“It’s some of the best work I’ve done”: Jerry Cantrell takes us inside his new solo album I Want Blood

Jerry Cantrell will release his fourth solo album, I Want Blood, on October 18. The Alice In Chains lynchpin’s follow up to 2021’s Brighten sees him joined by the star line-up of musicians he made that record with, including Guns N’ Roses’ Duff McKagan, vocalist Greg Puciato and drummer Gil Sharone.

What’s more, he’s also recruited Metallica’s Rob Trujillo and Faith No More’s Mike ‘Puffy’ Bordin, who he collaborated with on his 2002 solo outing, Degradation Trip.

“I felt my face was pressed hard against the ceiling of my abilities, as a writer, as a composer, as a guitar player, as a singer, and as a producer,” Jerry says of making I Want Blood, speaking exclusively with Kerrang!. “If you feel like you’re in a slightly uncomfortable place or questioning yourself, then that’s exactly where you want to be as some risks are being taken.”

I Want Blood is co-produced by Joe Barresi, who mixed Brighten and Alice In Chains’ 2018 opus Rainier Fog, but takes a bigger role this time around. And it’s safe to say that Jerry is pleased with the results. “I think it’s some of the best work I’ve done,” he admits. “I’m happy to kick this thing out of the nest and send it out into the world. It’s ready to fly!”

I Want Blood is one confrontation title. When did those words enter the equation?
“I was in Vegas with [co-manager of Alice In Chains] Susan Silver for Sick New World festival, and she asked me, ‘What made you want to call the record that? It’s a total fuck you!’ And she’s right! There are a few strong titles in my catalogue – Dirt, Facelift, Degradation Trip – so I don’t know that it’s outside the norm for me. If you’re lucky, you get the title from one of the core tracks, or something that embodies the work. I had both with the track I Want Blood. It seemed to fit the tone because it’s a hard-hitting record – a proper representation of what you may experience if you choose to dive into it.”

This record comes three years after Brighten, so you’re really closing the gap on your solo releases. What does that suggest about your enthusiasm for, and confidence in, your solo material these days?
“Well, I don’t often get the opportunity to do them. In an unplanned way, the four [solo] records have been done in twos, back-to-back. So Boggy Depot [1998] and Degradation Trip [Volumes 1 & 2, 2002] were done back-to-back, and the same with Brighten and I Want Blood. I didn’t intend for that to be the case, but life is cyclical and you go with what you feel. I had a really great time making and touring Brighten, so when I got back from that tour, I quickly got into working on a new batch of tunes. I felt it was something I wanted to continue to explore a little bit, and I had the opportunity and time to do it. All you can really do in life is follow your gut.”

This is a very different record to Brighten. You mention the records being made ‘back-to-back’, but did any of these new songs come during the making of Brighten but didn’t fit, musically or thematically, or did they all come later as a direct response?
“I’m always recording ideas, stumbling upon ideas that pique my interest and throwing them down. I might not get back to it right away, but it’s down. I do that constantly. After some time, I’ll start going through ‘the riff mine’, as I call it, which can often spawn other things spontaneously. There’s a couple of riffs I’ve had around for a couple of years, but lyrically and sonically, the majority of this record happened in the last year-and-a-half – a completely clean slate, which is a good way to start. Alice In Chains were never really a band that had a lot of extra stuff that didn’t make it to a record, so you get what you get, which is something I’ve carried with me when I work outside the band.”

You mention a clean slate, but there appears to be connective tissue between Brighten and I Want Blood. Take, for instance, the song Afterglow from this new record, with its connotations of glowing embers that follow bright flames. Is there a connection?
“There is. I remember reading that David Bowie would return to a handful of subjects for a lot of his material, and I relate to that. If you feel a connection to previous work, then that’s good – that’s what you want because that’s your musical fingerprint and you can, within reason, go where you want and that’s going to go with you. Meanwhile, you’re creating stuff that never existed before, while trying to get better at your craft. It’s as surprising to me where things end up as it is to anyone else. I’m a fan of this record. If I wasn’t me and I wasn’t in Alice In Chains, I’d be a fan of Alice In Chains and these records I’ve made.”

