ALICE IN CHAINS Drummer: 'People Don't Value Music The Way They Used To'

Natalie Zina Walschots of Exclaim.ca recently conducted an interview with ALICE IN CHAINS drummer Sean Kinney. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

Exclaim.ca: I've just found it fascinating how you have resisted labeling, and despite how long you have been around, how consistently hard it is to apply a single label to ALICE IN CHAINS. You seem determined to occupy a very nebulous space between several genres. Is that one of the strengths of the band?

Kinney: I would say this, after being in this band for a long time: the reason that it's one of our strengths is that you're only shiny and new once, and then people like to move on and find another new thing. But because we've always focused on songwriting and melody, and we're a very vocal-based band. I mean, to me, the heaviest song we've ever written was "Nutshell", which is also our quietest song. It's the content of what we're saying and what we're doing that makes us heavy. One thing I will say about being somewhat metal is this: metal fans are the best. They fucking live and breathe it, and they're dedicated, and they support the fucking bands that they love. They're not trend-hopping hipsters, trying to find the new hot thing to follow to impress people, they are dedicated to what they love. And because there is a set of them who find something in our music that they dig, they stay with it and they support it. That never gets lost on us. Even when we were super hip in like 1990 or whatever, a lot of the bands around us don't exist anymore, but we do.

Exclaim.ca: So you credit your particular fan base with the fact that you have been able to continue to find success.

Kinney: Of course, I think a lot of bands would have a better chance of surviving and sticking it out a little longer if the music industry wasn't so screwed up. People don't value music the way they used to; they don't even buy it. So if it doesn't take up your energy and your time and doesn't mean more to you than filing up gigabytes on your phone, then it devalues the whole thing. There are all these bands now who don't have the chance to become a better band, to grow, because it's financially impossible to continue. You can't survive in this business. So, when METALLICA and these bands who still play big stadium shows, real rock shows that aren't radio shows or have like 50 bands, when they can't do it anymore, who is going to take their place? No one. Rock doesn't have a place like it did in the '80s and '90s. It's all going back underground. The rest of it is all [Justin] Bieber all the time.

Read the entire interview from Exclaim.ca.