{"id":248,"date":"2016-06-21T20:40:36","date_gmt":"2016-06-21T20:40:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mediablitzrecords.com\/lanceblitz\/?p=248"},"modified":"2017-03-25T03:31:37","modified_gmt":"2017-03-25T03:31:37","slug":"dave-jerden-discusses-working-alice-chains-facelift","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mediablitzrecords.com\/lanceblitz\/dave-jerden-discusses-working-alice-chains-facelift\/","title":{"rendered":"Dave Jerden Discusses working with Alice in Chains on ‘Facelift’"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhen I met with the band, I told Jerry Cantrell, \u2018Metallica took Tony Iommi and sped him up. What you\u2019ve done is you\u2019ve slowed him down again.\u2019 And he looked at me and said, \u2018You got it.\u2019 That\u2019s how I got the gig. I totally understood what they were doing.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of producers \u2013 big producers \u2013 passed on the band because of Layne Staley\u2019s voice. I loved his lower vocal sound, which was different from Gun N\u2019 Roses and some other bands who were around then. Layne had one of the best singing voices I ever heard.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe went to London Bridge in Seattle. The crew was great; Rick and Raj Parashar, who ran the place, they were terrific. It was a nice vibe. We cut basic tracks there, and then we went to Capital Studios in LA to do overdubs. I mixed it at Soundcastle over in Silverlake, which is where I did Jane\u2019s Addiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cI never had any problems with the band on this record or on Dirt. There were some problems later on, which had to do with Layne\u2019s addiction. But they were hot and ready to go on the first album. They did some drinking, but there were no drugs. It was funny: They wanted to know where the strip clubs in LA were. We were driving down Hollywood Boulevard, so I pointed to one called the Tropicana.<\/p>\n

\u201cA little while later, I went to see the band at the Oakwood apartments, where they were staying, and there were naked girls running around everywhere. I saw a Tropicana calendar sitting on a table with all these \u201cX\u2019s\u201d over pictures of the girls\u2019 faces \u2013 they were all the girls they had pulled from the club. [Laughs] Total rock \u2019n\u2019 roll. They were livin\u2019 it.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love this record. To me, it\u2019s better than Dirt. The band had so much raw energy at the time, and it really comes through on the first album.\u201d<\/p>\n