Soundgarden is currently working on a new album, their first since their 2012 comeback effort King Animal. In an interview with Billboard, frontman Chris Cornell shares an update on the progress of the band’s seventh studio record.
“We’re about halfway through writing the new album,” says Cornell. “We’re not on a schedule.”
What Soundgarden does have scheduled, though, is a U.S. headlining tour, which kicks off later this month.
“What I look forward to the most — because I tour so much, especially the last couple of years, by myself — is the camaraderie,” Cornell says of the tour. “It’s what we missed when we weren’t a band. When I do solo tours, I’m really kind of alone all the time, so that’s the best thing about it.”
Outside of Soundgarden, Cornell released a new solo song, called “The Promise,” last month. He recorded the track for an upcoming film about the Armenian genocide, also called The Promise.
“I’d love to be able to have the effect of [The Promise] not just represent a century ago, but bring it into now,” Cornell tells Billboard. “When people get done watching the film, rather than think, ‘Wow, what a horrendous thing that happened a century ago,’ realize that it is happening now, realize the film [is] telling a true story and you’re seeing how it was created.”
Cornell adds that he had “daymares” from the research he did on the Armenian genocide.
“Especially seeing some of the images and some of the documentary footage,” he says. “You can’t unsee it.”
The Promise, which stars Oscar Isaac and Christian Bale, opens in theaters this Friday, April 21.
