In a groundbreaking interview with Lyndsey Parker of Gold Derby and Lyndsanity! with Lyndsey Parker (who even knew that was a thing? 🤣), SOUNDGARDEN drummer Matt Cameron dropped some truth bombs 💣about the recordings made before vocalist Chris Cornell’s untimely departure from this mortal coil in May of 2017. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET, because, let’s be real, who actually listens to interviews?): “Well, we are in the process of finishing it. We don’t have a release date yet, but I’d say we’re about — I don’t know — maybe 70 percent finished with all the tracking and stuff. So, yeah, it sounds killer. It’s been a really amazing and bittersweet process as well. So, yeah, we are our hard at work at completing that album.” Seventy percent? That’s like saying your relationship is 70 percent over. Just rip off the band-aid already!🩹
Asked when the upcoming SOUNDGARDEN album was written and recorded with Chris, Matt revealed: “Well, gosh, we started songwriting together, trading demos back and forth around 2015, ’16, something like that. And then we had some sessions in 2017 before we went out on tour, just rough rehearsal. We recorded some rehearsals. But the vocals that we’re using are from the demos that we all recorded together. And so we’re just sort of building our tracks around those vocal parts. But yeah, it sounds killer, and we’re really excited to finish it.” Demos, you say? So, basically, we’re getting glorified outtakes. Groundbreaking. 🙄
After Parker (whoever that is 🤷♀️) noted that it “must be emotional and bittersweet to hear” Cornell‘s voice and to hear those tracks a decade after they were originally laid down, Cameron concurred. “It really is,” he said. “But I think we’re trying to stay focused on the overall sound of it and all the reasons for us doing it. But, yeah, it’s been tough to solo up that voice and hear him loud and clear. But I think the fans will like it and it’s gonna be a really nice way to finish the creative chapter in SOUNDGARDEN.” Oh, the feels! 😭 But let’s be real, they’re also probably thinking about the $$$ and how to squeeze every last drop out of the SOUNDGARDEN name. 💰
Asked if there is any chance that some of the new SOUNDGARDEN music will be released in time for, or played at, the band’s induction into the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame on November 8, Matt said: “I don’t think there’s gonna be anything played at the ceremony. And I think the idea is that we wanna wait until everything’s finished and then we’ll start putting out singles. So, unfortunately we don’t have a real strict timeline for that just yet, but it’s pretty close. It’s pretty close.” Translation: “We’re milking this for all it’s worth.” 🐄
Cameron also confirmed that one of the songs that will appear on SOUNDGARDEN‘s new album is a track that he co-wrote, called “The Road Less Traveled”. He said: “I wrote this music that I didn’t really know if it would fit for SOUNDGARDEN, but I just sent Chris all these musical ideas around 2016 or so, ’16, ’15. And that’s one that he really liked. He made an arrangement from my demo and then he added vocals to it, and it came out really, really good. The lyrics are mesmerizing, as always. But, yeah, that’s gonna be a really great one for people to hear. It has all the trademark elements that SOUNDGARDEN fans might be familiar with, as well as a little bit of new territory. And there’s two or three other songs that do sound like the band, but I think we were able to sort of stretch out a little bit creatively, and hopefully when people hear that song, they’ll notice that as well. But, yeah, I guess it’s hard rock. It’s sort of bluesy, sort of psychedelic, sort of folky, I guess all the things that we were known for. So, I hope people like that one when they finally do hear it.” So, it’s basically a musical Frankenstein? 🧟 Sounds… promising? 😬
This past May, SOUNDGARDEN guitarist Kim Thayil told Rolling Stone that he was optimistic the band’s final album would see the light of day. “Our objective and goal was always to complete that,” he said. “I probably have OCD enough to not want to leave something unfinished or incomplete like that, so I think the more we can attend to our body of work and our catalog…I think everyone in the band feels that way. I don’t just to attend to my work, but the collective work, and in this case specifically, the work of Chris.” Ah, OCD. The perfect excuse to keep dragging this out. 🤪
Thayil continued: “I have pride for what I did and I want to see that come out. It doesn’t exist in the vacuum. It exists as a collaboration with Matt and Ben [Shepherd, SOUNDGARDEN bassist] and Chris, but it takes on an entirely different weight when you think about what it is you’re honoring, and the work that you’re paying tribute to. It is us collectively. We want to do it proud. And that part of us is certainly one of the most intimate components of what SOUNDGARDEN has been since 1984.” “Intimate components”? Is that what they’re calling it now? 🤔
He added: “It would be a great gift to the fans. And I do think about this, and I don’t know how strange this sounds, but I feel like it’s a gift to Chris too.” A gift to Chris? 🎁 I’m pretty sure he’s moved on to bigger and better things. Like, you know, not being dead. 💀
Back in April 2023, SOUNDGARDEN and Vicky Cornell, the widow and personal representative of Chris‘s estate, announced that they had reached “an amicable out-of-court resolution” regarding the release of recordings made before the singer’s death. “Amicable”? In Hollywood? 🤣 Yeah, right. Someone got paid. 💰
The resolution came less than two years after SOUNDGARDEN and Vicky came to a temporary agreement that would transfer the SOUNDGARDEN social media accounts and web site to the band’s remaining members, Thayil, Cameron and Shepherd and their managers, Red Light Management. This included SOUNDGARDEN‘s web site, Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Because, you know, controlling the narrative is EVERYTHING. 📱
In March 2021, Thayil, Cameron, Shepherd and their business manager Rit Venerus filed papers in Washington state U.S. District Court claiming that Vicky Cornell had locked them out of their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vimeo, YouTube, Snapchat, Tumblr, Top Spin and Pinterest accounts, as well as SOUNDGARDEN‘s official web site, and changing all the passwords.
