Soundgarden are well and truly back! With a slew of dates this summer and a new album on the horizon, there is no doubt that the grunge forefathers are back to their Grammy Award winning best.
Kim Thayil, guitarist and co-founder of the Seattle-based band has been speaking with the Washington Examiner about the groups forthcoming album and what instigated one of the biggest comebacks of the new millennium.
"I guess there never really was a definitive point when we said we are back together," he said. "We started working on various projects, initially attending to the business side of things ... and the rumors started that we were reunited. Those rumors generated offers for us to get together. When we got together and jammed ... it just felt natural."
The as-yet untitled new album will be their first since 1996's 'Down Upside Down' LP and even after 15 years and much in-house turmoil, Thayil says the creative energy that the band always had is still fully in place, he said:
"We don't force anything, there is a natural interest in what we have in music, and that has certainly changed in the past 12 years. All of us have grown but it's a lot like putting on a nice pair of shoes and jeans that you wore [years before]. They still fit the same, but now there are more contours."
The new album, which is expected to be released in early 2012, will take Soundgarden into a new dimension whilst not straying too far from the proven Soundgarden formula, claims Thayil, he said:
"We have a number of fast songs and heavy songs and a few ballady things, but there is nothing that strays far from what Soundgarden has established in history," Thayil said. "There's definitely a bit of a different feel."
Soundgarden are currently midway through their North American trek and are expected to finish up at The Gorge in Washington on July 30th.