Speaking with Music Radar, Alice In Chains members William DuVall and Jerry Cantrell discussed the making of the band's new album, Rainier Fog. An excerpt from the interview is available below.

Q: You’ve both come from bands where you’re the main guitar player, how has that journey as a two-guitar band been for you in the last 12 years?

William: “It’s one of these things, man, we can both do all of whatever we want to do on a record. It becomes a thing of trying to create room or leave room for one another out of respect and admiration. What ends up happening when you do that is something that you couldn’t have achieved on your own if you’d elected to do everything. It would sound different so where we find these places to leave room for one another it really elevates the material, at least in terms of making it something it would never have been otherwise.”

Q: Jerry, did William’s presence change your songwriting process when he joined the band?

Jerry: “No it didn’t change my style or writing. He’s his own unique dude and he’s got his own vocal sound. The way he writes and plays guitar is extremely different from me. Both rock so that’s cool but he adds elements of what he does but I’ve been doing things the same way for 31 years so I’m not really gonna change now. So I wouldn’t say it really changed anything about my writing style but it’s nice we can incorporate a lot more with William because he plays and he’s a really good guitar player. It gives us a little more opportunity.

Layne started up guitar and wrote a couple of riffs and wrote a couple of really important tunes in our catalogue; Hate To Feel, Angry Chair and Head Creeps, those are the three songs that he wrote on guitar. And he would play a little bit but, actually, William is kind of like I am. We’re both guitar players at heart and we never intended to be lead singers. We were happy to be playing guitar, writing tunes and singing backups."

Read the complete interview here.

DuVall and Cantrell recently performed an acoustic set at The Lounge in Chicago, IL  exclusively for 101 WKQX. Check out the footage below.

Alice In Chains have hit #1 on Billboard’s Rock, Alternative and Hard Music Charts and #1 on the iTunes Rock Album Chart with Rainier Fog (BMG), their first new album in five years.

The chart debuts follow a week-of-release takeover of the band’s Seattle hometown that began with the Mariners hosting an Alice In Chains Night at Safeco Field (footage below), which included a pre-game listening event, a Rainier Fog CD and a special Alice In Chains/Mariners t-shirt.

The quartet - vocalist/guitarist Jerry Cantrell, vocalist/guitarist William DuVall, bassist Mike Inez and drummer Sean Kinney - then became the first band ever to perform on The Loupe, the Space Needle’s brand-new revolving glass floor located 500 feet in the air. SiriusXM began airing the performance exclusively this past weekend on their Lithium and Octane channels with repeat airings happening during the following over the next week.

The Seattle takeover culminated with the launch of an Alice In Chains Pop-Up Shop and Retrospective at The Crocodile featuring limited edition merchandise, rare photos, memorabilia, music gear and more, followed by a special day-of-release performance. The band is currently on the 3rd leg of their worldwide headline tour - dates are below and ticket info can be found here.

Rainier Fog marks a few firsts for the band: in addition to being their first album in five years, it’s their first album for BMG and their first time recording in their hometown of Seattle in more than 20 years (worth noting that the album title is a tribute to Seattle). They recorded at Studio X, the same facility where they tracked 1995’s self-titled Alice In Chains album (back when the studio was known as Bad Animals). The Rainier Fog recording process also saw the band spend time at Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles and at the Nashville studio of producer Nick Raskulinecz. Rainier Fog is the third straight Alice In Chains album recorded with producer Nick Raskulinecz and engineer Paul Figueroa. The album was mixed by Joe Barresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Tool).

Tracklisting:

"The One You Know"
"Rainier Fog"
"Red Giant"
"Fly"
"Drone"
"Deaf Ears Blind Eyes"
"Maybe"
"So Far Under"
"Never Fade"
"All I Am"

"Never Fade":

"So Far Under":

"The One You Know" video:

Live dates:

October
14 - Sacramento, CA - Aftershock Festival
16 - Salt Lake City - The Depot
18 - Colorado Springs - Pikes Peak Center
20 - Newkirk, OK - First Council Casino
21 - Durant, OK - Choctaw Grand Theater
23 - New Orleans - Saenger Theatre
24 - Birmingham, AL - BJCC Concert Hall
26 - St. Augustine, FL - St. Augustine Amphitheatre
27 - Orlando, FL - Hard Rock Live
28 - Hollywood, FL - Hard Rock Events Center