Jeff Ament on a new Pearl Jam album : “I think everybody hopes we have a record out next year”

Last week Jeff Ament has been interviewed by Jill Fratis and Kyle Meredith and he gave some interesting informations about the new Pearl Jam album.

In the interview with Jill Fratis, Jeff Ament admitted the band still has a long way to go before the album is completed, he also added the band has some planned shows that will only be confirmed if the album is finished on time.

He went on saying that the band members are his best friends and that he likes to be challenged by their different ideas and styles. He also said he can’t wait to be back on the road with the band and play in quite a few places that haven’t been in a while.

A few days later, in an interview with Kyle Meredith, the bass player revealed that, in contrast to what Stone Gossard had said in a recent interview during the the same podcast, the new Pearl Jam album is far from being ready. There is still a lot of work to be done regarding the songs, the tracklist, the title and the artwork and many more details. He still hopes it could be finished during 2024.

Ament affirmed that all the band members decided to take a break from the record this summer and that in September, after a short US tour, they will be ready to tackle the challenges and the questions they left unanswered the last time they met in studio.

The bassist affirmed he thinks the band eventually earned the right to do whatever they want and also that the band members sound better when they are together.

“We all have those hopes and dreams for what we think a new Pearl Jam song would be — hopefully, at the end of this, everybody feels like their characters are part of it,” he says. “That’s where we’re at as a band right now. Like, I want to hear Mike McCready blow the doors off. I want to hear a lyric from Ed that makes me laugh or makes me really sad, or, you know, really brutally sad — he can do that as good as anybody. I think everybody in the band has an ability that’s kind of a superpower. It’s like, ‘How do we pull those superpowers out of each other to write great music?’ Again, we’ve earned the right to do it however we want to. But I think showing off our strengths isn’t the worst way for this band to operate at this point.”

During the interview, Ament also talked about the Deaf Charlie debut album titled Catastrophic Metamorphic, released last June 30th by Monkeywrench Records. He opened up about his new songs, how the project was born and about the friendship with John Wicks, his band member.

Last but not least, Neil Young on his NY Archives website, shared some info about the new Pearl Jam album: “I hear they are in the studio right now in Seattle“.