In a new interview with Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio, PEARL JAM guitarist Stone Gossard spoke about the band’s plans for the coming months once the coronavirus pandemic has subsided. He said: “PEARL JAM will definitely be back. I think we’ll probably be on the road. I mean, my hope is that we’ll start playing some shows in the fall or early winter. I don’t know what they’re gonna be or when they’re gonna be, but that’s my hope. And after that, we’ve got a lot of makeup shows to do. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Asked if PEARL JAM is going to jump into recording a new album or focus on touring in support of last year’s “Gigaton”, Stone said: “We’re always kind of recording and doing stuff. So, it wouldn’t surprise me if we did some more recording, but there’s no plans as of now. I have no idea what we’re gonna do, but I’ll be ready to go when I get the call.
“Gigaton” came out in March 2020. Produced by Josh Evans and PEARL JAM, it bowed at No. 1 on the Billboard Top Rock Albums chart. Additionally, it landed in the Top 5 of the Billboard 200. Internationally, the album debuted No. 1 in Italy and Austria, Top 5 in Netherlands, Switzerland, Australia, Germany, Belgium, Norway, Canada, and Finland and Top 10 in the U.K., Ireland, and New Zealand.
Last November, Gossard told Kerrang! that he would like to “make another record that really shocks people.”
“There’s some new territory [on ‘Gigaton’], and I think it bodes well for whatever comes next,” he said. “I think we’re still scratching the surface in terms of what really could be significantly different-sounding songs. I guess I would probably compare [what I’m thinking of] to an ‘OK Computer’/‘Kid A’ moment, thinking about RADIOHEAD‘s transformation and the journey that they went on… It’s not going to be ‘OK Computer’, obviously, but a moment where we stumble onto something that is significantly different. That prospect always intrigues me. I’d like to make another record that really shocks people — that makes them go, ‘Wow, that’s unexpected.'”
Photo credit: Danny Clinch
