Cameron Crowe on Chris Cornell, Singles Soundtrack, Grunge Beginnings. This interview was conducted last week, before news of Chris Cornells death on May 1. In 1. 98. 6, Cameron Crowe, in love with a Pacific Northwest girl, and frustrated with the craven scene in L. A. hair bands. Seattle to make a fresh start. That girl was Nancy Wilson of hard rocking sister act Heart, so Crowe was soon immersed in the citys scrappy music scene, frequenting the clubs and getting to know the young music geeks who, often laboring in coffee shops, worked a nine to five and then played music all night. Crowe fell in love with the sounds and the ethos, and the idea for Singles, which he saw as a love letter to Seattle akin to Woody Allens Manhattan or Spike Lees many paeans to Brooklyn, was born. In many ways, the films story is in service to the music. Singles not only featured live performances by Alice in Chains and Soundgarden, but employed a newly drafted Eddie Vedder just called up to the majors of Pearl Jam from California himself as well as Jeff Ament and Stone Gossard in acting roles as members of Citizen Dick, the fictional band fronted by Matt Dillons lead character, Cliff Poncier. The first time the cast all got together was at the Off Ramp, a club just off the main freeway in downtown Seattle, Crowe recalls. It was the second time Pearl Jam played in public with their new lead singer Eddie from San Diego. Eddie had read the script, and wrote a new song for the movie, about relationships, called State of Love and Trust. It became the soul of the movie in many ways. Warner Bros. Nirvanas Nevermind put all things Seattle on the map. Suddenly the Singles soundtrack, packed to the gills with choice material by almost every other significant act on the scene, was rushed to release on June 3. On Friday, just short of 2. Crowe talked to Rolling Stone about putting together his ultimate mixtape. What was your initial concept for the soundtrack, and how did that evolve over time Well, so much of the enthusiasm came from meeting and falling in love with a Seattle, Pacific Northwestern native. And when I started going up to Seattle, and ultimately got married in Seattle, part of the whole kind of wonderful feeling of love and community that was so different from L. A. to me was there was this great radio station called KCMU. It was kind of the college station, and it was way to the left of the dial. They played a lot of what would later be called the Seattle sound, but they mixed it in with all kinds of stuff, like old blues. What in L. A. would have been called cheesy R B was mixed in with Blood Circus or Mudhoney, and I just thought it was the greatest programming ever. Or somebody would tape Kurt Cobain half asleep having a phone conversation and theyd put that on the air. So I fell in love with the whole mix of genres, and I thought, If I get to make a movie up here, its going to sound like this. Right, the soundtrack is not just about Nineties Seattle. You have a Jimi Hendrix tune, May This Be Love, and hes a Seattle native, so youre dipping back into history a bit. So much of it came from wanting to do a mix of Jimi Hendrix or Muddy Waters or Junior Wells, along with Mother Love Bone. Wed started to do a little bit of that in Say Anything, the movie before Singles, which was also partially shot in Seattle, and Mother Love Bones Chloe Dancer is in Say Anything. So it was kind of like I was starting to be able to use some of this music that felt like it was only for those people that lived up there, and I was lucky to have gotten a taste of it. And Ann and Nancy Wilson are big music geeks and they were always surrounded by local musicians, and Kelly Curtis who was their publicist was managing Mother Love Bone, so I was immediately getting thrust into a community of great music and great people. What came first, the music or the story Theyre intertwined for me The music and the city and the people are all kind of beautifully twisted roots around each other. Directed by Cameron Crowe. With Bridget Fonda, Campbell Scott, Kyra Sedgwick, Sheila Kelley. A group of twentysomething friends, most of whom live in the same. The latest news articles from Billboard Magazine, including reviews, business, pop, hiphop, rock, dance, country and more. Slant Magazines music section is your gateway to some of the webs most incisive and biting music criticism and features. Singles Full Movie Part 1' title='Singles Full Movie Part 1' />But the music was always there. I used to make cassettes of KCMU so that when I had to come down to L. A. for something, I could still be listening to KCMU. Now of course you can just stream it, but I still have all these cassettes, and theyre filled with the greatest segues ever. I think its called KEXP now, but it used to be called KCMU, Music That Matters. And it was. Did you think about including other Seattle artists of the past If Id had Quincy Jones music that had worked I would have put it on there. I like the whole idea of a Seattle lineage. Watch The Good Girl Online. Thats why Ann and Nancy are doing Led Zeppelins The Battle of Evermore Led Zeppelins infamous mud shark incident was said to have happened in Seattle, and you know, the odd association for some was to bring Paul Westerberg in, but Westerberg seemed like a close cousin, and everybody loves the Replacements. I always like to be able to give exposure to the musicians that may not get their stuff into a movie quite as fast. I was very happy that Mother Love Bones Andy Wood got to hear his stuff in a movie and not just as something coming out of a passing car, but as a real moment and the Mother Love Bone guys got to hear that in Say Anything. In the same way I wanted to celebrate Westerberg. We did a video for Dyslexic Heart up in Seattle and everybody was happy to have him around. You said Pearl Jams State of Love and Trust was like the soul of the movie. What was your relationship with the band like during the film Pearl Jam became Pearl Jam while we were making the movie. They were Mookie Blaylock when we started. Will There Be A Second Series Of New Blood'>Will There Be A Second Series Of New Blood. When we started, they barely had a lead singer, I think they had just brought Eddie up from San Diego. Jack Irons had turned them on to Eddies audition tape, and they brought him up. So Eddie was kind of falling in love with them, and they were falling in love with Eddie, and it was fun to take Eddie into this world too he was joining this band and playing bigger shows and then we gave Jeff Ament a job in our art department. And we used his font on the title cards in the movie, his hand written font was so great. I think hes still disappointed that his Joe Perry Project poster got stolen from the wall of one of the apartments laughs. Whats that story He designed a Joe Perry posterNo. So much of the stuff on the walls of Matt Dillons apartment in Singles was from Jeff Aments walls and his collection.