PEARL JAM Has 'A Good Start' On Another Album

PEARL JAM guitarist Stone Gossard spoke to Meltdown of Detroit's WRIF radio station about the progress of the songwriting and recording sessions for the band's follow-up to 2020's "Gigaton" album. He said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "We're taking some time off right now. We finished up all the makeup dates that we lost from three years ago; we finished that up a few months back. 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. And we're gonna do something here pretty soon."

Gossard also spoke in more details about the PEARL JAM songwriting process, saying: "We do it all the different ways. Sometimes we go in and somebody just brings a riff and we just work it up from the very… 'I've got this and this part,' and everyone just jams on it. Usually that's the best formula for us, where everyone's kind of in the same room. But we all bring in fully realized demos. We've got demos for days. Everybody writes in the band, so now it's really just trying to figure out, really, what's something different for us and what's something exciting. And we're working on that. I think we've got a good start on another record that will be hopefully good."

Asked if the next PEARL JAM album will arrive in 2023, Stone said: "I bet it's gonna be 2024 before the record comes out, is my guess. But we're working on it."

This past July, PEARL JAM released "Gigaton (Tour Edition)". It featured 11 live songs recorded during the band's triumphant return to the road in 2021 alongside the group's critically acclaimed chart-topping eleventh full-length LP, originally released. It was made available on all DSPs and as in limited-edition LP/CD combo only in independent record stores across the country.

"Gigaton (Tour Edition)" arrived on the heels of the special Record Store Day release of the platinum 1998 live classic "Live On Two Legs". It emerged as the No. 1 indie retail piece for Record Store Day, bowing at No. 33 on the Billboard 200 and earning No. 1 on the Top Vinyl Albums chart, No. 1 on the Top Hard Rock Music Albums chart, and No. 2 on the Top Rock Albums chart.

"Gigaton" debuted at No. 1 on Billboard's Top Rock Albums, Top Alternative Albums and Billboard Vinyl Albums chart. In addition, it hit Top 5 on Billboard 200 Album chart, No. 2 Billboard Top Album Sales chart and to date has reached over 200 million global streams. The album was critically acclaimed, with Entertainment Weekly raving, "It's a sturdy rock album from five guys who know what they're doing, took time till they had something to say, are interpolating new influences and sound stoked to be back together in a room."