Sap (EP)
Sap is the first studio EP by the American rock band Alice in Chains. It was released on February 4, 1992 through Columbia Records.
Background and recording
Following the tour for Facelift, Alice in Chains entered the studio to record demos for its next album, but ended up recording five acoustic songs instead. While in the studio, drummer Sean Kinney had a dream about "making an EP called Sap." The band decided "not to mess with fate," and Sap was recorded and mixed in 1991 with producer Rick Parashar at London Bridge Studio.
Music and lyrics
The EP features guest vocals by Ann Wilson from the band Heart, who joined vocalist Layne Staley and guitarist Jerry Cantrell for the choruses of "Brother" and "Am I Inside." The EP also features Mark Arm of Mudhoney and Chris Cornell of Soundgarden, who appeared together on the song "Right Turn," credited to "Alice Mudgarden" in the liner notes. The song was featured in the 2001 film Black Hawk Down.
Regarding the lyrical content, Cantrell said he wrote "Brother" about his relationship with his younger brother. The song specifically refers to the period after Cantrell's parents divorced, when his younger brother went off to live with his father while he stayed with his mother, and Cantrell said that the song "was a way of trying to build a bridge." Commenting on "Got Me Wrong," Cantrell said he wrote the song about a relationship where one person thinks he or she can change the other person, and added that the song speaks of "the different ways that men and women see each other."