Thursday, October 8, 2009

Interview: Matt Cameron

Street published an interview with Matt Cameron today in anticipation of Pearl Jam's San Diego show.  He talks about what bogged them down during the recording of Pearl Jam and what went right this time around with Backspacer.







 
Here's an excerpt:

 

For the first time since its 1991 debut album, the 13 million-selling "Ten," the five-man band wrote, rehearsed and honed every song at length before the recording sessions began. "Backspacer" is also the group's first album since 1998's "Yield" with veteran Pearl Jam producer Brendan O'Brien back in the fold. The combination is a fruitful one.

 

This record is so happy, sonically, that I think our instruments are singing in a way they haven't in a long time -- and we really give Brendan a lot of credit for that," Cameron said.

"He was adamant we be 100 percent prepared before we went into the studio, and that gave us a lot of energy. ... that spirit of ownership really comes true. With the help of Brendan, we sequenced the record in a way that made it super-concise. We didn't want any fat on this record. We wanted people to listen to it, from the beginning to the end, and to hear it as a complete piece of music.

"That's what we, as music fans, grew up listening to -- albums that are pretty cool, complete statements like (Queen's) `A Night at the Opera' and (The Who's) `Quadrophenia.' The days of making an album as a complete work are kind of waning, so we wanted to bring that tradition back."