Last month, Pearl Jam released Dark Matter, their 12th studio album and first project since 2020’s Gigaton. Now, Apple Music 1 have released the band’s interview with Zane Lowe, recorded at their warehouse headquarters in Seattle as they geared up for the album release. The in-depth conversation covered a range of topics, from collaborating with producer Andrew Watt and legend Stevie Wonder, to recording at Rick Rubin’s Shangri-La Studio, to how they feel about critics and more.
Speaking about the warehouse, or ‘clubhouse,’ that Lowe and the band were speaking in, Eddie Vedder shared, “it’s all under one roof from our political activism to… merchandise and t-shirts and posters. Everybody who works in these different departments, it’s a family. So this is a comfortable place and it’s not often empty. Usually… someone’s practicing for a benefit, someone’s tutoring kids and doing experimental recording… it’s a lively building. It’s a healthy vessel and the blood’s pumping through it.”
Talking about working with producer Andrew Watt for the first time, Stone Gossard shared, “He really is the perfect producer for us because we’re so part of his childhood. He understands us so well that there’s no color he’s bringing to this band that makes people go, ‘Oh, that sounds like…’ Or this is something different. He actually can fit in a way that it sounds right, and that’s just how he produces. He plays along. He’s got to feel the music in the way that the band does.”
Vedder also talked about collaborating with Stevie Wonder on the record: “Andrew had worked with Stevie because Stevie was working with Elton [John], and Andrew was working with Elton… Now the whole time before he shows up, you don’t think it’s really going to happen anyways because how could this happen? Is this really going to happen? But sure enough, he showed up and was just incredible. We recorded late into the night, and one of the great things is he doesn’t really have a circadian rhythm, so it’s just his time and it was a powerful, powerful thing.”