chris cornell: gone all hippity-hop?

 

by philip wilding, classic rock, april 2009

 

Classic Rock: did you have any idea what would happen when you decided to work with Timbaland?

Cornell: I wasn't concerned with the outcome of working with Timbaland as a producer, becausew to me it's an exciting project. It's like a diversion in a way, but it could lead to other things. I can imagine that there's certain aspects of what I did on this album that, regardless of how I make my next album, I will do those things again. It was such a different way of recording and writing.

CR: Including a new schedule when it comes to working hours? Didn't the two of you start working around midnight?

Cornell: Yeah, I used to work in the restaurant business, so I had to get up early. Even as a songwriter my schdule would usually be: I wake up, I drink a bunch of coffee and then I start working. And that's my best time. Once it's night time, I usually don't write. This was different. I would wake up at like 7pm. And get into the studio somewhere between 7pm and 9pm and start writing lyrics and then start singing. Then Timbland would show up at 2am and then we would work on a new idea. The good part of it was that there was no entourage - people wouldn't come in and bother you at 4am, because everyone's asleep.

CR: You have heavyweight boxing champ Witali Klitschko making a cameo appearance in the first video (for Part Of Me). How did you get him involved?

Cornell: He wanted to do it. Originally I think I was gonna perform at his next fight, which fell through because the guy he was gonna fight got injured. And then when we were making the video he flew in for an afternoon. That was the first time I met him, and he was great. Just a super warm, funny guy. And then on camera he was fantastic.

CR: How will Scream work live? Surely it will sound completly different when it's performed with a band.

Cornell: There are some songs where I do it the same way I did on the album, where just everything's right on beat. And then ther are some songs where I have definitely loosened it up and allowed it to be more of my live version of it. It's affected how I sing other songs live, believe it or not. Because I started to understand that I've had problems with some songs, and I didn't know what the problem was. I discovered that on a lot of it, it was a rhythmic thing. There is an awkwardness that I thought might have something to do with the melody, and it had more to do with the phrasing. And it turns out that it's actually had a positive effect on me doing old songs live.

CR: How's it been going down?

Cornell: Everybody responds great to it. Part of that is just because it adds an energy and a texture to the live show that's otherwise not there at all. I did eight shows playing just Scream from beginning to end.

 

Chris Cornell Fan Page © Clare O'Brien 2009