Soundgarden bassist Ben Shepherd has offered an extensive update on the band’s highly anticipated and long-delayed final studio album featuring the late frontman Chris Cornell. Speaking to Bass Magazine, Shepherd confirmed that the band is back in the studio with acclaimed producer Terry Date—who helmed their classic records Louder Than Love and Badmotorfinger—and described the experience of building tracks around Cornell‘s final vocal recordings as both “exciting” and deeply emotional.
The long-awaited seventh album was stalled for years due to legal disputes with the Cornell estate, but with those issues resolved, the surviving members—Shepherd, guitarist Kim Thayil, and drummer Matt Cameron—are now fleshing out the material.
Shepherd provided a status report on the recording process:
“Matt’s drums are pretty much done. Kim goes in and records for a week, and then I come in and record my parts, and we swap back and forth… We’re making good progress and have a big portion of the album completed.”
He stressed that the structure of the album is entirely dictated by the demos Cornell left behind, a process that is both challenging and rewarding.
“Yeah, we’re taking these ideas that we wrote with him and are finally recording them and completing them. These songs are already set — they’re what we have to work with — because of Chris’ vocal tracks. We’re just filling everything out around them. Even Chris’ scratch vocals are good enough to make an album; his voice was always remarkable. And thanks to these recordings, we can finally finish this record.”
Shepherd expressed his astonishment at the power of the new material once the full band’s tracks were laid down, an energy that was not apparent in the rough demos.
“A few weeks ago was the very first time I got to go in and lay down some bass tracks… It went from rough takes and scattered ideas and all of a sudden Kim’s guitars are on there with Matt’s drums, Chris’ vocals, and my new bass lines. It’s Soundgarden. It was such a cool feeling. The one word that summed it all up for me was “mighty.””
He went on to describe the intensity of the new songs:
“Kim and I both thought there were no real rocking tracks on this album, but nope. We all got on there and once they got fleshed out, they’re way bigger and more powerful than we imagined. It’s all really exciting… These songs have been flooring me with how powerful they are.”
While the work in the studio is progressing, the bassist also reflected on the bittersweet reality of finishing what is effectively the band’s last record with their frontman. He confessed the process has amplified his grief.
“Finishing this album totally makes me miss Chris more.”
Shepherd also opened up about his feelings regarding the band’s future, acknowledging that the completion of the record raises difficult questions:
“The other day it dawned on me again, on a deeper level, that the minute we’re done with this record and the minute I play my final note on it, does that mean we’re never going to do it again? What does this mean? Without Chris we aren’t Soundgarden. Who knows, maybe selfishly we’ll just keep tracking the record so that we can keep working on it and preserving the moment in time.”
However, he asserted that their recent induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the album’s creation is not an endpoint for the surviving members.
“I mean, this isn’t over; as a band we’re still going, and we have more to say and more happening in the future. We’re not done just because we’re in the Hall of Fame — we’re still playing. This isn’t the end of the road for us.”
The band has intentionally avoided setting a release date for the album to ensure the creative process is not rushed. The seven known tracks slated for the album include:
“Road Less Traveled” (Chris Cornell/Matt Cameron)
“Orphans” (Chris Cornell/Matt Cameron)
“At Ophians Door” (Chris Cornell/Matt Cameron)
“Cancer” (Chris Cornell)
“Ahead Of The Dog” (Chris Cornell/Kim Thayil)
“Mermas” (Chris Cornell/Ben Shepherd)
“Stone Age Mind” (Chris Cornell)
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