In a new interview with Produce Like A Pro, Soundgarden producer Michael Beinhorn shared his admiration for how Cornell would send him demos that were completely produced by himself from start to finish, and mentioned that there was something ‘very dark’ about both the ‘Superunknown’ album and Cornell’s overall style.
“It actually came close to the end of the record,” he said of how the name ‘Superunknown’ came about. “It was one of the songs that Chris had brought in. He just said, ‘That’s going to be the name of the record.’ I didn’t think anything of it. I loved the song, I loved the title. As the record was winding down, they came in with the photographs that had been taken for the album. And I got to see them, and I was like, ‘Oh, wow, that’s actually really cool.'”
The producer continued: “And then the way it sort of came together with the name, it had a vibe that I felt really encapsulated the album… Some of the stuff that’s on the album, the imagery is very surreal in places. I think it conveys more of a mood, or at least as as much a mood… What Chris was going through emotionally, because I didn’t really pick up on any of that when we worked together, it all kind of ties together in a completely different way. But there’s something very, very dark about the album, and there’s something very dark about him.”
Though the record eventually became one of the band’s most popular albums, there is something the band didn’t like about it. The band’s bassist Ben Shepherd admitted he didn’t listen to the album after it was done. “I don’t like the production of that record,” he also admitted. “I don’t like how it sounds. I don’t like how it looks.”
“If people like it then I’m flattered and I’m honoured and all that ‘make people happy bullshit’. But, for me, when an album is done, it’s done, it’s time to move on to something else,” the bassist added.
The recording sessions for ‘Superunknown’ started at Bad Animals Studios in Seattle in July 1993 and lasted almost three months. The band decided to record each track one at a time to completely change their sound. To help shape the material, they brought in Beinhorn, known for his detailed approach to getting the right sound for each song.
