Greg Prato, reporting for Ultimate-Guitar.com:
Producer Jack Endino, also known as the guitarist for classic grunge band Skin Yard, recalled working with Soundgarden back in their early days, revealing what Chris Cornell was really like to collaborate with on some of the band's earliest material.
Endino's list of works includes an abundance of titles, including the production of Soundgarden's debut EP Screaming Life, and demos for the debut full-length record Ultramega OK. Apart from that, he also produced Nirvana's debut album Bleach, meaning that he was one of the people instrumental in the rise of grunge and was close to great figures like Kurt Cobain and Chris Cornell as this movement was in its formative days.
While promoting Skin Yard's box set, Skin Yard Select, we got the chance to speak to Jack and reflect on some of his experiences working with Cornell and Cobain.
Ultimate-Guitar.com: What was Chris Cornell like - working with him in the studio at that point?
Jack Endino: "Very easy to work with. He was very hard on himself, on his singing, because he was still sort of learning how to use his voice. Because in the old stuff, the very earliest recordings of Soundgarden, Chris is pretty much just screaming. He's got kind of a raw scream that he would do, and you can hear it on the song 'Tears To Forget.' And you can hear it on the Deep Six record, on both of the songs.
"But he had that screamy voice, and he was still learning how to not scream. So, he had to learn how to sing, and he had to learn how to sing in tune, and he was very hard on himself if he wasn't nailing it. So, you've got to coach somebody and try and get them through this. And, of course, it became obvious that this guy was going to have a great voice once he learned how to use it. He had to learn how to not blow his voice out.
"This is something a lot of singers have to learn the hard way. You learn how to sing. You got a great voice. Oh, but it's gone in 45 minutes, you know? And if you go on tour and you play every night, then your voice is shot after a few days. You've got to learn the technique that doesn't blow your voice out. And he learned that. So, it was just interesting watching everybody. All these bands that I recorded, I was literally watching them grow right in front of me."
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