Alice In Chains reflect on grunge tragedies as band enjoy new success
The enduring grunge icons are back with their sixth studio album and a 'fresh energy'
THE book of grunge, littered as it is with self-loathing, drug abuse and suicide, was never tipped to have a happy ending.
But the enduring Alice In Chains — 30 years down the line and boasting a successful mid-life resurrection — are certainly challenging that preconception.
Those Seattle-based influencers of the early Nineties, with their unique, scruffy effortlessness, somehow managed to mainline their disaffected counter-culture directly into the mainstream.
Alongside Nirvana, Soundgarden and Pearl Jam, Alice In Chains’ grunge movement changed the face of rock as we knew it.
Yet decades later, the tragic legacy of early deaths within the scene continues with Soundgarden’s Chris Cornell and Stone Temple Pilots’ Scott Weiland joining Nirvana’s Kurt Cobain and Alice In Chains’ own Layne Staley as casualties.
Grunge guitar god Jerry Cantrell and the resurrection man William DuVall are kicking back before the show in sun-soaked Milan when I catch up with them to discuss their upcoming sixth studio album, Rainier Fog.
“It’s always heartbreaking when you lose people that were close to you — and all of those guys were dearly close to me,” Cantrell reflects, stroking his neatly trimmed grey goatee.
Leaning farther back on his blood-red couch, he continues: “I respected and learned a hell of lot from them.
“But you just try to weather it, you know? F*****g deal with it. The way I see it now is that I was lucky to have had that time with them.
“Feel the feelings, of course, but reflect on the good times, not the negatives, man.”
Filling the shoes of someone as iconic and well-loved as the band’s original frontman, Layne Staley — who struggled with drug addiction and depression before his untimely death in 2002 aged just 34 — was a tall order for the equally tall DuVall, 50.
“Oh, I got a lot of s**t,” he says. “Still do. But, you know, some people you’re never gonna please with anything you do. And that’s OK. I mean, it has to be OK.
“But if Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Bob Marley, Layne Staley, Kurt Cobain and Chris Cornell all came back from the beyond, cured world hunger, solved climate change and collaborated on the most amazing album, there would still be people on Facebook bitching about it. So it is what it is.”
The lanky American with an awe-inspiring shock of prime-Hendrix hair has been a fixture in this resurrected band — following a hiatus after Staley’s death — for 12 years now as co-vocalist and rhythm guitarist.
But was it always as seamless a fit as it sounds on record and appears today in their laid-back demeanour?
DuVall rubs his chin slowly. “Twelve years, huh? In some ways it feels every bit of it but in other ways it feels like about five minutes. It’s been a hell of a ride, man.
“We’ve defied the odds and that makes for some real satisfaction,” he smirks.
Cantrell interjects: “Sure, it’s been a learning process, both ways — for him and us.
“But I wouldn’t say it was natural. We had to work at it. It was a big f*****g change.
“Alice In Chains is a thing and that thing has gotta be served, man. But we opened up to his ideas, too, and worked all that s**t out very early on.”
DuVall’s involvement has stepped up another level in Rainier Fog, too.
Cantrell states: “Just look at the song he wrote for this record, So Far Under — that’s one big f*****g Alice tune!”
“Yeah, people have said that,” DuVall concurs. “And that’s really cool, but I write for the unit — whether that’s consciously or unconsciously, I don’t know. But that song does have a real momentum of enthusiasm to it.”
This sixth album has brought the band back to its roots in a number of ways.
Not only in the title — a nod to Seattle’s Mount Rainier (and dodgy weather) — but recording it in the studio they used for their third and last album with Staley.
Cantrell explains: “Returning home and to Studio X came from a discussion I had with Sean (Kinney, the drummer).
“Basically, we heard it was likely to be shutting up shop soon. It wasn’t because of the parallels with recording William’s third album with us exactly where we did Layne’s third album back in 1995.
We realised that later, and it was like, woah! We thought memories of Layne would come flooding back in there but once we opened the door it was just a matter of going to work, man.”
