In a recent interview to Rolling Stone, Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament confessed how much they want to bring out an album but some events like Chris Cornell's death has delayed their plans.
It's been six years since Pearl Jam's last album 'Lightning Bolt' released and the Seattle rockers have visited the studios a few times in the past. So the good news is that they do have some unfinished riff's just waiting to get compiled for an album. "It's just been slow going," Ament confessed.
"I think when Chris [Cornell] passed, that's really been a tough one to wrap our heads around, and then there's just life stuff," Ament explains as one of the reasons why they are getting delayed for.
Cornell was a very important figure in the Seattle scene and for Pearl Jam too. All the members were a part of Temple of the Dog before forming Pearl Jam. In fact, Matt Cameron, guitarist Stone Gossard and Ament played a huge part in the recently held "I Am The Highway: A Tribute to Chris Cornell" concert, in Las Vegas's Forum. It has seen performances from Cornell's former bandmates in Soundgarden, Temple of the Dog and Audioslave.
The concert also had Foo Fighters, Metallica, and Miley Cyrus, who bowled the audience with her performance of "Hello 2 Heaven."
Ament has also paid homage to Cornell by being the creative director for the "Chris Cornell box set" when he was asked by Vicky Cornell. So, along with his brother, Barry Ament, Jeff spent five-six days shuffling watercolour images and all of his songs to bring out the set.
"I think he(Chris Cornell) appreciated my sensibilities when it came to that stuff. So it was pretty hard to go down that path, creating that stuff and listening to the music," Jeff said about the process.
As far as the album goes, even Stone Gossard was optimistic about releasing one this year, "We're going to make a record, and we're in the middle of it," the guitarist says. He further added how they have made trips to the studio and that they, "have a whole ton of unfinished stuff."
"It's just going to take us all getting into a room together for six weeks and just knocking something out," he added.
Even Ament confessed that they have a bunch of stuff all stacked up in the PJ shelf that is just waiting to get mastered.
"Some of the stuff, it could turn into Pearl Jam stuff, and if I get a big group of songs together, I'll just put it out as a little solo release, which I've done three of or something. When I do those, it's mostly to clean off the shelves and finish stuff; its stuff that has been on the Pearl Jam shelf for a few years and nobody is really responding to it. I think all of us have gotten into the habit of finishing stuff up and putting it out. This is a broken record, but I think I've said that I would record a lot more with Pearl Jam if that was what could happen. It just hasn't happened for some reason," Ament said.
Pearl Jam did release a song last year, 'Can't deny me,' which was against US President Donald Trump and his separation policies.
But given the optimism we are taking, hope it hits the streaming shelves as soon as possible. It sure will be one good gesture towards Chris Cornell too for he would definitely never want the music to stop playing.
