The seventh and final Soundgarden album is coming. But it looks unlikely that you’ll hear it this year, and certainly not before the band’s induction into the Rock N’ Roll Hall Of Fame in November.
That’s according to Matt Cameron, anyway. In an interview with Billboard the drummer gave an update on the record fans have been waiting on for over a decade. “There’s not a set release date or anything as of yet. There were a couple schools of thought, like, ‘Hey, let’s put out a single.’ I think eventually we decided we want to make sure the whole thing is completed before we start releasing singles. I’m excited for people to hear it.”
The delays are believed to be largely as a result of the legal wrangling that took place between the three surviving members of the band – Cameron, guitarist Kim Thayil and bassist Ben Shepherd - and Chris Cornell’s widow, Vicky Cornell. The band had been working on new material – seven new tracks, reputedly - prior to Cornell’s suicide in 2017, but were only able to return to the tapes once the legal issues were resolved in 2023.
The drummer said that recording the album had been emotionally draining for the remaining trio. “It’s been extreme highs and extreme lows,” he summarised. “Hearing [Cornell’s] voice on these powerful hard rock songs is the most empowering thing in the world for me. Then I listen to his voice solo-ed up when I’m working on stuff, or if Kim or Ben is working on something, and it all comes back to the fact that he’s not with us and he left us in a way that has so many questions. It’s been gut-wrenching but at the same time very empowering.”
Cameron quit his other band, fellow grunge legends Pearl Jam, in July, and told Billboard that it was an amicable parting of the ways. “I definitely gave them a lot of notice,” he said. “I’ve spoken with Jeff [Ament] and Stone [Gossard] a little bit… It’s been fine. Hopefully we’ll get back together at some point and have a beer or something.”
“I’m at a point in my life where I want to redirect my time and energy in a way that is a little bit based on what I want to pursue as an artist at this point,” he said. That, in the short term, includes a new band, Is This Real?, in which he’s stepped forward from behind the kit to provide vocals and guitar.
“I was having some issues with [Pearl Jam’s] three-hour shows and constant touring and stuff,” Cameron added. “That’s definitely an art form unto itself, to be able to do those types of shows… I’m at a point now where I want to do a face-melting 70-minute set, and that’s kind of what I’m focusing on right now.”
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