It seemed like the only alternative. Feeling penned in and distracted by the numerous roommates in his small house, Chris Cornell couldn't get any writing done, and with recording for Soundgarden's Badmotorfinger just a few weeks away, he needed space. With his little dog in tow, Cornell retreated to a serviceable oceanside cabin for 10 days without so much as a phone call from another human being.

"It started to get pretty wild after the fifth day," recalls the singer/guitarist from his Seattle home. "The voice in your head becomes really loud, and since all you're doing is thinking, anything memorable that happens that day happens in your head." Despite admittedly "getting paranoid and freaking out," Cornell hung out long enough to write some incredible lyrics, like "Drawing Flies," which he frantically scribbled down just as he was preparing to return to society. A tough way to get some good lines? "Hey," shrugs Cornell, "it worked."

The 29-year-old performed doesn't spend all his time recreating Walden Pond, though. White it generally takes a few hours alone for "the flood gates to open," Cornell values the wealth of ideas that only human contact can provide: "Especially really inane conversations where people say things that are totally benign, stupid, and drunken. They can strike you as really important. "Musically, privacy is not an issue, as Cornell says he invents his share of Soundgarden's angular, alternate-tuned riffs (see The New Alternate Tunings, Dec. '92 GP) on Les Pauls "even in the most chaotic scenes."

Cornell says he often finds it easier to be "vocally creative" over odd-time riffs: "In a weird time signature there's really only one thing you can sing, and it jumps right out at you. Straight-four riffs have been around for so long that you can end up writing the same song 500 times." Chris also leaves room for happenstance. "Birth Ritual," Soundgarden's contribution to the Singles movie soundtrack (which also features Cornell's Zep-esque acoustic solo piece, "Seasons"), features a tough, D-tuned 7/8 riff by drummer Matt Cameron overlaid with a shrieking melody Cornell says he had in mind before he ever heard the music. "I had a song in my head that was doing something similar melodically," he remembers. "It had a whole chorus that Matt didn't have, so I just took the tuning and Matt's rhythms and added all those key changes. It worked great."

Riff-based writing has always been Soundgarden's modus operandi, but Cornell also writes from melodies he hears in his head, picking up the guitar to work them into arrangements. Many of the songs from Cornell's 1991 Temple of The Dog album (a collaboration with members of Pearl Jam) were built around these more traditional tools. Cornell's soulful "Say Hello To Haven" is fashioned from simple open G, C, Am, Em, F, and D chords, and the hit "Hunger Strike" relies predominantly on a basic I-IV progression.

The simplicity of Hunger Strike" helps put across lyrics decrying the slaughter of animals for food, but that's about as openly declarative as Cornell, a firm believer in art for art's sake, wants to get. "I don't have any interest in writing lyrics that aren't poetic in some way," says Chris, who's recently placed two of his songs on the next Alice Cooper album. "I like writing aggressive lyrics, but at some point I have to create an image beyond simply what you're reading, a vision for you while you're hearing it that takes you away from where you are. You can still make eloquent, important statements representing how a large amount of people feel, but to me that's secondary." And though much of Temple dealt with the death of a friend, Cornell's no fan of overtly confessional songwriters.

"Sometimes personal lyrics can be endearing and cool and make you feel close to the writer," he allows, "but a lot of time you get this feeling of What do I care?' So you had struggles with your relationship - good for you. Everybody does. Fuck off." Does this mean Cornell is unlikely to bag Soundgarden and hit the sensitive singer/songwriter circuit? "Probably not," he laughs. "I'd rather go more towards the Syd Barrett school and write about shoelaces and banana skins, and make it all seems congruent in this weird fantasy world that makes you want to go there when you get off work."

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