Chris Cornell revisits rock roots with solo album ‘Carry On’

Chris Cornell

Chris Cornell always has had the aura of a stranger in a strange land, his lyrics marinated in alienation, his glass-shattering voice sounding as if it were beamed in from some alternate dimension where Robert Plant sires future rock gods.

Cornell has made a career out of being an outsider, a rock star who doesn't really carry himself like one, an approachable loner who's as easy to talk to as an old college buddy you used to do beer bongs with.

But in recent years, this once-brooding singer, who at times has seemed like a foreigner in his own skin, has become a foreigner for real, relocating to Paris, where he currently resides with his wife and young daughter.

"It's made life more interesting, I think," Cornell says, ruminating on the difference between living in America and France. "It's just relaxed, and that can be a great thing for an American -- and it can also drive an American crazy. We're not used to waiting for things, and we're not used to just kind of drinking in what's going on around us and getting on with our day. If you're in a shop, it's like, 'I came in here to buy a pack of gum, I don't want to be here all day, buying a pack of gum, let's go.' "

"But you get used to that," he adds. "And I think that there's something to be said for the idea that life is for living, it's not for investing virtually 100 percent of your time and effort into getting ahead in life so that you can then enjoy the future at some point, which usually doesn't happen."

Nevertheless, Cornell still identifies more with the American side of things, his career in near-constant motion.

After six years and three albums, he recently left alt-rock supergroup Audioslave, which paired him up with a trio of former Rage Against the Machine members.

"I think there are a lot of different reasons," Cornell says of his decision to split with the band. "If you want to look at the musical reason, we were so prolific and wrote so many songs in a short period of time, to go make a fourth record, we'd really have to reinvent ourselves. For me to be interested, we'd have to start writing in a different fashion, and I'm so happy with experimenting with music on my own and writing songs, that I'd really rather spend my time doing that.

"Then, there's an aspect of being in a band where there's political arguments and business arguments," he continues. "Audioslave was no different. At this point in my life, I didn't want to deal with that either. We were running into some unresolvable issues, apparently, and that was part of it as well."

This isn't Cornell's debut as a solo artist.

After his first band, moody Seattle rockers Soundgarden, disbanded in 1996, Cornell struck out on his own, issuing the dusky "Euphoria Morning," an album that sampled everything from wide-eyed psychedelia to earthy blues. It was an eclectic effort that pointedly eschewed the kind of guitar-driven riff rock that Cornell initially came to fame with, emphasizing texture and nuance over raw power.

With the new, aptly-titled "Carry On," due in June, Cornell is both revisiting his rock roots and continuing to probe a variety of musical tangents, the one constant being his fire-siren of a voice, one of rock's most distinctive and commanding instruments capable of vocal leaps and bounds.

The album's first single, "No Such Thing," is a driving rocker with growling guitars and dark-hued lyrics. "I saw a world that was beautiful," he sings on the slow-burning tune, "but the rain got in and ruined it all."

It's a forceful opening salvo on an album defined by its restlessness, veering from an unlikely cover of Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean" to the smoldering "You Know My Name," the title song for the recent James Bond flick "Casino Royale."

"It's similar to 'Euphoria Morning' in that there's a lot of different musical feelings on it," Cornell says of his new disc. "For me, I think it goes back to listening to the Beatles so much when I was a kid. Obviously, it was post-Beatles breakup, there was no hype surrounding them, they weren't really on the radio, so for me, it was this very personal experience. And the Beatles would incorporate anything they were a fan of into what they did. A guy like Paul McCartney was signing 'Yesterday' and 'Helter Skelter' in the same band. Nobody seemed to say, 'Hey, you can't do that.' I think that's always been kind of something that I've steered towards."

Cornell seems to be in good spirits as he talks up his new album. He's chatty and verbose, clearly enjoying the moment, which marks a fresh start for a guy tired of an old routine: namely, fronting big, bad rock groups.

"I'm at a point in my life when I just don't think I'm the kind of guy who should be in a band," Cornell explains. "I think it's time for me to just put out a string of solo records and get a lot of this out of my system. I'm still a guy who listens to music, I still listen to the radio, and this actually is a very exciting time in rock music. There are a ton of indie bands that are coming together with different influences in combinations and expressions that no one's done before. I want to be a part of that."