Alice in Chains is “the most underrated” grunge band, says Seal: “It’s melancholic but it’s really sexy”
“I heard Layne’s voice — Layne and Jerry singing together with those close harmonies and [I went] ‘yes.'”
Image: Yuliya Christensen / Getty Images
Britpop singer Seal has spoken about his admiration for Alice in Chains, describing the band as “the most underrated” out of the “whole Grunge period”.
Recalling his early experience with the group in a new interview with Amoeba Music, Seal said, “This band [was] really significant for me because when I left England at the beginning of my career, grunge had just kicked off. I remember coming to Los Angeles and being in a cab and talking to the driver.”
“We got talking about music, and he said ‘well, what kind of music do you like? What are you interested in?’ I said well ‘I’m really curious about this grunge thing. I really like it’ and he said ‘who are the bands [you like]?’ I said, you know ‘I love kind of Nirvana, I like Pearl Jam.’ He says ‘oh they’re cool. Have you heard of this band Alice In Chains?’ and I went ‘no’ and he put on ‘Man in the Box’ and that was it. I heard Layne’s voice, Layne and Jerry singing together with those close harmonies and [I went] ‘yes.'”
“Out of that whole grunge period, they were by far my favourite and I think the most underrated [band],” Seal continued. “There were some great songs on here, the obvious one being Rooster, which Jerry wrote about his father coming home for Vietnam.”
“I love the artistry obviously, but there’s a real sexiness to their music. It’s dark, it’s beautiful, it’s melancholic but it’s really sexy and it’s weighty.”
He added that Alice in Chains had “something truly unique” that set them apart from bands of that ‘grunge era’, saying “They had a soul that was almost like an r&b-type soul that, even though it didn’t sound like r&b, that guttural soul as opposed to just kind of being in your head – hence ‘headbanger’. They had stuff that got you right down here.”
“I’m a big fan of Alice In Chains and Layne’s voice and his approach, God rest his soul,” Seal concluded.