Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready discussed Pearl Jam’s future in a live discussion with Cameron Crowe last month. When Crowe discussed how the music industry has changed with more of an emphasis on touring than albums, he asked McCready if he saw Pearl Jam continuing to make albums along with touring in the future.
“I think so. It’s changed, like you said. We were having this discussion a couple of weeks ago, I feel like we can go out and tour even if we don’t have a record out, and that is a huge luxury, thank you for that, seriously, thank you for that. That’s a huge luxury, we’re very aware of that, but at the same time to keep it interesting for us as artists and musicians, we need to keep creating. We need to keep trying to push the boundaries, of whatever our boundaries are, we try to get out of those.
A lot of that is Jeff Ament’s brain, he will go, ‘Let’s try to do it this completely different other way.’ [He can] look at it from another angle. We have distinct personalities in the band, and his vision a lot of times is kind of where we – Ed too obviously, but I see Jeff do it. He will say, ‘Let’s try something that is more Peter Gabrielish with a twist of Venom.’ I’m serious, that keeps it interesting. On that line, that gets us excited to kind of go: ‘Let’s try to do that.’ Our band is in a situation where we all write songs, and edit each other’s songs. That keeps it interesting.”
Pearl Jam are taking it easy in 2017, with their only performance being at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony in April.
