Alice In Chains Reflect On A Life Spent Making Music With Friends

In 2018, bands airing albums in their entirety live has become an often tired, over-used marketing exercise designed to coax even the most jaded fan to put their hand into their pocket to purchase a ticket. Despite having classics like 1992's Dirt in their catalogue, Seattle heavy rockers Alice In Chains have thus far refrained from doing the same.

"I think probably because everybody else has done it, so what's the point?" guitarist/co-vocalist Jerry Cantrell laughs, speaking from Los Angeles, when quizzed about why they haven't pursued such endeavours. "It's cool, I get it. I've seen Metallica do it, I've seen other bands do it, when you get the whole fucking record within a set. And it's fucking cool, man, I dig it. So it's not something that I think is a bad thing. I don't know why we haven't, but I think what we try to do, we'll try to grab a little bit from each era. We play a song or two from each record. When we tour we try to throw in a couple of new tunes, or a couple of old tunes that we haven't played in a long time. I guess we like to cover the whole spectrum. And the more records you make, the harder that fucking is," he laughs again.

It's that desire to acknowledge their past - including the contributions of late members, vocalist Layne Staley and bassist Mike Starr, both of whom eventually succumbed to drug addiction - while forging ahead that drives the quartet. Creating new music remains a high priority for the group, whose current line-up also includes founding drummer Sean Kinney alongside long-time bassist Mike Inez and vocalist/guitarist William DuVall.

Alice In Chains' sixth full-length and first in five years, Rainier Fog, marks their first time recording in the band's hometown of Seattle in more than 20 years (the title is even a tribute to the city). They recorded at Studio X, the same facility where they tracked 1995's self-titled album when the studio was known as Bad Animals. The recording process also resulted in the band spending time in Los Angeles and Nashville.

Kinney still resides in Seattle, and Cantrell has a place there and in LA. However, the latter insists Seattle is still very much home. "Wherever you were born and you grew up, it doesn't matter where you move to, that's always going to be your home. It's always home; Seattle's always home.

"It just felt right to record there. There wasn't any, it wasn't like a boycott of Seattle before," the guitarist laughs. "We hadn't had the opportunity to do it. Studio X is in the band's history and DNA - we recorded the self-titled record there. Sean brought up the idea of recording out there and bringing the guys to Seattle for the summer. It sounded like a great idea, and I'm really glad we did. Just that step to kind of hunker down in the city for three or four months and fucking work out a record... It left an indelible mark on the record I think. The song Rainier Fog and later us titling the record that, it all lines up and makes sense in hindsight."

The LP's title track is a tribute to the city's local scene that launched the first wave of grunge bands, including Alice In Chains, Soundgarden, Mudhoney and Nirvana. "Writing lyrics, it's a personal thing... It doesn't really matter if you don't know exactly what I was talking about, or what Layne was talking about or what William's talking about as lyrical writers in the band. What matters I guess is what it means to you. Just regular shit, you know? Regular shit, things you think, things you feel and experience, things that happen to you and happen to other people. You can also write in character. You don't have to write from yourself all the time, that's fun to do too. Take on a different persona, or write a creative narrative. I come at writing sometimes from like a collage aspect; a little of this, a little of that. It's not such a linear path."

Perhaps as a result of these factors, the new album is akin to classic Alice In Chains, retaining that distinctive, harmony-drenched sound that transcends trends. "It's something that you can never really plan for, or expect," Cantrell says of The Music's suggestion that their fare enjoys a timeless quality. "I'm so happy that this is the case, and I feel really grateful to have been in a band with some of the coolest fucking human beings I've ever fucking known. And I'm still in a band with my fucking friends, and we're still making music. It matters to us like it mattered when we were kids. We're just trying to make the best fucking music that we think is good. I always say we try to make records that we want to hear, that if we weren't in this band, this is what I would like to hear and I would think, 'This band is kickass. This is the band I would support.' So I look at it from that way, and I think the other guys do too."

They've sold more than 30 million albums, so said approach clearly resonated. "The thing you can never account for is the fact that on doing that, it has spoken to multiple generations, and the music has gone all over the world. So it means just as much to somebody else as it means to you, and that's just pure fucking luck. Hard work and talent is involved for sure, but it's mostly luck. We found our people, and they continue to support us. As long as it's good to continue and we feel like we're making music at the highest level we ever have, which this record absolutely is, and people still want to fucking see us rock out, then we'll keep doing it."