CHRIS CORNELL Balancing SOUNDGARDEN With Solo Career

March 11, 2011

The Pulse Of Radio reports: Although Chris Cornell has begun recording a new album with SOUNDGARDEN for the first time in 15 years, he continues to work as a solo artist as well. Cornell will head out on a solo acoustic tour beginning April 1 in Austin, Texas, and he told Spin.com how it's different from playing with a band. "An acoustic show is all about you, and any little nuance or mistake is amplified," Cornell explained. "I'm very nervous about it, but I love the intimacy. Once you sit in front of people and start playing songs, it's all on you. No matter what happens, it's entirely your responsibility the entire time. I like that intensity."

Cornell told The Pulse Of Radio that he sees working with SOUNDGARDEN again as having a positive influence on his solo career. "One thing about a solo artist is you can just be in a room way too long with yourself and your own thoughts and your own songs, and it feels really good to be working with Ben (Shepherd, bassist) and Matt (Cameron, drummer) and Kim (Thayil, guitarist) again, and it's actually a really nice reprieve also from just being alone, doing what I do," he said. "It's helping with the balance, I think, too."

When asked by Spin.com why SOUNDGARDEN never did an episode of "MTV Unplugged" during the band's heyday, he replied, "It's not who we were. It would have been kind of silly, and, truthfully, a lot of them were silly. "

Cornell has issued three solo albums. The last one, 2009's "Scream", was trashed by critics and fans for abandoning Cornell's rock roots for an urban pop sound.

Matt Cameron told Billboard.com last week that SOUNDGARDEN has 12 to 14 songs almost ready to go for its first album since 1996's "Down On The Upside".

SOUNDGARDEN announced that it was reuniting in January 2010, but has kept a relatively low profile since then. The band played last August's Lollapalooza and a handful of surprise club gigs, but has not done a full tour.

The group released a compilation called "Telephantasm" last September and will issue its first concert album, "Live On I5", on March 22.

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