Soundgarden - rock group - Interview

Interview, March, 1994 by Steven Blush

SB: You've toured with many big arena bands like Metallica and Guns N' Roses. Have any of those experiences taught you what you don't want to be?

CC: We learned that it isn't necessary to be what those situations create. It isn't necessary to be an untouchable rock-icon guy surrounded by bodyguards and be ushered in and out and have everyone do everything for you. It isn't necessary to change the way you present your band to the public just because you're successful. That happened a lot in the '80s: there was a school of thought that said people would like you more if you acted like you were the unattainable star. Right now it's turned around the other way. It's like, "I like him because he's the type of person I can sit and talk to," as opposed to being attracted to a band because they're better looking than you and have more women around them and really nice cars and motorcycles.

SB: What do you see as the next wave of rock fashion?

KT: There's a neobeatnik trend going on. Short hair, thick-rim glasses. Coffee-shop intellectuals. People are going to start collecting Boys' Life magazines and stuff - the "I smoke filterless cigarettes and drink too much coffee" trip. The people I see adopting that trip are people who separate themselves from grunge culture in Seattle. People on Sub Pop are much too sophisticated to look like animals. If there was any point to grunge, it was functional clothing. You wear shoes that you can do work in.

SB: You've played on many benefit records. Why did you choose these particular causes? Do you ever feel they divert you from making your own albums?

KT: The fact of the matter is that we get asked all the time. But there're these causes where people are like, "What can you do for us? You guys have success and stature; you can make money for us and at the same time present yourselves to the public as altruistic and civic-minded." So it's an exchange. I don't mind looking altruistic and civic-minded if we're actually being that way.

SB: Chris, how does it work being married to your manager [Susan Silver]? Is it ever like Spinal Tap?

CC: Not really. It's more of a push-and-pull thing. Sometimes she'll do something the band doesn't agree with, and I'll get defensive of her; and then the band will do something she doesn't like, and I'll get defensive of the band. It's not just my problem; everybody has to try to be sensitive to the fact that that's the situation. It's got to be hard for everyone at some point or another. I'm proud that it works as well as it does. Her being engrossed in the music business as her job and my trying to avoid it are the biggest obstacles to having a normal relationship.

SB: Did you cut your hair because you were worried about becoming a parody of yourself?

CC: I don't care what people think of me or for what reason they think of me. I don't feel like I don't know who I am to the degree that I have to change my hair to create a new me. But to answer your question, I still think I'll get a lot of chicks, but they will be divorcees, as opposed to riot grrrl chicks.