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Sean Kinney shares the story behind “Them Bones”

Everyone who witnessed the grunge era remembers the song “Them Bones” by Alice In Chains. It is one of THE tracks that helped define the style, not only musically but also image-wise.

Very recently, the band’s drummer Sean Kinney has shared a handful of memories connected with the creative process behind the song in an interview for musicradar.com:

Sean Kinney 1

“I remember that one p**sing me off because it was a pretty straightforward sort of metal-edged tune. I remember working on it but not wanting it to be straightforward. I had to figure out what kind of groove to put on it. The grooves were disjointed, timing-wise. I remember getting pretty frustrated, knocking over the drums and wondering what I could do there. It took a little time to figure it out and make it more unique than it could have been. I had to wrap my head around it and once it clicks you think, ‘Ah, I’m gonna try it this way.’ (…)

We pick our songs, not the record label. The label would have never in a million years picked that song as a single. We were like, ‘Yup, put that one out.’ They didn’t think it would be a hit but they put it out.” (…)

I’ve used DW kits on all of the albums. That one I still have. It had deeper toms. It was a 24″ kick and probably a 14″ rack with 16″ and 18″ floor toms. It’s a purple sparkle kit. (…)

It’s under three minutes, so there’s not a lot of time to turn it all around. Plus, because of the timing on it, it’s structured around that. It’s a cool one to play, it has energy (…) and people seem to like it. It’s one of our more metal-ish tunes. Sometimes we’ll start a gig with it, it’s a nice quick way to get warmed up.”

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