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Unchained
05/28/2002 7:00 PM, Yahoo! Music
S.L. Duff
"Look at this guy! This guy is riding a motorcycle down the freeway with no hands, standing up!" Jerry Cantrell reveals this over his cell phone, while he's sitting in traffic on the dreaded 405 freeway in Los Angeles. Even the interview process has changed with the times.
Cantrell, who began a solo career with the 1998 Boggy Depot release, is doing the promotional rounds for his upcoming Degradation Trip. The guitarist, singer, and songwriter originally came to prominence as one-fourth of Alice In Chains, who--alongside fellow Seattle homeboys Soundgarden, Pearl Jam, and Nirvana--largely rewrote the book on playing hard rock in the '90s. Alice's approach, particularly their use of tight, two-part vocal harmonies over a heavy-as-hell midtempo crunch, was a major influence on the current crop of hard 'n' heavy bands.
On Boggy, Cantrell worked alongside the AIC rhythm section of bassist Mike Inez and drummer Sean Kinney, but on Degradation he is joined by Faith No More's Mike Bordin on drums and Suicidal Tendencies' Robert Trujillo on bass. Bordin and Trujillo also currently serve as TV dad Ozzy Osbourne's rhythm section, and will be touring with Ozzy when Cantrell takes off for live shows, so for his own tour, Cantrell will be backed by Comes With The Fall, an Atlanta-based band currently residing in Los Angeles whom he met through mutual friends. "I actually ended up playing bass with [Comes With The Fall] for a couple of gigs, because their bass player was in jail in Atlanta," says Cantrell, laughing.
Known for his dark, angst-ridden, cathartic-yet-tuneful songs, Cantrell is upbeat and optimistic in conversation, excited about his new album and his new record deal with Roadrunner Records, the undisputed king of the indie metal labels. He is also forthright when asked if he'd work with his former Alice In Chains bandmates in again. "Sure, I'd work with any of those guys!" Could a full-band reunion ever occur? "It's possible. That possibility's always there, and I'd love to see it happen."
Unfortunately, as fate would have it, there is no longer any possibility of such a reunion. The same afternoon as Cantrell and I talked, Alice In Chains singer Layne Staley was found dead in Seattle. The news broke the following day. The surviving members of AIC released the following statement, excerpted here, the following Monday, April 22:
"Yesterday, we all managed to come together in Seattle; it's good to be with friends and family as we struggle to deal with this immense loss and try to celebrate this immense life...We are feeling heartbroken over the death of our beautiful friend. He was a sweet man with a keen sense of humor and a deep sense of humanity. He was an amazing musician, an inspiration, and comfort to so many. He made great music and gifted it to the world. We are proud to have known him, to be his friend, and to create music with him."
Whether Staley's well-known descent into addiction partially informed the 14 tracks on Cantrell's latest disc is up for debate; a listen through the songs indicates that Cantrell has enough demons of his own to provide material. "I've never been happy and written a song, ever," he deadpans. "When I'm happy, I'm out doing other things. I think I've always been drawn to that sort of music that's got those kind of primal emotions and rawness to it. It's something I've always been drawn to as a fan; it's always been what seems to come out of me. That carries over from Alice, too. A long history of horrible sh-t done beautifully--saying something horrible in the most beautiful way. It's the type of music I like to make and listen to."
However you define it, Cantrell's brand of heavy rock, as recorded by Alice In Chains, was incredibly successful. It's surprising, therefore, that his longtime former record label, Columbia--up until his only record label--got cold feet about releasing Degradation Trip. Financed by Cantrell himself, the album was recorded over a two-year period and was initially 25 songs long. As to his departure from Columbia, Cantrell states, "I think we just mutually came to a point where we were going in separate directions. It seemed like a good time for a change, and they were willing to let me do that. They made it easy where they could have made it hard. I had a great career with Columbia; I've got a lot of good memories there."
As for the epic length and scope of Degradation Trip, he says, "I've switched back and forth over the last couple of years of putting this thing together--what was the best way to do it? Whether to release it one disc at a time, or two separate discs at the same time, or [as] a double CD...what we did with Roadrunner was to condense it, kind of a greatest hits out of it, pick the best out of it. Basically, it ended up being disc one was with three songs from disc two." All 25 songs are completely finished and mixed. "Eleven are sitting around getting lonely. I intend to release them at some point, I just don't know when or how we're going to do that," Cantrell says.
Parting from Columbia put the musician back in the trenches, taking meetings with potential labels who could provide a new home for his music. "We had met with quite a few labels, actually. We were getting lukewarm interest, initially: 'Yeah, we like it, we'd like to have it, it's a great record, blah blah blah.' The double [CD] scared them--they 'didn't hear any obvious singles' was another comment, or whatever. When I met with Roadrunner, what really stood out to me was the kind of family/hungry vibe that they had. I was really impressed the first time I went there."
Perhaps it's just symptomatic of the changing musical climate, but it's a bit hard to imagine a music business exec not embracing Cantrell's new work, as it remains true to his own traditions: big hooks, raw emotions, and a heavy yet very musical sound. Whatever confusion the industry has about Cantrell's ongoing validity, there's little doubt that the fans will be there to show there ongoing support and loyalty, which Cantrell has earned with his diligence through discouraging and certainly heartbreaking times.
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