"Success is really only a measure of what has
happened before," says Chris Cornell, who as singer
for Seattle's recently disbanded Soundgarden,
reintroduced integrity and reckless passion back into
the tired genre of hard rock. Though Soundgarden
split in 1997 at the height of their 12-year-career,
Cornell continues on in the tradition of breaking
boundaries and challenging traditions with his
daringly eclectic debut Euphoria Morning. "I don't
think you ever really reach a plateau where you're
good enough at your craft to just stop and rest on
past achievements. You always have to create
something new rather than borrow or lean on what
you've done in the past. It's like being a baby. You've
just been born and have totally new parameters. The
world is wide open."
Euphoria Morning is Cornell's rebirth into a new realm
of more experimental and emotional terrain. Using
Soundgarden's sonic diversity as a jumping off point,
the singer/songwriter explores more surreal musical
textures, esoteric studio techniques, emotional
lyricism and varied singing styles. "Suddenly I could
do anything I wanted, and that's kind of scary," says
Cornell of working solo. I became really inspired by
the Beatles, not so much their songwriting or sound,
but the fact that they were really diverse. They would
discover different styles and feelings, incorporate that
into what they did, and create an incredible landscape
of sounds. With Euphoria Morning, I felt like 'Let's not
just do it the normal way. Let's have an environment
that you put your hand into, your head into.
That sonic environment is big, lush and velvety in
"Can't Change Me, surreal and opiated in "Flutter
Girl," and seductively foreboding in "Follow My Way."
A plethora of subtle studio effects and layered
production add an enigmatic dimension to songs,
while the use of vintage guitar and amps give
Euphoria Morning an overall warm and familiar feel.
"Sweet Euphoria" is just Cornell with an acoustic
guitar; it's delicate, beautiful and biting, while numbers
like "Mission" reflect Cornell's hard rock origins and
newfound love for technological tweakings
Throughout Euphoria Morning he explores new vocal
possibilities, his voice stretching out over piano and
slow-hand guitar in bluesy and spiritual numbers like
"Disappearing One", then dipping and swaying with
the smoky-blue "When I'm Down. "I really love old
R&B ballads of the sixties, and wanted to sing in that
style," says Cornell. "In a way, it's like re-inventing the
wheel. How can I make it a little different? If I'm
influenced by something, I want to take it to another
place rather than emulate exactly what they did. With
Soundgarden, I assumed the role as another
instrument in the band: the lyrics I wrote were often
influenced by the mood of the music," says Cornell.
"With this solo record, the reverse would happen--the
music is tailored to the mood of the lyrics. Music is of
course important, but I wanted the lyrics and vocals to
be the central focus. Once the lyrics become the most
important point of songs, you can't really get more
personal than that."
"Wave Goodbye" is a prime example of that newfound
vulnerability. A tribute of sorts to the late singer Jeff
Buckley, Cornell sings sweet, simple and sorrow-filled
lines like: "When you miss somebody, you tell yourself
a hundred thousand times nobody ever lives forever."
"I wrote it right after he died," says Cornell. "The lyrics
are about Jeff, but also about losing someone, about
that experience. Lyrically, it's one of the most
straight-forward songs I've ever written." Working solo
allowed Cornell to work in a more spontaneous
fashion. Without the democratic band process, he
was able to freely explore the songwriting process,
savor the unconstrained beauty of mistakes and delve
deeper into his own emotional well. "There were many
moments where I'd sing something, and it didn't go the
way I planned," says Cornell. "My voice would do
something I didn't want it to, and there'd be a lot of
vulnerability in there," says Cornell. "I was really
self-conscious at first, then eventually, that mistake
would become my favorite part. That also happened
in writing lyrics. After a while, I had this system: If I
wrote a line, then questioned it 'Do I really want
people to hear me say that? Is that too personal?'
That moment of fear meant I should keep it. That
means it's powerful."
Cornell has been playing music ever since the age of
eight. As a boy growing up in Seattle, he took up the
piano and began composing his own "silly kid tunes."
He went on to discover guitar, and then drums. He
joined a cover band in high school ("AC/DC was a
requested favorite," recalls Cornell) and by his late
teens, met up with newly transplanted guitarist Kim
Thayil. They started Soundgarden (named after a
wind sculpture in outer Seattle) in 1984, and Cornell
took on the duties of drumming and singing. "It's hard
to sing when you're hitting the drums at warp speed,"
says Cornell. The band eventually settled with
drummer Matt Cameron, and Cornell focused on his
singing duties. Playing the same circuit that would
several years later be traveled by Nirvana and
Mudhoney, the band released 1987's Screaming Life
EP on the new label SubPop, and its LP debut the
following year, Ultramega OK, on another indie label
SST. Interest around the band began spreading
outside the confines of the Northwest, just as their
A&M debut Louder Then Love was released in 1989.
The band toured non-stop, released Badmotorfinger
in 1991, then hit the big time with Superunknown and
its dynamic single "Black Hole Sun" in 1994.
Soundgarden kept up momentum with their most
experimental release, 1996's acclaimed Down on the
Upside. But the album would find the band grappling
with their imposed legendary status, a mantle of
importance proved too suffocating for Soundgarden.
They disbanded the following year, releasing the
best-of collection A-Sides (1997) as a goodbye of
sorts. According to Chris Cornell, Soundgarden's split
was an act of self-preservation. "A large part was that
we were so self-contained in the beginning, I don't
think we ever really adjusted to the success part of it,"
says the singer, who describes his former bandmates
in terms of family.
As he begins his long, solo career, Chris is working
outside the structure of Soundgarden. The singer
wrote most of the material on the critically acclaimed,
1991 album Temple of the Dog, a collective of Pearl
Jam and Soundgarden members who formed in
tribute to late Mother Love Bone singer Andrew
Wood. Chris's duet with Eddie Vedder, "Hunger
Strike," became a classic. With Euphoria Morning,
Cornell admits he missed the process of collaboration,
so he sought the writing and producing input of Alain
Johannes and Natasha Shneider. The three, who had
worked together on a song for the Great Expectations
soundtrack, made Euphoria Morning in Johannes's
LA-based, home studio. They recorded the entire
album digitally (no tape machine required), yet offset
the sharp precision of technology with the warm,
imperfect sounds of vintage '60s guitars, amps and
other equipment. "We had this old stuff filtering
through up-to-the-second technology," says Cornell.
"To me, it makes this record sound totally unique. I
think it's also proof that technology and rock music
are okay together. You don't have to be a techno or
hip hop artist to benefit from a new recording
environment. There's so much hesitance from people
who play organic music, but you don't have to make it
that way."
But for Cornell, the ultimate appeal of any album or
piece of music comes down to its emotional impact
and its effect in very human terms. "The only criteria I
apply when making music is 'Does it make the hair on
the back of my neck stand on end?'" says Cornell. "It
doesn't matter what style it is, what it reminds me of,
what it doesn't remind me of. If it doesn't give me that
feeling of inspiration, then it's not there yet. That's the
beauty of being able to do this as my job. It's
intangible. Nobody can tell me how to do it. I can't tell
anyone else how to do it. You have to invent it as you
go along. It's challenging, completely unpredictable
and sometimes frightening, but that's what makes it all
worthwhile."
Chris Cornell and his band will tour extensively
through the year 2000 to support Euphoria Morning.
His band includes Alain Johannes (guitars and
backing vocals), Natasha Shneider (keyboards and
backing vocals), Ric Markmann (bass) and Greg
Upchurch (drums).
