Jeff Ament on Eddie Vedder’s New Track, Watching ‘The Beatles: Get Back’
Jeff Ament, like many others, was very moved by “Brother the Cloud,” the latest single from Eddie Vedder.
In an appearance on WMMR’s Preston & Steve, Ament said, “I just got the whole record yesterday, so I just heard ‘Brother the Cloud.’ I heard it once yesterday, which is kind of a heavy number from what I could gather. I didn’t look at the lyrics, but whenever I hear first lyrics from Ed, a lot of times there’s a couple of lines that hit me pretty deep and that was definitely one of them.”
Regarding lyrics, Ament continued, “Well, as a kid when I bought records, it was one of those things where you bought a record once a month. You open the package up, and the first time that you listen to it, you read along with the lyrics. And I think I think to this day, that’s sort of how I prefer to listen to music for the first time, if I can actually just like put my headphones on and just sort of read the lyrics as the song is going by. I’m in a band with one of the great singers/lyricists of our time. So I’m always curious, because he’s always kind of shifting his style, and I’m always curious where he’s headed. So, I don’t have the lyrics; I need to get the lyrics to the new record.”
He also discussed former Red Hot Chili Peppers guitarist Josh Klinghoffer joining Pearl Jam’s touring band: “I’ve loved Josh forever, like the handful of times that I’ve seen him with Chili Peppers over the years. I think we sort of enjoy the same kind of weird, eclectic music like the “no-wave” scene in New York and a lot of weird jazz and ambient music. And so we have these great conversations about that stuff. He sort of brought a super cool energy to what we’re doing and we really love is this Pluralone records. Initially we were just excited to have him out playing with us. And then when we started hanging out, he was like, “Hey, I could I could sing that part or I could do this.” And he’s a crazy good musician. You know, like keyboards, drums, whatever. So it’s just been fun. It’s like a new infusion of energy into the band and he’s he’s easy to get along with.”
The topic of The Beatles: Get Back also came up during the interview, and Ament divulged, “Let It Be was the first album I bought growing up, and my uncle growing up was a huge Beatles head and he would let me borrow singles. And so I was always pretty obsessed with that record. So to go that deep and to see and to see their process and to see basically Paul McCartney’s eyes roll back in his head and just create these songs out of the ether. The other guys are on the other side of the room working on a tune and he’s there, working on ‘Let It Be’ and it turned out to be ‘Let It Be,’ you know?”
He continued, “I sort of relate to that part a little bit because in particular, early on, that was kind of how Pearl Jam wrote songs. You know, somebody might come in with a riff or something, but we sort of made stuff out of nothing. And so to watch the Beatles do that and in particular, Paul, like you could tell George and John worked on stuff at home and they would bring it in and have it kind of semi-worked out. I’ve read some stuff since I watched it…That’s his deal, man. He doesn’t want to prepare; He wants to feel that energy coursing through his body when he’s creating. He wants to create stuff out of nothing. To me, it was like witnessing a miracle or something. It’s always been sort of my religion and my God and whatever, and so to see it on film, to see like to see those songs kind of coming out of nothing, it was just so magical. I was like standing up, going like, ‘Oh my God! He’s writing ‘Let It Be’ over there! ‘All Things Must Pass’ with George over here!'”
Ament also discussed his Montana Pool Service, his non-profit that builds skateparks in Montana. Check out the entire interview here.
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