Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready tells Rolling Stone that the band hope to have their next album out "this year, for sure."
McCready says the band members are "working on demos right now and we're going to be recording soon.What everybody's been saying is halfway done," he says of the follow-up to 2009's “Backspacer.” "I think that's true – we have seven songs that are relatively completed. But then we have an additional 15 ready to go aside from any that Eddie brings in, so we'll weed through those."
Though he's reluctant to categorize the album just yet – "because what I can say won't make any sense until you hear it" – he can offer a few details.
"I would say as a cliché answer it's kind of a logical extension of what Backspacer was," he says. "But I think there's a little bit more experimental stuff going on. There's a Pink Floyd vibe to some of it, there's a punk rock edge to other stuff."
He's excited to reteam with producer Brendan O'Brien for the fifth time. "We're excited to get it done, because we've kind of been waiting for about two years to do it."
McCready will be in New Orleans this weekend to perform "The Star-Spangled Banner" and run a half-marathon in support of his close friend Steve Gleason, the former New Orleans Saint.
Pearl Jam have two live dates announced for this summer: in July, they’ll play London, Ontario on the 16th and Chicago’s Wrigley Field on the 19th.
The group will announce a Fall US tour in the coming months.
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