There are some fascinating lyrics on I Want Blood. Staying with Afterglow for a moment, what can you tell us about the lines, ‘Where you end and I begin there’s no light / A parasite who lives within a hingeless door’?
“To me, a lot of Afterglow is about the process of creating new music and an album. I’ve been lucky to be part of a fucking cool group of creative people in Alice… for a long time, 35 years now, which is the longest relationship of my life by far, and we’re still friends and a band. Maybe that’s the backdrop of a lyric like that. It’s not a negative thing. A lot of the elements of that song, like the lines, ‘Far below the surface there, breathe a heavy sigh / Stand alone in a circle squared, preparing to try,’ looks at the fact it takes effort to create music. The whole thing is a hopeful assessment of a process that’s not always easy.”

Opening single, Vilified, mentions AI. Presumably, as a man who’s overcome a lot to get his music into the world, presumably that kind of fakery offends your sensibility?
“Yeah, I guess so. Sci-fi and the fear of technology has been around a long time, from The Terminator to Ex Machina. AI is a boogeyman we’ve grown up with, but now we’re living in a time that it’s becoming a reality to more of an extent. It’s weird to me. I get it, as it’s a progression of technology and our use of it, but it’s part of the conversation of our lives and the world, so I can’t really do anything about it. It’s like any tool – you can take a hammer and bash somebody’s head in, or you can build a house – it’s up to the user. There’s still a human element there, of intention and responsibility.”

You worked with an impressive roster of artists on this album, how special is it to collaborate with musicians from across the course of your career?
“I was very happy to be able to continue this work with the same group of creative folk who were part of the process on the last record, and then to ask Rob and Bordin if they’d be into it, having worked together on Degradation Trip. It was a really cool opportunity. These are all amazing human beings, first and foremost, and musicians that I admire and respect. Plus they’re my friends. I’ve been lucky enough to arrange myself in the middle of some pretty talented people. That’s not lost on me – I get a little giddy about that sometimes!”

You co-produced this record with Joe Barresi, who mixed Brighten and Alice In Chains’ Rainier Fog. Why was it important for you to have Joe involved to a greater extent this time around?
“Tyler Bates was my partner on Brighten and very instrumental in me getting this album together, though we weren’t working as tightly this time as he had other projects and stuff. He let me know he wouldn’t have the time to dive in and go the whole way, but he’d pop in where he could. It’s a long process, so you have to have somebody who’s going to go with you the whole way. Joe and I had the experience of mixing records together, with Brighten and Rainier Fog, but we’d never gone the whole way, from beginning to end. I played Joe demos of what I’d been working on and said I’d like him to partner up with me, and after a song or two he said, ‘I’m in!’ Working with Joe is awesome – he’s got this mad scientist ethos and I relate to that.”

What does this purple patch in your solo pursuits mean for the future of Alice In Chains?
“We’re still in it. I think the last record we put out, Rainier Fog, is as strong a record as we’ve ever put out. These two records, Brighten and I Want Blood, are the strongest solo pieces I’ve ever done. When Alice… decides to make another record, which I’m sure won’t be too far down the line, we will do and let you know.”

The fantastic final track, It Comes, seems to be about severing ties and looking back to the past, to examine the culpability of others but also yours. Is that accurate?
“It touches upon the endings and beginnings of chapters. As you live a life, you will live many chapters and you will end many chapters. And sometimes you can go back and re-read, revisit and relive. Loss is one of that handful of subjects I return to, thematically. Loss is a huge part of life and it’s a natural part of the cycle for things to end, whether that’s a relationship or a job. Things end – and ultimately you end too. There’s a beauty in that too, as things aren’t meant to fucking last forever, so something else can fucking begin. I don’t look at it in a doom and gloom way – it’s an assessment and an acceptable, and it’s something we all share. It’s cool to have been in existence in my little bubble of it. I’m still rolling - I’m not done yet!”

I Want Blood is released October 18 via Double J Music.

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