Pearl Jam's Pop Art

Part of this hard work involved the Montana native moving to Seattle, where, after mixed success with proto-grunge acts Green River and Mother Love Bone, Jeff co-founded Pearl Jam with Mother Love Bone guitarist Stone Gossard. After recruiting lead guitarist Mike McCready and vocalist Eddie Vedder, Pearl Jam took to the stage and studio and became one of the most influential rock bands of the last 20 years.

After nearly two decades of recording successful albums filled with alt-rock gems, Jeff has learned more than a few things about the studio. “The more I understand the recording process, the more I realize that it’s boundless. There are a million different ways to approach any given song. Knowing you have ten or 15 sounds or tricks you can dial up—along with different combinations of basses, amps, and pedals—makes it more exciting. It’s fun to do something crazy and see what happens. Half the time it’s a failure, but half the time it turns into something new and exciting. Going into the studio is the best part of being a musician. It never gets old.”

The band’s new album, Pearl Jam, captures that fun with memorable riffs, catchy melodies, and some seriously groovin’ bass lines. Coming four years after their last studio album, Pearl Jam shows how a relentless touring schedule can refine a band’s music and sharpen its instincts.

The new album sounds less raw than your last few studio CDs. How did you go about making it?

We did most of the rhythm tracks in the first two or three sessions, so there was a lot of honing of the guitars and vocals in the middle and toward the end. That probably tightened everything up and made it sound a little more polished.

The band was in the studio five times over the course of 14 months. Why did the album take so long to make?

A few of us had kids while making this record. We went into the studio right after doing the Vote for Change tour. In between then and now we’ve done a few other tours. All those things—balancing studio time with being on the road—made it a little more challenging. But it helped keep our chops up. We’ve gone into the studio after months off, but we didn’t have that same kind of physicality you bring from being out on the road. I think that contributed to this record being more up-tempo than our last few records.

Did you go into the studio with any particular goals?

To some degree, I always try to go in with an agenda—with some sort of goal in mind. For this record I focused on locking with Matt [Cameron, drums] and sounding like a team as a rhythm section. I achieved that goal in a lot of ways; I think we brought a lot of energy. I’m really proud of what Matt and I did.

Adam Kasper produced this record. What do you look for in a producer?

I like guys who are going to push and pull you in different directions and get you to try things you normally wouldn’t. Adam is super fast and really good at capturing what we’ve got going on in the room. But I like to experiment a little more than we did on this record. I was excited to work with Tchad Blake on Binaural.

Were you happy with the sessions’ end result?

I always feel there’s room for improvement. I feel like I don’t hear enough of the top end of my bass on this CD. But the overall feeling of the record—the band playing in a room—that came across. There’s a kind of immediacy to the record, and that’s what we were going for.

How did you track your bass lines?

Most of it was cut live—all of us in the room with some separation between the amps—right after we learned the song. We’d go in and play a song anywhere from three to ten times, and then we’d listen back and make sure it was tight. If it all felt locked in and groovy, we’d set that aside and move on to the next one. I had my bass going through an Ampeg SVT, an Ampeg B-18, or a Fender Bassman, and I also went direct and sometimes used a Line 6 Bass POD.

Did you do anything differently in the studio you don’t normally do?

We ran my bass through a Fender Bassman head on about half the songs—mostly the more up-tempo songs—and tried to get a bit more top end. Unfortunately—at least when I listen to the record—I don’t hear a lot of what we got with that sound.

How about as a band?

This time around, nobody came in with any complete songs. We came in with riffs, and we sat in a circle and played, arranged, and used each other for feedback.

Is that how you normally approach songwriting as a band?

That’s the way we used to work. On the first two records we did a lot more collaborative arranging, and those songs were successful because everybody was involved. For the last few records we came in and were very meticulous with concise arrangements and complete songs. This sounds more like a real collaborative effort to me.

Do the bass lines or songs change much in the studio?

Oh, yeah. Either somebody will say something to me or I’ll listen back in the control room and think, That doesn’t really work right there. I either change the bass line or change my tone—I might be using the wrong bass. But it’s a fine line between wanting to create something new, original, and different, and wanting to do the song justice and not stomp all over it.

Can you describe your approach to writing bass lines for a new song?

Usually I close my eyes, listen to the song, and really try to hear what the bass should do. If Stone comes in with a riff, I’ll ask him to play it over and over for a few minutes. If I feel stuck, I’ll take it home and sit down at a piano and just plug around until some cool melodic or rhythmic line pops up.

You have quite a lot of basses. How do you decide which to bring into the studio?

There are four or five that are my go-to basses. A lot of it starts with how it sounds in the room to me, what they’re going for drum-wise, and talking as a band. I have a ’59 Fender P-Bass and a Fender Jazz that were the main basses on this record. The basses I love the most have a lot of character; you could plug them in direct and get a unique sound out of each. That’s what I look for. In the studio I try to get extreme with the tones—to get really ugly. For that, I have a bunch of pedals I use.

Do you remember the last bass you bought?

About a year ago I went to Bass Northwest, which is the local bass store in Seattle, and they had a Gibson Nikki Sixx Thunderbird. I played it, and for some reason some new riffs came out. That’s typically what inspires me to buy something—if it has a sweet spot that makes me start playing in a way I wouldn’t normally.

What advice do you have for bassists beginning to record?

Take chances. Do whatever it takes to find your own voice. What’s most exciting to me is seeing young bands doing something new and unique because they were cocky enough to say, “Everybody else says this is the wrong way, but I’m going to make it the right way.” Every musician has a voice inside them, and it’s up to each of us to tap into that and find it.