Pearl Jam New Album: Producer Talks Lightning Bolt, Release Date October 15

Pearl Jam's long-time studio wizard, producer Brendan O' Brien recently sat down with Rolling Stone to discuss the making of the band's new album Lightning Bolt. I've gathered a bit of the interviews highlights below, but you can read the whole thing here.

Tell me how this new Pearl Jam album started. What were the first steps?
The seeds of this album actually started when we were doing the last record, Backspacer. Everybody was really happy with how that worked out. We had a really good time doing it. The idea was to do another record in the same way, where we get together in Seattle, work the songs up and cut them down in Los Angeles at Henson, the studio where I usually work.

We started working about a year and a half ago, maybe even longer. We did about six or seven songs that were ready. My idea was, "Let's do these songs, make them great and be all excited about them, and then that will propel the band into writing the rest of the songs. We'll get right back and do the rest of them." Well, that didn't happen. I was not able to get them into the studio for another year and a half. 

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How does the sound of this record compare to the previous one?

...I guess there are a few longer, more devoted songs. On Backspacer I really love that all the songs were fairly short. I love that about it. They were all "get in, get out fast." This record has a few songs that have a bit more of a . . . they kind of . . . what's the word I'm looking for here? They're longer. [Laughs] I don't know if the word "depth" is right, but some of the songs kind of take you down a road for a while.

There's a song called "Sirens" that I think is one of the best songs on the record. That clocks in around five minutes, which is long pop song. It really works out. A song called "Infallible" - at least that's what I believe it's called - is also a little more developed that way.

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How is the Eddie Vedder of today different than the guy you first met 20 years ago?
To me, he's remarkably the same. When it comes to writing songs and his intensity towards his work . . . He stills pulls out the same typewriter from the same little brown suitcase he's been using for 20 years. It's remarkable how much he approaches it the same. I know he's a different guy since he's a family man now, a father, but all that looks the same to me.   

As we've previously covered, Lightning Bolt drops October 15. And the first single "Mind Your Manners" is out now.