At the time of his tragic death in 2017, Chris Cornell had been working on a new album with Soundgarden. Since then, the grunge icons have been ploughing ahead with the album’s production, in a bid to finish the final instalment of Cornell (and, very likely, Soungarden itself’s) musical legacy.
But it now looks as though the LP may not ever see the light of day, due to the band being barred access to Cornell’s original vocal demos.
In a new interview with Music Radar, guitarist Kim Thayil says the files are being withheld by unnamed parties.
“Right now, that’s all kind of stalled,” Thayil explains. “We tried to get this going two years ago, but we’re not in possession of any of the demos that Chris was working on with them.
“We have copies of them, but what we need are the files, so that we’d be able to overdub and finish the record. We are not in possession of those.”
He continues: “We’ve asked nicely, we’ve suggested that this will benefit all parties, if the band could just have these files, and we could finish the songs we were working on.
“But there seems to be some confusion amongst various parties as to what that would entail and how that works, and who that would benefit. And it’s been tiring, you know. And we can’t move on until some future date when someone realizes the value of allowing the creative partners to have access to the material.”
Thayil also clarifies that the demos in question are album-quality, thanks to Cornell and drummer Matt Cameron’s pro home recording set-up.
Let’s hope this situation can be resolved quick-smart.
For now, fans can look forward to an anniversary package for their Louder Than Love LP, which turns 30 on September 5th.
This year, the band have also launched their 35th anniversary vinyl reissue series.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TfsgVedtdl4
