Bass Magazine | “Ben Shepherd: Soundgarden Lives On”
Photo: Jeffgarden.com
“Beyond his humility, Shepherd has always remained quiet when it comes to interviews and public appearances, which is why hearing him reflect now on his life in Soundgarden and love of music is all the more meaningful. Especially coming from a band that has so much more left to say.
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What stage is the Soundgarden album currently in?
Matt’s drums are pretty much done. Kim goes in and records for a week, and then I come in and record my parts, and we swap back and forth. I’m having a hard time trying to practice the parts at home. It used to be easy for me because I could just plop on headphones or crank it on the stereo, but it’s all digital now so I have to re-figure out how to even rehearse to it. We’re making good progress and have a big portion of the album completed. There’s one song that I need to talk to Matt and Kim about, but it’s ultimately done now. It’s always hard to decide when a track is officially finished in the studio, but as far as the rhythm section goes, we’re finished. Finishing this album totally makes me miss Chris more.
You must feel his presence while you’re in the studio. Are all of these songs based off what’s left of his vocal work?
Yeah, we’re taking these ideas that we wrote with him and are finally recording them and completing them. These songs are already set — they’re what we have to work with — because of Chris’ vocal tracks. We’re just filling everything out around them. Even Chris’ scratch vocals are good enough to make an album; his voice was always remarkable. And thanks to these recordings, we can finally finish this record.
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What can you tell us about the new material?
The first song we did together, the mighty one — seems when you first hear the demo, it’s not powerful at all. And then when you start playing it you’re like, Holy hell! I blistered my hands trying to play those parts. I was like, Thanks, Cornell. He and Kim always throw some wild riff in there that you have to nail. It’s just intuitive for them. I’ve always been amazed by those two, and that song is just whomping. These songs have been flooring me with how powerful they are.
I’m having trouble with the timing of the song we’re working on currently. It’s a laid-back track, not a driving, powerful thing. It’s really melodic and trippy. I told our producer, Terry Date, that I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do because I didn’t know what Matt heard for it, and I wanted to leave it open. Luckily Matt showed up to the studio after leaving Pearl Jam and he broke down that there is a tiny beat thrown in there that makes the timing tricky. Once he showed that to me, it made sense, and I played a part that worked. I had a couple of different interpretations of what do to, but sitting down with Matt on drums really solidified it. That’s what I miss about the old days, when all of us would be in the studio together when everyone was tracking.
What is it like when you all get back together in the studio after so many years?
Even when we weren’t a band when we split up, it was instantly back to the same chemistry when we’re together. It’s all camaraderie and the same knowledge. We all joke around and genuinely like to be together. And all four of us were always writing. That’s another secret advantage of our band: every member always had ideas. Having four songwriters made the album process so much better than having one person with all of the ideas. We always write to each other, and we write songs that we think the other guys will like, [whereas] the fans and outside world are an amorphous thing. We wouldn’t veer too far from who we were, and we stayed with that formula. Luckily for us, people like it. It resonates with people.
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What is it like playing in a rhythm section with Matt Cameron?
I’ll tell you a trick: If you ever get to jam with Matt Cameron, you’re fine and dandy until you look at him. Do not look at him! Once you even glance up at him, you’ll fuck up because it’ll blow your mind. You’ll lose timing. If you don’t watch, the timing is perfect. But if you watch, you get hypnotized and you space off. Really, you just ride the wave with Matt. You take what you can, you move how you can, and you just know that that fundamental force is there. It gives you absolute freedom to do what you do because you know Matt is just going. He’s so beyond just a drummer keeping time — he’s a force of nature. ”
