SOUNDGARDEN's CHRIS CORNELL On 'Live To Rise', Next Album And Illegal Music Downloading

Todd Martens of the Los Angeles Times recently conducted an interview with vocalist Chris Cornell of reunited grunge legends SOUNDGARDEN. A couple of excerpts from the chat follow below.

On "Live To Rise", the first new SOUNDGARDEN song in almost 16 years, which was written specifically for "Marvel's The Avengers", the superhero team-up movie coming out on May 4:

Cornell: "In the grand scheme of things, the record business is completely different than it was when we last put out a record. In other words, there needs to be some tie-in [today]. Without one, it's great that you made a record and recorded a song, but no one's going to hear it — have a nice day. The problem, really, isn't so much as finding a tie-in, but finding one you can get behind, where you can feel 100 percent comfortable that there is a partner."

"A lot of the other tie-ins that someone may propose to a band sitting in the room are not so great. They don't ring so well in your ears, especially if you're a rock band that started as an indie band and you've been around for over 25 years. It takes some getting used to, some of these concepts, like you go out on and tour and they try to put a banner from a cellphone company somewhere near your stage.

"So this was the best possible result of having a partnership. This is a movie that's part of a series that we all like, and part of a history of Marvel that we all like."

On whether "Live To Rise" is a good indication of what SOUNDGARDEN's new album will sound like:

Cornell: "It sounds kind of stripped down and more streamlined than a lot of other songs we've been writing. But if you take any song out of context, from any one of our albums, going all the way back to our first Sub Pop EP, it's not going to tell you anything about the songs around it. We're just that way. This would fit on our record ... but if there's a way that it stands apart, this is fairly rhythmically straightforward."

On how illegal music downloading and diminishing record affected the music business:

Cornell: "People have had to figure out how to go back into their garages and make a record without having to spend a half of a million dollars. That was never necessary, anyway, and everyone is figuring that out now. It's similar to shooting a video. The last big-budget video I did was for $1 million, and that was in AUDIOSLAVE. It didn't look like it needed to cost that much."

Read the entire interview at the Los Angeles Times.