An Interview with Stone by Andrew Daly

Comments

  • This was great. Stone seems really happy. 
  • DM282158DM282158 Beverly, MA Posts: 514
    More shows in the States next year. Recoded some songs. 

    Giddy up!
    Boston '06
    Mansfield '08
    Hartford '10
    Worcester, Hartford '13
    Global Citizen, NY '15
  • igotid88igotid88 Posts: 27,141
    Thought it was the comedian
    I miss igotid88
  • FlavafrazFlavafraz Pennsylvania Posts: 402
    I also liked the quote we have a bunch of songs we hardly play and might want to play more next tour
  • devonfzdevonfz Posts: 141
    That makes me feel happy!
  • PJammer4lifePJammer4life Los Angeles Posts: 2,578
    Josh got a lot of love from Stone. 
    Bridge Benefit 1994, San Francisco 1995, San Diego 1995 1 & 2, Missoula 1998, Los Angeles 2000, San Diego 2000, Eddie Vedder/Beck 2/26/2002, Santa Barbara 2003, Irvine 2003, San Diego 2003, Vancouver 2005, Gorge 2005, San Diego 2006, Los Angeles 2006 1 & 2, Santa Barbara 2006, Eddie Vedder 4/10/08, Eddie Vedder 4/12/08, Eddie Vedder 4/15/08, 7/12/2008, SF 8/28/09, LA 9/30/09, LA 10/1/09, LA 10/06/09, LA 10/07/09, San Diego 10/09/09, Eddie Vedder 7/6/2011, Eddie Vedder 7/8/2011, PJ20 9/3/2011, PJ20 9/4/2011, Vancouver 9/25/2011, San Diego 11/21/13, LA 11/24/13, Ohana 9/25/21, Ohana 9/26/21, Ohana 10/1/21, EV 2/17/22, LA Forum 5/6/22, LA Forum 5/7/22, EV 10/1/22, EV 9/30/23
  • JeBurkhardtJeBurkhardt Posts: 4,448
    Love reading Stone interviews. Thanks for posting. 
  • BrainofBGABrainofBGA Australia Posts: 3,838
    Great interview. 
    Melbourne #1 '98
    Melbourne #2 '03
    Melbourne #3 '03
    Melbourne #1 '06
    Melbourne #3 '06
    Melbourne '09
    Melbourne '14
  • demetriosdemetrios Canada Posts: 87,314
    Bump!

    Andrew:
    Pearl Jam has more or less outlasted most of its contemporaries from the initial early 90s era. To what do you owe the band’s longevity?

    Stone:
    We didn’t break up. [Laughs]. It sounds silly, but it’s true. The other thing would be that we went into this with an idea about what we wanted to do, and we had goals. The goal, moreso, the idea was that we wanted to be in a band that we were going to share with each other. We knew that we were all going to support each other because all of us were artists, we all wanted to write, and we all do that at different levels, and in different ways. So, over the years, we stayed true to that, and I think that having that ideology built into our DNA as a band, I think that has carried us through periods of time where maybe we wouldn’t have lasted because we did give each other a break. Honestly, you can have years where you feel like, “I’m not quite sure anymore. This is not working in the way that I want it to.” And then five years after that, you’re like, “Man, you know what? This is great. I’m so glad I stuck around.”

    The thing is, in order to get that perspective, it takes a lot of perseverance, and it takes a lot of stubborn competitiveness. You have got to believe in yourself even when you know you’re not playing your best, or you don’t feel like you’re being supported, or whatever. All of us have had those moments in this band where it wasn’t quite right, but like a family, you stick it out with each other, and you work on it a little bit every day. For us, the ideals of what we set out to do are still paying off for us now. The only difference is that now, we’re just a bunch of fucking old guys who feel so fortunate, and so lucky to be with each other still. We feel lucky to have a bunch of songs that we’re still learning how to play in new ways. Beyond that, we have a bunch of songs that we’ve hardly ever played, and those might end up being the ones we want to play a lot on the next tour. We’ve got hundreds of songs and covers that we play, and it’s just a really amazing thing to be able to go out and do that. Still, I think all of us just feel like, “Wow, how did this happen? This is amazing.”


  • southernmanfansouthernmanfan Johannesburg, South Africa Posts: 988
    rustedsigns
  • demetriosdemetrios Canada Posts: 87,314

    Andrew:
    In your opinion, is rock dead?

