Pearl Jam appeared on CBS Sunday Morning over the weekend to chat about their career and their recent LP, Dark Matter. The morning show also aired an exclusive live performance clip of “Even Flow,” shot at Washington-Grizzly Stadium in Missoula, MT, on Aug. 22 as part of the band’s current Dark Matter world tour.
In the interview, lead singer Eddie Vedder and bassist Jeff Ament discussed the band’s longevity and how their writing process has stayed similar over the years. “Pretty much everything I’ve ever written, it’s always started as a paper napkin,” Vedder said. “Now cloth napkins, because we’re staying in better hotels!”
He compared writing lyrics to surfing, as well. “You put these building blocks together, so you can kind of, let’s say shape the perfect wave, you know, that has a couple turns, and then a barrel, and then the lyrics come – the lyrics come from surfing that wave,” he said.
Both musicians reflected on how the band has managed to stay together for so long, with Ament noting, “It’s miraculous in some ways that we made it through. And then also it’s just a testament to our friendship.” Vedder added, “I was gonna say, good, clean living.”
During the interview, Vedder also talked about Pearl Jam’s set lists, telling CBS Sunday Morning that he labors over all of them, selecting the songs from a voluminous list, which contains “a lot of covers, things we played once.” He added that it sometimes takes “a ridiculously long amount of time” to write the set lists, which he scrawls out in calligraphy. “It keeps me focused and entertained,” he said.
Pearl Jam released Dark Matter, their 12th LP, in April. They kicked off a world tour in support of the new album in May, including a stop at Napa Valley’s BottleRock where Bradley Cooper joined the band on stage to perform “Maybe It’s Time” from his film A Star Is Born. The band is set to perform at Ohana Festival later this month before heading to New Zealand and Australia.