Everybody Loves Our Town_ An Oral History of Grunge - Mark Yarm [133]
We realized that we needed to get off PolyGram. We wanted to be on Sony, and they wanted us, so we figured out who the attorney was that had gotten Rick Dobbis, the new president of PolyGram, his gig and we hired him as our attorney. We asked the attorney, “Will you please help us get off PolyGram? Our singer died, we don’t have a future.” We didn’t tell him about our demos or anything. The attorney goes, “If you meet him face-to-face, he’ll let you go.” So we went back to New York, and me, Jeff, and Stone went to PolyGram, and Rick Dobbis said, “I release you.”
We had already set up a secret meeting downtown with Michele and Michael, and we get there to have dinner with them. We already knew we had Eddie. We had the demo. So we go to meet Michael and Michele for dinner, and Rick Dobbis just happens to walk in right before we’re gonna meet them. We’re going, “Oh, shit, if he sees Michele and Michael here, we’re gonna be screwed.” So Rick Dobbis asks us, “How was dinner?” He thought we had already eaten. We said, “Great,” and we got up and left and cut off Michael and Michele down the road a bit. If he would have seen us meeting with Michael and Michele, he might have known that we weren’t being truthful. Yeah, close call.
JERRY CANTRELL Within our own community, there was always a little bit of nose snubbing. When we were coming up, it gave us more impetus. We were inspired by all of those bands, especially by Soundgarden, but we have our own voice. Seattle wasn’t like a lot of musical communities I’ve seen where everybody is doing what’s hot. We were all rocking, and it was hot, but nobody was trying to cop someone else’s thing. It was a respectful competition.
GRANT ALDEN There were a series of bands who saw what was working and began to try to do that. I think Alice in Chains was one of them. It doesn’t mean they were without talent, but it meant in some ways that they were without heart or without soul.
It’s indicative of my impotence as a rock critic that Alice in Chains had a career, because I did my level best not to do anything on them at The Rocket, to squash them. I’ve always said this as a joke—it is somewhat true, nevertheless—my mother’s name is Alice, so their band name always pissed me off. Beyond that, they were a suburban metal band and decided that they would be Soundgarden Jr. We called them Kindergarden.
MARK ARM Everyone came from different backgrounds. There’s no kind of purity test. I think that’s retarded. Alice in Chains were definitely better than some of the punk bands that were happening in town.
DAVE HILLIS I think Alice in Chains’ change in sound was natural. I don’t think they jumped on a bandwagon. I remember the first demo they did with Rick Parashar at London Bridge, before I worked there, sounded so good; it sounded like a record. They weren’t hair metal, and they weren’t quite the Alice you know.
NICK TERZO As a singer, Layne just had power. Combine that with the unusual sweetness of Jerry’s voice laying down melody, and that was unusual at the time. Most of those vocal parts were contrasting each other—there was give-and-take between the two of them—while every other band at that point was just singing choruses together.
DAVE HILLIS The most drastic change with Alice really came when they started using Dave Jerden as a producer. When they recorded with him at London Bridge, I was able to be there sometimes. What I noticed was that Dave Jerden slowed their tempos down, which made it sound heavier, and that’s what they’re most known for.
DAVE JERDEN (producer) For Facelift, they got me a condo down by Puget Sound, and we did all the basic tracks at London Bridge. I was just amazed how great Jerry was and Layne was. Sean’s arm was broken, so I tried to use the drummer from Mother Love Bone, but he couldn’t play the backbeat parts, so Sean ended up playing the drums with a broken arm, and it came out