    Stone:
    I mean, who knows, and who cares? [Laughs]. Honestly, Pearl Jam is playing shows and we’re having fun, so whatever it is that we’re doing, we’re having a good time, and our fans seem to be having a good time too. I love the open-endedness of rock music because there is no defining quality to rock music. It’s about multiple people playing music together, with whatever instruments it is that they choose to play. Whatever it is, if it’s anything that could be rock, I love it. I love bands. I love collaboration. To me, the frame of “rock music” can hold a lot of different pictures, and there are a lot of pictures that haven’t been made up yet in terms of how a band might sound together. With that, we don’t know what the instrumentation might be, and why it would be heavy, but it could still be rock, but it might be different instruments that still that evoke that same heaviness that rock evokes, which is something that’s primal. I think that with rock, it’s something that’s honestly relative to the blues, which again, is what we’re all sort of connecting to on a fundamental level, right? So, the blues has been around for a long time, and I don’t think it’s going anywhere. It’s just gonna keep changing shape.


  • demetriosdemetrios Canada Posts: 87,314

    Andrew:
    Going back to when you first joined Pearl Jam, how did your time with Mother Love Bone and Green River prepare you for what was to come?

    Stone:
    Well, you know, I think being in bands just offers you the experience of working with folks and honing your skill set, whatever that may be. I think just the general experience of being in bands, and having recorded a few times, you know, that helped me too. That said, I still feel like I’m learning and discovering new things all the time. When it comes to playing music with other people, writing songs, how to be good within a song, how to be yourself, and how to play a role; I think I’m still learning. When it comes to collaborative songwriting, that’s just an ongoing process, and I think I’ve been learning from the time I started playing guitar, and I’ve never stopped. So, I don’t really know that I have got any specific sort of things that I necessarily learned in Green River and Mother Love Bone per se.

    Then again, as far as the studio, those bands did give me recording experience and showed me how to calm myself as I record, and how to identify riffs that have some meaning. For me, really listening back after I record is important, because I need to get everything down, and then give myself some time to go back. When I go back, that’s when I’ll see what sounds catch my ear from a listener’s perspective, as opposed to when I’m playing it. When it comes to songwriting and being in a band, to me, it’s much more about subtraction than it’s ever been in terms of why and how a part of a song makes sense. It’s also about what you can do to help elevate a song, and it’s usually the simplest thing, you know? It really is the simplest thing sometimes, because when you take something away, that makes room for something else, or something new to be there. So, it’s trying to find those moments and arrangements that open up to ideas that you might not have thought of otherwise. Those are the things that I think about a lot these days, and those are the things that I’ve been learning since I was in those earlier bands.


  • demetriosdemetrios Canada Posts: 87,314
    Bump!
  • jimjam1982jimjam1982 AZ Posts: 1,159
    demetrios said:
    Bump!

    Andrew:
    Pearl Jam has more or less outlasted most of its contemporaries from the initial early 90s era. To what do you owe the band’s longevity?

    Stone:
    We didn’t break up. [Laughs]. It sounds silly, but it’s true. The other thing would be that we went into this with an idea about what we wanted to do, and we had goals. The goal, moreso, the idea was that we wanted to be in a band that we were going to share with each other. We knew that we were all going to support each other because all of us were artists, we all wanted to write, and we all do that at different levels, and in different ways. So, over the years, we stayed true to that, and I think that having that ideology built into our DNA as a band, I think that has carried us through periods of time where maybe we wouldn’t have lasted because we did give each other a break. Honestly, you can have years where you feel like, “I’m not quite sure anymore. This is not working in the way that I want it to.” And then five years after that, you’re like, “Man, you know what? This is great. I’m so glad I stuck around.”

    The thing is, in order to get that perspective, it takes a lot of perseverance, and it takes a lot of stubborn competitiveness. You have got to believe in yourself even when you know you’re not playing your best, or you don’t feel like you’re being supported, or whatever. All of us have had those moments in this band where it wasn’t quite right, but like a family, you stick it out with each other, and you work on it a little bit every day. For us, the ideals of what we set out to do are still paying off for us now. The only difference is that now, we’re just a bunch of fucking old guys who feel so fortunate, and so lucky to be with each other still. We feel lucky to have a bunch of songs that we’re still learning how to play in new ways. Beyond that, we have a bunch of songs that we’ve hardly ever played, and those might end up being the ones we want to play a lot on the next tour. We’ve got hundreds of songs and covers that we play, and it’s just a really amazing thing to be able to go out and do that. Still, I think all of us just feel like, “Wow, how did this happen? This is amazing.”


    If by next tour they mean the fall leg let's F'n go. 
  • demetriosdemetrios Canada Posts: 87,314
    demetrios said:
    Bump!

