Eddie Vedder says Pearl Jam will be working with Andrew Watt on their next album.
The ‘Alive’ frontman had the famed record producer – who has worked on records including Ozzy Osbourne, Post Malone and Miley Cyrus – overseeing his new solo LP ‘Earthlings’ and anticipates the studio magician to produce their follow up. to the 2020s ‘Gigaton’.
He said: “We’re going to do a record with Andrew, I think. We’ve talked about it before.
“You know, the pandemic happened just as we were leaving for a tour on the ‘Gigaton’ record.
“And we had a lot of shows planned.
“Then, in between, I think we will record, because now we have a healthy ambition to do so.
“I think we’ll move fast for a year or two and then I can see us slowing down a bit.
“We have the ability to play better than ever, but we also know what we want to keep the group healthy and want to keep coming back.”
“Earthlings” features a host of music legends, including Sir Ringo Starr, Sir Elton John, Stevie Wonder, as well as Red Hot Chili Peppers drummer Chad Smith and their former guitarist Josh Klinghoffer.
And Eddie’s late father, who died at the age of 13, makes a moving posthumous appearance.
He shared, “I haven’t really got to know my real dad.
“I met him maybe three or four times when I was a kid, but he was, you know, a friend of the family. It would have been nice to have been in a room with him at some point. before he died when I was 13. It would have been nice to share that I knew he was my pop, but that didn’t happen.
“But the crazy thing that happened was about 10 years ago the Chicago Cubs, some of their alumni got together and played baseball for about a week, and I was going every two years and I was hanging out with these guys, learning about the game so I could teach my kids more, you know, I coach baseball.
“One of the ex-players, this erudite badass trumpeter, who played third base, her name is Carmen Fanzone.
“He also became the leader of the Musicians Union in Los Angeles – incredibly cool person. I saw Carmen playing horn in a little club in Arizona, and this guy who played keyboards with him was the best friend of my father.
“Two years later, he brought me pictures of them in little basement studios.
“Then a few years later he brought me five songs of my dad singing, on a record. I carried that record around for two, three months in my suitcase, not ready to hear it.
“Finally I had the courage, and after a few bottles of wine, I played it one night in Argentina. And it was good. It was amazing – like he left me a message.”
Speaking to MOJO, the rocker concluded, “I was thinking of the record as a setlist – at the end, that’s when you start bringing in special guests. We had Stevie and Elton, Ringo was an amazing addition…and then my pop ends up on a record with those guys, which isn’t too bad.
