Over the course of their 19-year career Pearl Jam have waxed and waned with the moon: big muscular records like their multi-million selling debut Ten and 1998’s Yield alternating with rougher-edged and more evasive works like Vitalogy and Binaural. But since their eponymous 2006 album the band have shown signs of a return to the vibrancy and ambition of their prime: the quintet’s forthcoming ninth album Backspacer finds them sounding lean and tight in their middle years.

“The trick is everybody’s writing and inspired still,” says guitarist Stone Gossard. “Ed (Vedder)’s vision for still drawing everyone out, his lyrics and optimism and the way he’s singing and his clarity and the overall sound... We’re going through a period right now that you don’t get to go through every day.”
So what’s the catalyst for this rejuvenation?
“I think it’s just a tenacious stubbornness about seeing things through. You have to trust in the process. In the middle period where we were maybe doing things that were frustrating, or it appeared we weren’t hitting as tightly and as cleanly as we are now, we were laying the groundwork to have a whole bunch of new stuff happen. Maybe we were not living up to our potential, and in retrospect maybe it was a struggle and it was stressful, but that was the period where we created the opportunities for now, because we didn’t take it so seriously and allowed ourselves to experiment. We let some new styles in.
“Maybe people were like, ‘Oh my god, I just want them to be good, I don’t want them to experiment!’ but if you’re going through a period of time that’s difficult, as an artist or as a human being, you’re getting something. You might not be able to see it at that time, but in the end you look back and go, ‘Wow, that was really critical for me to go through.’”
Indeed. Look at Neil Young’s Ditch period. Tonight’s The Night confused the hell out of people on its release, now it’s regarded as one of his finest records. Likewise, Young’s 1995 collaboration with Pearl Jam on Mirrorball also received somewhat mixed reviews at the time, but songs like ‘Song X’ and ‘I’m the Ocean’ still sound colossal.
“Well, Neil Young, you hit it on the head,” Stone says, “that’s the apex in terms of taking chances. And yet the simplicity of delivery and the way he just channels this massive spirit and the way he plays lead guitar still – it has punk, it has folk, it has everything blended in a way that suits him. He knows how he can evolve still, and everyone’s agreed that it’s okay for him to do that now, which is an incredible position to be in. He’s a huge inspiration to all of us. All the great bands are: Queen and The Who and Led Zeppelin, all the way to Radiohead, these bands that made you drop your jaw because you just can’t believe how forcefully it’s being delivered.”
“Black Flag, The Who, The Clash and AC/DC,” adds bass-player Jeff Ament, “it’s kinda the same: this fuckin’ hurricane that’s happening – basically everybody in the band really just letting go and playing the shit out of the songs and being really committed. You have to be really focused physically to go out and play two and a half hours and try to deliver it every night. When we play a live show I still feel like we approach it the same as I did when I was in a hardcore band 25 years ago. I put my head down and try to get inside the music those first few songs. Part of that probably is feeling guilty about looking up and seeing 20,000 people out there!”
But despite that focus and force of delivery, there’s a fair amount of scope exhibited on Backspacer. A song like ‘Just Breathe’ could be played between Richard Thompson and Nick Drake. Did Vedder’s work on the Into the Wild soundtrack have any bearing on the new album?
“Oh, I’m so thankful that there were some moments that were relative to that on this record,” says Stone. “I’m always hoping that Ed will feel like he can play the quietest stuff in this band as well as the loudest stuff. I think a lot of it is Brendan O’Brien as well, just in terms of how it really jumps off the speakers. It’s really his mixing and choices of how he gets instruments to all live together at the same time. He’s very professional, and we’re semi-unprofessional, and when you mix those things together it sounds good, it doesn’t sound too polished.”
Brendan O’Brien is of course the veteran Atlanta-born producer who presided over some of Pearl Jam’s most important records. Of late though, he’s become more renowned for his work on the last three Bruce Springsteen albums, earning the Boss’s trust not just at the faders, but in terms of compositional input.
“I think that was a significant thing,” Stone admits, “I think Ed heard the steps that Bruce took on his records with Brendan and it reassured him that... Y’know, it’s Ed’s band, he’s the artistic director. Everybody tries to bring something to the table, but in the end it’s him who’s gonna be making decisions about the collective, and for him to trust Brendan is hugely important, and I think you can hear it in his vocal. Ed’s been turning his vocal down since the beginning of the band, and on this record it’s up, you can hear it.”
“I think the thing Brendan is best at is working really fast,” says Jeff, “and everybody needed to have their chops up, so everybody worked harder going into this record than we have in a long time. He’s probably one of the most intellectual musicians that any of us has ever been around, so he hears things way ahead of time. If in the middle of recording all of a sudden we decided to change keys, we had to be really focused. It was really fun to feel like we were a good enough band to acclimate to and explore any of the whims that Brendan had at the time, and we did it quickly.”
Certainly a song like ‘Speed Of Sound’ modulates from Northern English folk to the Beach Boys to Van Dyke Parks to Led Zeppelin, and manages to sound sincere in all modes.
“Yeah, and a lot of that was Brendan hearing the song a certain way,” Jeff affirms. “It just started off being this beautiful acoustic song that Ed brought in, and Brendan showed us all a way that we could apply a stronger band sound behind something so delicate.”
What brought them back to O’Brien a full decade after their last collaboration?
“I think the last three records were us kind of left to our own devices, and it was time to get back in the studio with a strong personality, and Brendan’s kind of the only guy out there that we trust with our music. I think we could have used his help on the last record too, to get us a little more focused.
“I think (the Bruce connection) probably helped Ed out a little bit. Ed probably trusts Bruce as much as anybody out there in terms of our peers, and it’s a lot of work to get ready to work with Brendan. We had to put in our time in the months leading up to it because we basically had ten or twelve days to cut the record, and we haven’t even come close to working that fast, ever, really. This is the first time that we utilised Brendan in the way that we should’ve. I think we came pretty close with Yield, but I think Versus and Vitalogy both, we strung those records out. Brendan is a really great musician and he demands a lot out of us, and it’s good when we embrace that challenge and decide that it’s okay to try really hard to be the absolute best that we can be.”