JERRY'S 'LIVE IN TORONTO' INTERVIEW
Interviewed by Kim Hughes
Produced and aired by 102.1 The Edge • February 4, 1998
Kim: [...] Welcome back to the program, I'm Kim and the first week of April, on CD, and the last week of March on vinyl you can get the debut solo album from Jerry Cantrell, who you probably know as the guitar player and songwriter from Alice In Chains and he's here with us now. Make him feel at home.
[applause]
Jerry: Thank you!
Kim: Good evening.
Jerry: Good evening to you.
Kim: Thank you very much for coming by.
Jerry: No problem...
Kim: So I mentioned that the record is coming out on vinyl first. Are you one of those guys who loves vinyl, who loves warmer, more organic kind of feel to it?
Jerry: First, I'd just like to say thanks to everybody for coming out, it's a very nice surprise. And yeah... I miss the big piece of vinyl, especially I think the artwork really suffers on a CD format and, although I guess that a lot of people don't have too much use for it, we try to throw something out for every record.
Kim: With respect to this album for the songwriting, where did this stuff come from? Is it stuff that has been kicking around for a while, did you have a kind of an enforced wood-shedding period?
Jerry: I kinda did some sheddin', I did my sheddin'. We went in and started recording it last April, and did rehearsals for it in March. It took us until November to finish it, although we took quite a few breaks in between... and I spent probably about seven months beforehand collecting all the material, writing. There are two tracks on the album, Settling Down and Hurt A Long Time, which reach back to maybe a couple of years ago, and those were actually introduced on the Dog record sessions, the 'Alice In Chains' record, and... Alice never really bid on them so those are the two that have probably been around the longest and the rest have been written since then.
Kim: For those listening, I should mention the album is called 'Boggy Depot'...
Jerry: ...That's right...
Kim: ...and as a vocalist, when you were stepping up to the mic, did you feel confident? You've always been a kind of a closet singer, a guy singing in the shower... did you have any kind of training or?..
Jerry: Well, I sang all along with Alice and as each record has progressed, I have actually taken leads a lot more, progressively. So I guess it's a natural thing... but I had no burning desire to be up front, I'm much more happy just to sit back and play guitar, pipe up every once in a while and write some tunes but... that's how it all worked out and... it's a challenge, it's cool.
Kim: The album was recorded in Sausalito, from what I gather, a beautiful sort of bedroom community, and was that a result of a fact that you're maybe based or living in San Francisco now? Or did you just want to get out of Seattle and just have a different place to be?
Jerry: I think I just wanted to get down and get some sunshine... [laughs]. It was during the summer time and I guess I missed a really nice one in Seattle... but we ended up coming back to Seattle to finish it up. We cut the basic tracks in a place called Studio D, in Sausalito, it's just down the road from the Record Plant, and we actually recorded there for a week as well. Then came home and recorded at Studio X in Paradise Sound in Index, Washington. I think I just wanted to travel a little bit while we recorded it and I just kind of had that in mind. I think at one point we were actually gonna go to Switzerland, but it ended up being too expensive, so we went to Sausalito instead.
Kim: Well the thing is, when you're in a place like Switzerland, you're gonna have a million distractions because it's like a two hour drive to Italy, from certain places... or how do you justify staying in this little country when you can drive two or three hours in any direction and be in another fabulous country.
Jerry: Well, I mean [a short pause], I never really though about that [laughs]. When you're doing a record though, trust me, that is the only thing on your mind and it becomes kind of all encompassing... at least for me... it's almost like a torture, I guess [laughs], in a way. It can be a lengthy process and especially, especially when you do what I was doing, I was wearing a lot of hats and I had a lot more responsibilities on all fronts. You know, it's my name on the line, my ass was on the line, so to speak, and when you're working on that record, you're not doing much else. You have a couple of days when you go out and maybe blow some steam off and have some fun, but... when you're in, you're in... until it's done.
Kim: We're speaking to Jerry Cantrell and we have a bunch of people waiting on the line, but maybe we should just play a song from the record and then come back and take some phone calls. From the forthcoming 'Boggy Depot', this is Jerry Cantrell on 102.1 The Edge. Jerry: Cool...
[Cut You In]
Kim: Music from Jerry Cantrell on 102.1 The Edge, that single is Cut You In and you can find it on 'Boggy Depot' which is coming out in April on CD and on vinyl at the end of March, March 31st I believe is the date. We're gonna take a very, very, very short break and take some phone calls right after this.
