The members of Pearl Jam faced one another in the same space and communicated sonically at the highest level when they retreated to Shangri-La Studios in Malibu to record their 12th studio album Dark Matter.
Writing and recording in a burst of inspiration, the album was born in just three weeks.
As a result, Dark Matter channels the shared spirit of a group of lifelong creative confidants and brothers in one room playing as if their very lives depended on it.
All of the blood, sweat, tears, and energy of a storied career felt renewed and poured into this one body of work.
The band members personally previewed the record recently with a listening party at the iconic Troubadour in West Hollywood during GRAMMY® week.
“I’m getting chills, because I have good memories,” frontman Eddie Vedder said, in a media release.
“We’re still looking for ways to communicate. We’re at this time in our lives when you could do it or you could not do it, but we still care about putting something out there that is meaningful and we hopefully think is our best work. No hyperbole, I think this is our best work.”
Bassist Jeff Ament added: “What Ed said about getting us in a room at this point, we felt like we were about to make a really important record. A lot of that had to do with the atmosphere Andrew (Watt) set up. He has encyclopedic knowledge of our history, not only as a band and how we wrote songs, but as players. He could pinpoint things we did on old songs to the point where I was like, ‘What the fuck is he talking about?’ His excitement was contagious. He’s a force. I just want to say thanks for keeping us on track. I couldn’t be prouder of us as a band. I feel so grateful for the fans, but mostly for my brothers and these people I’ve made music with.”
The band is celebrating indie record stores with the release of a special edition of Dark Matter on April 20.
Only at participating stores as part of Record Store Day.
Get more information and find stores at www.recordstoreday.com.
Pearl Jam will release their twelfth studio album, Dark Matter, on Monkeywrench Records/Republic Records on April 19, 2024 and launch a 35-date worldwide tour this May.
Produced by multi-GRAMMY® award winning producer Andrew Watt, Dark Matter, marks the band’s first release since critically-acclaimed Gigaton (2020).
Full details are available at https://pearljam.com/.