sides record, which I first announced back in 1995 . . . it’s been almost 20 years of backburner neglect. The past four years, I’ve taken some action toward getting the ball rolling. Now it’s just a matter of working with Jeff Fura at A&M Records and getting this thing going. And of course, the reissue of Screaming Life, and the eventual remixing and re-release of Ultramega OK.

Would you like to see a follow-up to King Animal?
Yeah, the band has talked about that. That’s something that we’ll look at in the next two years.