I Just Read About That…

[WATCHED: October 11, 2013] Pearl Jam interviews

Today is the release date for Pearl jam’s new album, Lightning Bolt. I have heard two songs from it (the fast and furious “Mind Your Manners” and the gorgeous “Sirens”) and I’m quite excited to hear the whole thing.  For the release of the album, Pearl Jam has decided to do some interviews.  But not with the usual suspects.  Rather, they have done four exclusive interviews with surfer Mark Richards, NFL player Steve Gleason, all around awesome lady Carrie Brownstein and director Judd Apatow.

The Mark Richards interview is available in excerpted form here.  I’m not sure how long the whole interview is.  But from the edited down video, we see that he interviewed all five of them for a bit (and then Stone, Jeff and Mike) and then Eddie.  A surfer seems like a reasonable person t ask them about their music and they clearly feel very comfortable with him.  (The video above is about 5 minutes).

Steve Gleason was an NFL player until he was struck down by ALS. He is now paralyzed talks through a computer.  He has always been a fan of Pearl Jam and became friends with the band many years ago.  His interview is emotionally wrenching because in addition to making some jokes about how long it took for this album to come out, when he gets Eddie alone, he asks him very personal questions about Eddie’s father so that he can hope to be a good father to his own son (Gleason is documenting everything in his life as a legacy to his very young son). If you don’t have tears at the end of this, you are heartless.  (About 9 minutes).

The Carrie interview is a lot of fun–Carrie asks some good musician-y questions. There’s also a lot of jokes about Stone’s choice of footwear and Mike’s (good) fashion sense (aside from the crimped mullet).  They are all at ease with her and she clearly feels comfortable with them, which makes for a good interview.  The one strange thing is that she doesn’t interview Eddie at all.  Perhaps she asked him all she needed to during their Portlandia skit.

A few funny moments from Carrie’s interview include talking about how much audiences love when you screw up.  They also talk about Gene Simmons (and rather rag on him a bit–Mike admits he is a proud member of the Kiss Army).  The band also has questions for Carrie regarding Portlandia (who did what skits)  The interviews are between two of them (Stone and Matt) and (Jeff and Mike) and then four of them (all but Eddie).

You can see the ten parts of the interview only on Facebook’s IFC page.  (About 30 minutes in total).

The Judd Apatow interview is really enjoyable.  Apatow is funny and the band clearly likes him (they interviewed him for some other kind of special).  The interview is broken down into several sections (which means the entire interview was clearly much longer). NPR broadcast the entire thing and they picks some highlights (which I have edited down)

• 4:03 Ament and Gossard get specific about how they introduce their songs to the group for a new project, prompting Apatow to explain what happens in the writing room for his films: “What most head writers do if they don’t want to take your jokes is, they just don’t acknowledge you.” Gossard: “Silence occurs…for sure.”
• 9:38 Ament and Gossard on Vedder ‘s lyrics. Gossard: “He’s on a tear right now. He’s got a lot of words.”
• 12:35 Vedder enters.
• 14:24 Vedder and Apatow compare creative processes: Vedder’s “bricklaying” versus Apatow’s 24-hours-a-day anxiety.
• 16:44 Apatow and Vedder talk Quadrophenia. Apatow’s account of how it helped him through a rough adolescent patch is moving.
• 19:15 Apatow discusses the parallels between young music geeks and comedy geeks: “I felt like the Blind Melon video with the Bee Girl – that’s what coming to Los Angeles was like.”
• 20:48 Vedder on what happens on the bus with his band mates.
• 24:38 Apatow and drummer Matt Cameron geek out on their mutual admiration of drum legend Buddy Rich.
• 26:28 Guitarist Mike McCready on the vintage guitar solo he’s trying to figure out just now. Hint: the originator’s initials are EVH.
• 33:17 McCready goes into detail about how Pearl Jam benefited by “doing everything the wrong model, that the label was very much against us doing.”
• 35:21 All five band members take the couch for the rest of the interview.
• 37:16 Vedder on how film comedies give rock bands “the will to go on.”  [They love Year One–taste is questionable after all].
• 37:47 Across-the-board Neil Young worship. Ament has the best line: “He’s the most uninhibited, pure guy that I’ve ever been around.”
• 46:08 Apatow on the Pearl Jam song he’d request and how the band takes him to “the crying place.”

Before talking about Eddie Van Halen, McCready gushes over Ace Frehley and his great playing.  (That’s two Kiss references in these interviews!).  You can watch the whole thing here.  (About 50 minutes in all.)

Incidentally, the interviews were edited down greatly and spliced into a film (with extra materials too) by Danny Clinch.  If you haven’t got time for all of the above, you’ll get some highlights (and clips of song) in this short film (about 9 minutes).