    Andrew:
    Pearl Jam has more or less outlasted most of its contemporaries from the initial early 90s era. To what do you owe the band’s longevity?

    Stone:
    We didn’t break up. [Laughs]. It sounds silly, but it’s true. The other thing would be that we went into this with an idea about what we wanted to do, and we had goals. The goal, moreso, the idea was that we wanted to be in a band that we were going to share with each other. We knew that we were all going to support each other because all of us were artists, we all wanted to write, and we all do that at different levels, and in different ways. So, over the years, we stayed true to that, and I think that having that ideology built into our DNA as a band, I think that has carried us through periods of time where maybe we wouldn’t have lasted because we did give each other a break. Honestly, you can have years where you feel like, “I’m not quite sure anymore. This is not working in the way that I want it to.” And then five years after that, you’re like, “Man, you know what? This is great. I’m so glad I stuck around.”

    The thing is, in order to get that perspective, it takes a lot of perseverance, and it takes a lot of stubborn competitiveness. You have got to believe in yourself even when you know you’re not playing your best, or you don’t feel like you’re being supported, or whatever. All of us have had those moments in this band where it wasn’t quite right, but like a family, you stick it out with each other, and you work on it a little bit every day. For us, the ideals of what we set out to do are still paying off for us now. The only difference is that now, we’re just a bunch of fucking old guys who feel so fortunate, and so lucky to be with each other still. We feel lucky to have a bunch of songs that we’re still learning how to play in new ways. Beyond that, we have a bunch of songs that we’ve hardly ever played, and those might end up being the ones we want to play a lot on the next tour. We’ve got hundreds of songs and covers that we play, and it’s just a really amazing thing to be able to go out and do that. Still, I think all of us just feel like, “Wow, how did this happen? This is amazing.”


    If by next tour they mean the fall leg let's F'n go. 

    That would be SWEET!!!
    *crossing fingers
  • demetriosdemetrios Canada Posts: 87,314

    Andrew:
    In your opinion, is rock dead?

    Stone:
    I mean, who knows, and who cares? [Laughs]. Honestly, Pearl Jam is playing shows and we’re having fun, so whatever it is that we’re doing, we’re having a good time, and our fans seem to be having a good time too. I love the open-endedness of rock music because there is no defining quality to rock music. It’s about multiple people playing music together, with whatever instruments it is that they choose to play. Whatever it is, if it’s anything that could be rock, I love it. I love bands. I love collaboration. To me, the frame of “rock music” can hold a lot of different pictures, and there are a lot of pictures that haven’t been made up yet in terms of how a band might sound together. With that, we don’t know what the instrumentation might be, and why it would be heavy, but it could still be rock, but it might be different instruments that still that evoke that same heaviness that rock evokes, which is something that’s primal. I think that with rock, it’s something that’s honestly relative to the blues, which again, is what we’re all sort of connecting to on a fundamental level, right? So, the blues has been around for a long time, and I don’t think it’s going anywhere. It’s just gonna keep changing shape.

  • Edved82Edved82 Ireland Posts: 1,249
    Stone sounds really content in Pearl Jam these days, which is great to see. Looking forward to hearing what the boys come up with next!
    "...though my problems are meaningless....that don't make them go away...."
  • demetriosdemetrios Canada Posts: 87,314
    ndrew:
    And you’ve got Josh Klinghoffer touring with the band now as well? What has he brought to the table?

    Stone:
    Josh has such a great voice, and he’s singing so many harmony parts that have been ignored for a long time. Matt can sing pretty good, and me, Jeff [Ament], and Mike [McCready] can kind of throw up a background every once in a while too. But Ed writes pretty intricate, complex, and extremely challenging background vocal parts, so if you don’t really sing, you’re not going to be able to just wing it. So, for us, to have Josh singing all these parts from these old songs, and the new ones too, while also playing these keyboard parts that we have been missing, it’s incredible. It’s funny because Josh is a Pearl Jam fan from way back, so he sort of knows our material better than we do, which is kind of hilarious. It’s just a joy to be around him, and he’s an amazing, and personable guy too. Really, he’s a musical genius, who has a lot of deep harmonic knowledge, and a tremendous understanding of music. And so, Josh is really informing the band and making us so much better, but he’s also a brother, and really somebody who is fun to tour with. So, being out with him, it’s just been nothing but a joy, and I think we probably sound better than ever, and a lot of that is Josh adding back in some parts that have been ignored for a while.


Sign In or Register to comment.