September has been the month of Pearl Jam, as blogs around the world have opined about the seminal Seattle grunge band’s 20th Anniversary. But 20 years on the Eddie Vedder fronted group are still going strong, recently releasing a new song, Ole, as a free download. The band have also now revealed that Ole will feature as one of several songs they’ve recorded earlier this year for their 10th studio album.
In an interview with Rolling Stone, bassist Jeff Ament says “We’re at least at the halfway point. The first handful of songs we had are a great, great start. It’s been really important for us that in the middle of all this, we got together and recorded a bunch of songs. It sort of gave us a breath to go, ‘Okay, we can go back and get ready for the show and book and movie and all that stuff.”
Unlike previous efforts, the new album was recorded in Los Angeles. But leaving Seattle has been a bad thing according to Ament who says “We made the bulk of our records in Seattle, so it’s just great to get out of Seattle for me. Everybody leaves all their stuff at home and you just go down for 12 days and it’s all you do. It’s like, go to a hotel and sleep, get a little breakfast, go back to the studio, repeat. There’s just nothing else. It’s taken us a long time to figure out how to do it right and have it take less time than it sometimes does. We’re excited.”
The new album is expected to be finished by early next year. No release date has been set.