Rainier Fog ushers in another subtle evolution in Alice In Chains’ sound.
But this time it’s a surprisingly upbeat one — a few of the tracks are almost positive in places.
Cantrell says: “The sentiment in Rainier Fog is all about home. It’s about the obscurity from where we came to rising above the clouds and the fog. But it’s not just looking back.
“There was no big plan. We had the tunes, we went to Seattle, and the album title just kinda lined itself up right there.
“I mean, you can see Mount Rainier from pretty much wherever you are in Seattle.”
Cantrell shuffles excitedly on his leather perch. “There’s a fresh energy to this album. I think it’s f*****g kick-ass.
“I can understand you feeling that positivity, too”, DuVall agrees. “But if I could attribute that character of this new album to anything, it would be to longevity, the fact that this band has not only been together but really worked hard those entire dozen years.
“And to that point we may have even outlasted the first incarnation of the group — the Layne Staley years.”
DuVall pauses and nods slowly: “Longevity denotes survival — and survival in the best sense of the word — survival as a celebration.”
As far as the actual process of making the album goes, Cantrell makes an emphatically simple case for it.
“We’ve never once sat down and had a meeting, made bullet points or stuff like that,” he says. “We just do what we do, what we’ve always done — making it up as we go along and writing our own script from day to day.”
Given the evident frailty of the grunge scene and the band’s own personal trials — even as far back as when they recorded debut Facelift — Cantrell always knew Alice In Chains would go the distance.
He says: “I always hoped I could steer the band right, maybe into a fourth decade like we’re in now.
“There were many times, though, when it looked like that wasn’t going to happen.
“But that’s the hope and the dream for you. There are no guarantees.”
He adjusts his unbranded baseball cap and adds: “As long as the four of us are OK then we’re f*****g good, no matter what happens, which makes the successes that much richer and the losses, well, OK.
“You make mistakes, big deal. You just don’t do them again.”
Off the back of an extensive American East Coast tour, Cantrell and company are currently rolling through Europe, having stopped by Shepherd’s Bush Empire, West London, for an intimate if roof-raising show.
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Cantrell says: “Touring Europe is always a little bit more work than doing it in the States. We move faster and have to jam more in.
“European crowds are just so f*****g cool — every country has a different flavour of fan.
“And sometimes, like in London, the crowd is louder than us. That’s a pretty electric feeling when you get back what you’re throwing at them.”
Cantrell, 52, admits he’s far from tired of touring, even though it’s still early days in a world tour that will see them sweep the US West Coast, South America and, possibly, Australia and Japan.
He says: “It does get tiring. It does get harder. We’re older guys now so we’ve got all that f*****g stretching, keeping in shape and getting rest to do.
“But then it always was hard, it’s just when you’re young you can take f*****g anything, you know? And you just don’t give a f***.”
“We’ve all wised up now. Well, William has never really had a problem actually — he still has a little wine once in a while, but Mike (Inez, bassist), Sean and I are all fully sober and working the gym,” Jerry adds, refraining from getting his guns out as proof.
Alice In Chains: Rainier Fog
1. The One You Know
2. Rainier Fog
3. Red Giant
4. Fly
5. Drone
6. Deaf Ears Blind Eyes
7. Maybe
8. So Far Under
9. Never Fade
10. All I Am
4/5
DuVall elaborates: “I’ve never confronted the same issues that these guys did in their earlier days so I’ll still grab a beer out on the riser from time to time, sure.
“I’ve never wanted to go too far down the rabbit hole with anything that had the slightest chance of taking my ability to play music away from me.
“If I couldn’t do this, there would be no reason for me to be here. I never want to look up and see there is no longer an exit.”
Saying that, it seems there are no exit signs right now for Alice In Chains.
The grunge legends rock Milan’s outdoor Carroponte, dialling into spine-tingling nostalgia while fusing their setlist with powerful new songs, including The One You Know — the crowd already singing the lyrics like they’ve known them all their lives.
Maybe the book of grunge might not end on such a downer after all.
- Alice In Chains’ album Rainier Fog is released on August 24.