Pearl Jam are toiling away on work for their 12th studio album, and according to guitarist Stone Gossard, the guys have “demos for days.” In a new interview with 101 WRIF, Gossard discussed the new tunes.
“Everybody writes in the band, so now it’s really just trying to figure out what’s something different for us and what’s something exciting.” Gossard says the new tunes probably won’t drop until 2024.
“The plan is that we’re gonna do some more recording, and we’re gonna try to finish a record here pretty soon. There’s songs that are getting close to being done and there’s a bunch that aren’t,” he said. “I think we’ve got a good start on another record that will be hopefully good. I bet it’s gonna be 2024 before the record comes out, is my guess – but we’re working on it.”
Gossard said Pearl Jam’s goal with the new music was to make “looser” music.
“What is another process? How is it that we can do something new? What’s the next step?” Gossard said. “We’re talking about trying different formations of how to generate song ideas, particularly ones that move us in a cool direction or in a direction that makes people go, ‘Ah!’”
Switching gears, Gossard also opened up about the late, great Chris Cornell.
“The more you listen to Chris and dig into what he did when he was here- I’m just more and more impressed by him and in awe of his natural talent,” he said. “We made that Temple of the Dog record, and we rehearsed four times. He showed us the songs. We kind of knew how to play them. We went in there with him and Matt Cameron – who is just unbelievable – and they just showed us how to make a record in five days. I listen to that record, and I don’t remember playing half of it, and it’s probably one of the best records I’ve ever been involved with, and it was instantaneous because those guys were so pro. He was so generous to give us an opportunity to make that record.”
