Pearl Jam’s new album Dark Matter doesn’t arrive until this Friday (April 19th), but the band is already excited about the prospect of making new music thanks to their positive experience working with producer Andrew Watt for the first time.
On the latest episode of Kyle Meredith With…, guitarist Stone Gossard spoke about Watt’s impact on their recording process and how the “energizing experience” made them want to come back for more.
“We’re excited about making more music,” Gossard said on the podcast. “I think this record was an energizing experience for everyone. It was a little bit of a journey, but working with Andrew [Watt]… I think Andrew really made a difference by his natural nature as a producer and as a fan. It would be cool to do more.”
To be precise, Watt helped Pearl Jam tap into “another avenue” to approach songwriting that, in one instance, began with Matt Cameron creating a drum beat that inspired the rest of the band to write the lyrics for the album’s title track (which we named Song of the Week).
“Matt Cameron sat down to warm up on his drums and just started playing that drum beat,” Gossard recalled. “Everybody looked at each other and was like, ‘That’s so amazing how he just goes in there and sits and plays that.’ And we recorded it while he was out there — he didn’t realize it — and we asked him, ‘Can we make a little loop of this?’ And we all sort of took it home.”
Gossard continued by explaining that he and bass guitarist Jeff Ament then wrote “two different kinds of things to this loop,” with lead guitarist Mike McCready putting together the bridge.
“We just took that beat and just laid our riffs across that beat and we just played it as a band,” he said. “That song probably represents — more than any other song — sort of the act of building something together. But it showed us something about how we can… having a Matt Cameron beat like that is something we always dream of and we always wanted and are always encouraging.”
He added, “We found a road into some of that, because we’ll give you some riffs, we’re give you some chords, they’re easy. Give me a good beat — if we have a great beat, we’re done! The song’s done, ya know what I mean?”
Pearl Jam recorded Dark Matter with Watt (Consequence’s 2022 Producer of the Year) over three weeks in 2023 at Shangri-La Studios in Malibu, California. Besides the title track, the band has previewed it with the second single, “Running,” and the newly released “Wreckage.” Stream the latter track below.
Next month, Pearl Jam will kick off a world tour in support of Dark Matter. Grab tickets for North American dates here. For international shows, look for deals at viagogo.