[A not-so-very-very-very-short-break]
Kim: We have a bunch of callers on the line and let's not make them wait any longer, we will go first to Sean, say hello to Jerry Cantrell.
Sean: Hi Jerry, I'd like to ask you something you probably get asked a lot but what are the other guys up to... Alice In Chains? And would there be sometime in future, far or near, another album or possible tour?
Jerry: OK. Well, Sean and I did this record and Mike is touring, with Ozzy right now; and Layne is home writing. He's been working in his home studio for a while. And... you know, we've been kind of slowly moving towards where we're at right now which is... a kind of a non-place, if you will, taking it easy. We've been together for eleven years and we've done a lot of really cool stuff... together and... I think in any band, you come to a point where it's time to try some new things, but at the same time, we've never publicly stated that we're over... and I won't do that now. Who knows?... I think that's a very high possibility but for the mean time, I've got some time to work with here, and everybody is keeping busy so, in one form or another, we're still doing what we always do and hopefully some time in the future that could happen again... yes.
Sean: Do you think it is possible to do a tour with the solo album?
Jerry: Oh it's definitely more than possible, it's already in the works... we'll be auditioning people and... Actually I've been doing press since Thursday, in New York, and I've got a date today here and tomorrow, and one day in San Diego and then we go immediately to auditions; and we shoot a video for the song you've just heard, Cut You In, the following weekend. We'll be out there, we'll be out playing, we'll be doing the full thing so I'm sure we'll be getting near you soon.
Kim: Thank you very much for the phone call Sean. I know that lyrics are subjective, certainly, you can look at them in different ways, and there's one song in particular on the record that kind of stuck me lyrically, Devil By His Side, which seems to be chronicling a fellow who's got a problem, a sad sort of situation that he's facing; and when you were writing lyrics was it sort of cathartic for you, was it a way of being able to work out some of the issues that you maybe had relationship-wise with your, you know, bandmates?..
Jerry: Well, that song is pretty personal to me, I wrote... I write a lot of my songs from my own standpoint. You may think I'm maybe talking about a lot of other people, but most of the times I'm just talking about me. I write about things that are close to me, I find it's best to go with the things that you know, it comes across a lot better and that's just the way I've always worked so... I hope the songs come off a lot more personal. The thing is, is we all go through the same stuff, everybody goes through the same hurdles and goes through the same kind of losses and tough times, maybe at different times maybe at different field, but I think it's not too uncommon for anyone to feel some of the feelings we put down in the music. And... that song to me is about moving on, picking up and crossing a hurdle, and moving on.
Kim: Why don't we take another call... and our next caller is Nick. Hello...
Nick: Hello, I've been listening to you guys since I was ten years old, that's when 'Facelift' came out, in 90... right? And... I was wondering if you guys are gonna be coming out with a new album after you're done with your solo project?
Jerry: I just kind of answered that question which is, for the mean time, no... and probably not for some time but... that's a possibility. A lot of speculation has been made in the press about us and we've chosen not to comment on that, we think that's a bit below us, it gets a little ridiculous, you know... you have to take it with a grain of salt. There may be a small amount of actual facts in what you hear, but generally, it's overblown hot air. Again, that possibility could happen, but it won't happen for a while.
Kim: Thanks for the call though, Nick. Well, let's end it on a positive note, you're touring this record, it's coming out in April. And, while touring, you'll probably have to be addressing some Alice In Chains material live, I mean, you've prepared for the inevitable callout?
Jerry: I've thought about it and I don't know... we'll just see how it goes. I haven't really talked to the guys about the fact of playing any Alice stuff live. There's probably a couple that we could pull out but I don't think I would feel comfortable doing something that we collaborated on... but maybe some songs that I wrote... possibly... who knows? I haven't really given it that much thought, we're not to that point yet until... until a couple of days... and once we get into it... I'm expecting that. I mean that's where we come from, that's where I come from and I'm not ashamed of that fact one bit. There's some good music there and if it worked out where everybody in the band was comfortable with that happening, I'd have no hesitation of playing those songs. They're good songs and they deserve to be played but... I have no intention of overloading on it... one or two somewhere...
Kim: So once again I want to mention that the album is out April the 7th, I believe. We can not play another song from it, so we're gonna play the song that you did for 'The Cable Guy' soundtrack... Again, thanks to Jerry Cantrell...
Jerry: Thank you, thank you very much.
[Leave Me Alone]
