EDDIE ON AIR

Rip It Up, Issue 247, 1 March 1998, Page 20

EDDIE ON AIR

Jamnine with Vedder

With the recent release of Vel Pea‘rfiam are back in the charts and on the road, much to the delight of theip still substantial legion of fans. Just prior to Vigdhitting the streets, Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament took time out for a rare interview, Kerry Doole listened to their pearts of wisdom, mixed in with hits of the self righteousness and pretentiousness that make Pearl Jam intensely irritating to the non-heliever

| intexrviews now:? E Jeff: “It’s like every four or five years I’ll go out and I drink way too much and partake in other abnormal : substances. I’ll feel it for three or four days, and it’s mainly | to remind myself why I don’t do it. Maybe that’s what i we’re doing here.” s Eddie: “Not trying to be high and mighty, but it’s pretty ! exciting to put the music out there and see what it does on | its own. That way, if there are good things that happen, it’s § due to the music. If something negative comes about, you i know it wasn’t because of interviews or videos or anything i besides music. If there are bad things said about the music, ! you still know that at the time you put it out you thought it | was the best record you were making, and you’re pretty : secure about it. It’s a way of keeping the process real and i not about hype and formulas and all that stuff. We’re E fortunate enough to be able to test that. We don’t base our ! art on sales or anything like that. We’re in a privileged : position where we don’t have to make any decisions in our | lives based on the need for money. So it’s kind of exciting. I i think if L 7 felt they didn’t have to do interviews, then they i wouldn’t. It’s a great opportunity for us to take advantage ! of. There’s another reason why we don’t do many ! interviews, in a certain sense. There’s a lot in there and we | sort of make little puzzles for people that they can look at. i Even the covers themselves are like cereal boxes you can E stare at while you’re listening to it. There’s a lot in there : for whoever wants to study the stuff. It’s all in there.” : . ... .. . -

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T IR Eddie: “We try to do little things, like playing something on our own little pirate radio station [Monkey Wrench Radio] or you can ask them to be your opening band. We do our little bit. I know for a while it seemed a little strange to be selling a lot of records and hearing records you appreciated even more than yours. I don’t think our records will ever be my favourites. Of all bands, I don’t think my records would be on my Top 10 of all time. Actually, that’d be a good goal. It’d probably be an instrumental album!” Eddie: “They’re not tough to make. We just all love playing music. To use an overused term, it’s a labour of love. You like playing with certain people, ones you’d most like to play with on the planet. People with whom you’ve built up a relationship where you don’t really need to explain everything, and it just kind of happens. So yes, sure it was easy. What was difficult is that so much came out at

B"WE DON'T BASE OUR ART ON SALES,”

{ once it was the paring down of ideas and focusing on a . certain amount of them that was the hard part. It’d be like - making a film and shooting 150 miles of footage and ' having to pick out the best stuff for a 90 minute film.” I | | | Eddie: “I’ve always had a close-minded view that people ' hear in records what they’ve listened to. So if someone ' listens to Talking Heads all the time, they’ll say ‘wow, | there are a lot of songs that sound like Talking Heads on . there.’ basically because it’s music with guitars, bass and i drums. It may be an interesting way to make records to go ' in and say ‘here’s a guitar sound I have in mind and here’s - a song by another band that’s like what ’'m going for.’ | We’ve never really done that, but it’d be an interesting way . to make music. Especially if you’ve run out of your own E ideas.” | i On doing other projects (Stone with| MBrad, Jeif with Three Fish. Jack lrons | BRI (630 D s ToRONR-R 255 SRRV B - i ) BT T E Season, Eddie with Hovercrait, sang | kAI Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Temple Of PN e R ! Jeff: “Any time you can go outside of a relationship and i have other conversations and interaction, I think it’ll give i you new perspectives. For me, I think it made me ... rell, at times I wasn’t appreciating everyone in this and, and this made me appreciate what I had. Zhen you can get away and work with another ik af naanla and voiiire really atriiocoline Yol

i might work four or five days and come up with one song, i and it’s so much work and so hard to connect I or get some people to give things up.” ! Eddie: “You appreciate being in a situation E where that comes much more easily. In i December ‘96, I was in Italy and felt like i playing music, so [ started a little three-piece ! and we played a couple of shows. They were great '.. . . . ! musicians but they didn’t speak English, so it really made i me appreciate that the rest of the guys speak English!” 1 i On relationship with Sony : B . i Eddie: “We probably visit the New York office oncea ! year. We basically deliver artwork. We have a pretty good i relationship. I feel privileged that we can live in Seattle and 5 do things from here. Distribution is done by a major label, I but everything else is done from little shacks out here in the I woods comparatively. I think we’ve had the opportunity to I get into that world [of high living] but the temperature of i the water ain’t right for us!” 1

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LA G s THE REST OF THE CUYS SPEAK ENCLISH

1 e rgP L ELa s Wtheir iirst album Ten: e H Eddie: “I hear that sound. It’s just not in our band! I | hear it in other bands.” . nc.YO y. of this PO . Hlea— h.mortélltY’o.;\.:{hé‘"whfi)}e.”.‘ nthe hmkmorf,"“aspecklfftfi threadsmtéltelt ! Eddie: “I think more on the mortality of this whole ! planet lately. This band is a speck, if that, in the whole i scheme of things. That can be one of the threads in the i record. It was interesting because no matter who wrote it, i it all seemed to fit into place. We’re at a space where we ! can sit and pontificate on what we are on this planet and ! what we’re doing as a species. I’'m hoping the year 2000, i though it means nothing as a number and I’m sure there’s i going to be a lot of good parties and people getting drunk,

Ly e T e

{ buc I hope that when they wake up, ivd be great if there P ol o eDU HGeie SO geE OF { something. Jeff and I a few others have been reminded i three million years. To celebrate 2,000 of it is a speck ona. t number line and is really not that important. Whatis fAIPDEAE I 5 g 0 make o CRRGERITERIS Jodk gt wlacyEn, i whats going to happen in the next 50. Are we going to i survive that as a species? The earth will remain, but P'm

KERRY DOOLE