« Contact me at juno.stump@gmail.com if you need someone with experience in mock reviews, copy editing/writing, PR work, etc »
Words: Juno Rylee Schultz (she/her) Edits: Morgan Shaver (they/them), Nathan Miller (he/him), and Bex Stump (she/her)
It was September 1993 and the members of Alice in Chains had all just been evicted from their apartment after headlining Lollapalooza, and so they moved into Seattle’s London Bridge Studio for ten days to make music that they all wanted to listen to.
Layne Staley, Jerry Cantrell, Sean Kinney, and Mike Inez worked tirelessly while living inside the studio, with about eighteen hours of the first five days being dedicated to recording the seven tracks that would become JAR OF FLIES.
The band didn’t have anything prepared, but producer Toby Wright made it clear that didn’t matter when Cantrell was booking the studio.
“Is it okay if we just jam for the next ten days?” Jerry asked.
“Yeah. Best band in the world, jamming? What bad could happen? I [don’t] have anything better to do!” Wright responded.
Sean Kinney and Layne Staley speaking with MTV at Lollapalooza 1993
Staley said the band “just wanted to go into the studio for a few days with our acoustic guitars and see what happened.”
There was a conscious effort to continue the acoustic sounds and themes unpacked across the tracks on SAP, the band’s last EP release. Wright recalled that he wanted to keep the band’s “acoustic music as natural as possible” so the band was “tracked live off the floor.”
“We recorded analog as I was instructed NOT to bring Protools into the studio with Alice in Chains ever by Layne, that was one of Layne’s requests-that we stay on tape. Layne absolutely had a working knowledge of his sonic preferences in the studio, so the record was written and recorded in a week on a Neve 80-68 console.”
Toby Wright speaking about the JAR OF FLIES sessions
Mike Inez, Layne Staley, Jerry Cantrell, and Sean Kinney at Lollapalooza 1993
The studio sessions were intense but swift. Songs were put together almost as quickly as the band developed the arrangements.
“We moved through stuff pretty fast: we’d do one or two takes of a song, then throw it upstairs to Layne to see if it was any good, then move on and go to write the next song. You have to understand we had 10 days in the studio, which is basically 240 hours-and we have to sleep a couple of those hours-and that’s about all we got in those 10 days. Because the band was pretty gung-ho to write everything and get everything down, and once he had the 7 songs, they thought ‘wow, that’s perfect, we’ll just put out an E.P’ So there wasn’t really a whole lotta long contemplation about it, for that record, it really was just get in, jam, have fun and see what happens at the end of the day. So we wrote, arranged, produced and recorded and mixed the record’s songs all in 10 days.”
Toby Wright speaking about the JAR OF FLIES sessions
An outtake from the JAR OF FLIES album cover photo shoot
Wright asked Cantrell if he wanted to put together some sheet music for the four-piece string section of players that were hired to play on “I Stay Away” but Jerry said he’d just “tell them what to play.”
Dave Hillis worked at the London Bridge Studio at the time and remembers seeing Jerry sitting down in a folding chair and walking the string players through his ideas for “I Stay Away.”
“I remember Jerry being fearless and going out there with a guitar into the main room where the orchestra is sitting and showing them the parts on his guitar, what he was hearing, what he wanted, which is not something you normally do because orchestra musicians usually don’t work that way.”
David Hillis speaking about theJAR OF FLIESsessions
Wright helped drummer Sean Kinney trade side-stick drumming for bongos and some other smaller drums. This change also allowed Kinney to bring the same melancholy groove to JAR OF FLIES that could be found on the louder Alice in Chains music, but without burying the experimental sounds under volume. It was a perfect match.
“It became a pattern for us. After playing loud music for a year, we’d come home and the last thing we wanted to do was crank up the amps right away.”
Drummer Sean Kinneyspeaking about theJAR OF FLIESsessions
JAR OF FLIES album art work
JAR OF FLIES is a rich and haunting tapestry of colors and tones—and the album’s cover artwork is no different.
The title ‘Jar of Flies’ originates from a science experiment that Jerry Cantrell conducted while in third grade with two jars of flies that were each given different amounts of food.
The flies in one jar were overfed, while the flies in the other jar were underfed. The overfed flies reproduced rapidly before dying from overpopulation and lack of food. The underfed flies however managed to survive the entire year … by eating each other.
“I guess there’s a message in there somewhere. Evidently that experiment had a big impact on Jerry.”
Layne Staley discussing the title of JAR OF FLIES in a 1993 interview
Rocky Schenck did the album cover photo shoot in his dining room on September 8, 1993.
“I have fond memories of shooting this album cover in my dining room. It was just me and my assistant, and a child whose name I’ve forgotten. My assistant made multiple trips up the street to gather hundreds of flies with a butterfly net at some horse stables. The flies kept dying, the kid kept complaining, and my assistant kept gathering more flies. The album was nominated for a Grammy for best recording package… and I still have the jars.”
JAR OF FLIES debuted at number one when it released on January 14, 1994, something that rarely happens for any EP.
Touring began to slow down at this time for the band, largely in part to focus on the health of the band members, which included Staley seeking rehab treatment for his relapsed heroin addiction.
Some at the time, including most famously the members of Metallica, chose to ridicule this decision but I think it’s admirable that the band put their health above the interests of money.
Songs from JAR OF FLIES have still enjoyed their time under the spotlight though, with NUTSHELL and NO EXCUSES both being featured during ALICE IN CHAINS UNPLUGGED.
‘Unplugged’ was one of the last shows Layne Staley would perform with Alice in Chains before his tragic death in 2002 but his soulful voice and contributions to music have permeated culture and shaped art in the years since.
Jerry Cantrell (background) and Layne Staley (foreground) performing during MTV UNPLUGGED
In the years since it’s become increasingly clear just how much JAR OF FLIES has transcended generations, with the EP being certified platinum in 2022.
MAD SEASON is a supergroup that Layne Staley formed in 1995 with other musicians battling addiction. The group created one album and only played a handful of live shows, but it’s all just as haunting and beautiful as JAR OF FLIES.
Leave a Reply