Billboard got a chance to talk with Eddie and Jeff about their show in Missoula in support of Senator Tester and what's needed to complete their next album.
As for Pearl Jam's timeline for finishing its own next record, which will be its first studio album since 2009's "Backspacer," Ament told Billboard in September that "we're kinda looking at a couple of possible spots [in our schedules]. But the one thing that Ed [Vedder] and I did talk about is that we really need probably a two-month window where you have the two weeks to finish the record and you need that six weeks after to sequence and finish things up."For those without calendars of all the Pearl Jam events, there's a nice opening from December 5th to February 7th. Sure, there's Christmas in there, but if it's not that gap, don't expect an album before fall.
Ament also confirmed plenty of material is in play. "There's so much stuff. It's Ed's gig to shape those things into songs and work on the lyrics. He's really thoughtful and meticulous about that. So it's going to depend on what his biorhythms are and what he gravitates toward. There's probably 15 songs that are fairly close to finished. There's another 15 that are in other forms. I don't think any of us really know what the record is yet. There's a huge part of us that wants to be completely different than 'Backspacer' yet we're sort of working within the same sort of way of recording that we made that record, with Brendan [O'Brien, longtime Pearl Jam producer]. We have to be ready for that 10 days where for 12 hours a day you're in this mode where everything has to be on point."
