"There was a lot of tension throughout. I’m surprised they didn‘t fire me early on!" Producer Michael Beinhorn reflects on the "difficult" challenges he faced recording Soundgarden masterpiece Superunknown, and how Frank Sinatra helped

The 1990s were a busy and fruitful period for producer Michael Beinhorn. Having played and produced respected musicians such as David Byrne, Herbie Hancock, Brian Eno and Nile Rodgers in the '80s, the New York-born studio technician made his name in rock and metal circles with the Red Hot Chili Peppers' Mothers Milk album, and went on to produce hit albums for Soul Asylum (Grave Dancers Union), Hole (Celebrity Skin), Ozzy Osbourne (Ozzmosis), Korn (Untouchables) and more.

One of Beinhorn's most acclaimed and best-loved collaborations of the decade, however, was one which tested and frustrated everyone involved as never before. Soundgarden's fourth album Superunknown made the Seattle band - frontman Chris Cornell, guitarist Kim Thayil, bassist Ben Shepherd and drummer Matt Cameron - genuine superstars, but recording it was far from easy as the 65-year-old producer recalled in a recent Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) discussion.

"It was... quite an experience," Beinhorn remembers. "One of the most difficult recording sessions I’ve ever done. The band and I didn’t see eye to eye on the overall approach so there was a lot of tension throughout. In a way, I’m surprised they didn‘t fire me early on!

"It was a struggle," he continued. "The main issue was how I was producing the record, in terms of getting instrument sounds, etc. I think they were expecting a relatively quick recording and all of a sudden here’s this guy they barely know, spending a week hunting for a drum sound. They got pretty surly about it- especially Matt [Cameron]. I understood their irritation but from my point of view, they’d hired me to do a job for them and that’s how I was going to do it. I knew this was an important record for them- and for me too, and if we just slacked in any way, it would reflect in the end result and I wasn’t going to let that happen. If they were going to fire me for doing my job, I reasoned it would be my tough shit."

More than one artist who Beinhorn has worked with in the past has complained about how the producer's perfectionist streak proved challenging at the time, but working with Soundgarden, Beinhorn recalls more light-hearted times too.

"Chris [Cornell] was an interesting character because he could go from being kind of dour to hysterically funny in a few seconds. Once in a while, when we were recording guide tracks, Chris would slip into impromptu songs that he’d make up on the fly. One of them was called Bing Bing Goes To Temple which was Chris’ comedic tribute to my Jewish heritage. Needless to say, I was deeply touched (when I was rolling on the floor laughing)."

At one point in the discussion, a Reddit user named ShredGuru suggests that Beinhorn previously stated that one of his aims during the Superunknown recording sessions was to "unproduce" Chris Cornell's vocals, because the singer's instincts were to "do too much".

"I wouldn’t say I was really trying to 'unproduce' Chris’ vocals," Beinhorn counters. "I was trying to get more emotion from his performances and I felt that he often held back a lot. I wanted him to connect more and be more expressive. This is why I played him some Frank Sinatra songs, to help him see what a different singer in an entirely different style of music used vocal phrasing as an expressive tool."

However tense the studio sessions were, the results were phenomenal. Superunknown sold six million copies in the US alone, and on March 1, 1995, the Seattle band's artistry was recognised with two Grammy Awards – Best Hard Rock Performance for Black Hole Sun and Best Metal Performance for Spoonman.

"In hindsight," Beinhorn insists, "I wouldn’t have done a single thing differently."

"To me, Beinhorn was an innovator," Ben Shepherd later reflected. "He totally thought outside of the box."