PHOTO
STEVE JENNINGS/GETTY IMAGES
POV
38
DECEMBER2015
AMERICANWAY
of the song. A song can really revolve
around aguitar soundor a riffor just some
different rhythmic approach.With an
acoustic album, that doesn’t really ever
work. It really has tobe a story, and it really
has tobe somethinghappeningmelodically
and instrumentallywhere everythingworks
together and it carries itself frombeginning
to end. As easy as that seems like it should
be, it wasn’t that easy forme.
Is that storypersonal or, likewithfiction,
do thecharactersyoucreate takeon their
own lives?
I think there’smaybe a character that lives
inmost of the songs, andmaybe that char-
acter’s the sameperson. I do think there’s an
approach similar to theway that a novelist
might develop a character, where there’s a
certain amount of personal experience and
autobiographicalmoments that fill in the
songs. Theperson singing the songs is also,
to somedegree, afictional character as
well. I think that that’swhatmakes it exciting
forme.
Who is that characteronyournewalbum,
HigherTruth
?
On this album I had a lot of funwith that
because it was a new
guy; it was a new
character. A couple
new characters, I sup-
pose.My approach
to songwriting
has always been
something I think I
adopted frombeing
aBeatles fan as an
8-year-old, where
I hadno ideawho’s
singingone song to
thenext, and I didn’t
care. It was never a
question that I really
thought about. I
thought that’swhat
rockmusicwas. It’s
the appropriate voice
for the song. In the earlydays of becoming
a songwriter inSoundgarden, I always ques-
tionedmyself.Who’s singing this?Who is
this guy?Who is this character that’s singing
the song?What is the appropriate voice? It
mademe, on theonehand, pretty eclectic
andprettybroad in terms of approaching
vocals. I think it alsomade it a littlemore
difficult tofigureout what homebasewas.
I don’t think I came
out with a sort of
instantly easily identi-
fiable style.
Haveyou found that
stylenow, asa solo
artist?
With this new album,
in taking the same
approach, there’s a
lot of different feels.
Rather than kindof
goingback to similar
vocal characteristics
that haveworked for
me in thepast, I was
able to kindof go
intonewworlds. To
somedegree I guess
I have tofigureout what thoseworldswere
— experiment with them, try tounderstand
why sometimes they just don’t work and
sometimes theydo.My identity as a solo
artist has finally emerged, as opposed tome
just sort of experimenting as a solo artist
andusing that as an arena to experiment
anddo anything that isn’t oneofmybands.
It’s become, in essence, who I am.
YourFive-SongGuidetoChrisCornell
From soloconfessional tomonster of rock, theArenaRockGod’sbodyofwork is surprisinglydiverse
—ZACCRAIN
1
“HIGHER
TRUTH”
Building from awhisper
of piano to awall of
sound, the title track
fromCornell’smost
recent solo record show-
cases all the fantastically
lived-in corners of his
voice, a vocal that is rich
andbeautiful and a little
messedup—weathered,
but unbreakable.
2
“SAYHELLO
2HEAVEN”
FromCornell’sPearl Jam
collaboration
Templeof
theDog
, this trackhas
everythinggreat about
him: a voice that transi-
tions from screaming to
singing andback again
so seamlessly it’s like a
magic trick you can’t
figureout, evenwhen
you know themoves.
3
“PRETTY
NOOSE”
The leadoff track from
1996’s
DownOn the
Upside
, Soundgarden’s
follow-up to its smash
Superunknown
, “Pretty
Noose” is agoodexam-
pleof why it was theone
grunge-erabandnoone
could copy. It’s a song
that only exists in the key
ofCornell.
4
“SHOWMEHOW
TOLIVE”
Cornell’s team-upwith
three-quarters of Rage
Against theMachine
was never going tobe
his band; TomMorello’s
guitar sound is as obvi-
ous as a jokeon aCBS
comedy. But heholds
his ownhereon this cut
fromAudioslave’s 2002
self-titledbow.
5
“PREACHING
THEENDOFTHE
WORLD”
FromCornell’s 1999 solo
debut,
EuphoriaMourn-
ing
, it later gave a solidly
averageSteveCarell
vehicle its title.Cornell
sounds like a relatable
Bono, andhis backing
bandpulls from thebest
of circa-1970sMcCart-
ney andHarrison.
CornellperformingwithSoundgarden in
MountainView,California, inOctober2014
