One of the cool things about Pearl Jam's Ten Club (aside from the Christmas singles, and priority with tickets) is the magazine Deep that they put out twice a year. Volume 1, Issue 2 just arrived last week and it has a lot of interesting things. On one page there is a letter from the California Avocado Commission thanking Pearl Jam for choosing the avocado as "the quintessential minimal pop art image" on the cover of their latest studio album. On another page they show fans where $2 from their ticket purchase went during their recent tour (Washington, DC, Future of Music Coalition). They continue to impress. I was also happy to stumble across an interview that Jeff Ament did with Jim James from My Morning Jacket. Turns out Jim and I have a similar taste in movies. An excerpt follows:
JA: What, besides music, inspires you to write? Do you have a favorite room, car, trail or spot?
JJ: Like most people I hear talk about making music. I like to be alone. Normally it is a 5-step process for me: 1. A song just pops into my head, usually with full instrumentation, etc-I quickly try to find my minidisk or 4-track and just hum it into the mic or whatever to remember it. 2. I sit down at the 4-track and try to flesh out a nice demo. 3. I take it in to tha boyz and we knock it around, play it over and over and shift it around till we get it all in place. 4. We record it in the studio as best we can. 5. We play it live and let it grow.
JA: There seems to be a big shift rhythmically between It Still Moves and Z, what inspired that shift?
JJ: For Z I wanted to focus more on the bass and drums and keys as the groundwork for the song and less about the guitars. If you listen to a lot of the classic songs-especially a lot of old soul and Motown shit-it rocks sooooo hard and what you notice when you listen to the mix: "almost no guitars!" Now, I love guitars-but the music was just kinda sounding more guitar free, and we tried to make so that when a guitar came in you'd really notice it. Plus I'm a big fan of the less is more philosophy now than I was, being that if there is less thing to listen to in a sound spectrum, each one gets more air. It's like in a song, where there is a huge drum solo or breakdown, the drums sound HUGE cause your ear gets to hear all the air and pumping, but when the band comes back in they just sink back into the mix. I was wanting there to be less in the mix to begin with.
JA: You had a big year with Boston Pops, Bonnaroo, a lot of touring....how long of a break will you take before you start rehearsing/demoing for the next record? Any places you want to tour that you haven't been yet?
JJ: We will do a US tour for our live record in Nov. and Jan. After January I want to take off indefinitely so as to just write and work on songs and not hurry. Who knows what might come up so we may do some stuff here and there but we need to just chill.
JA: How about top 5 of each: books, movies, records, paintings/graphic works?
JJ: Records - 1. What Does It Take (To Win Your Love), Junior Walker and the All-Stars; 2. Heatwave, Martha & the Vandellas; 3. Life is Like a Musical, Outkast; Satan Is Real, Louvin Brothers; anything by Roger Miller
Movies - 1. Little Miss Sunshine; 2. The Shining; 3. Rushmore; 4. 2001; 5. Snakes On a Plane
Bookes (right now) - 1. A Man Without A Country, Kurt Vonnegut; 2. Wind Up Bird Chronicle, Murakami
As for paintings and photos - I have been a really big fan of looking at what my fellow band mates, as well as girlfriends (like Tom's fiancee Linda - great photographer) and crew have been taking on this run of Europe. I feel like it is so awesome to experience some of the greatest works of art I have ever seen in some of these churches and chapels, and then see them through the eye and camera lens of someone I have been with while viewing the place is very surreal. It is amazing how many infinite viewpoints exist in one place in time.
No comments:
Post a Comment