Pearl Jam’s Stone Gossard Discusses His Band Brad
Posted by George H. Sirois on 04.04.2012
It’s no mere side project…
Billboard spoke with Pearl Jam's guitarist Stone Gossard about his band Brad, their upcoming album United We Stand and how the two bands are co-existing. Here are some highlights:
About being in two bands: "It's a little weird trying to be in two bands. It's more common these days, for sure, but it's always been a little bit of a struggle with me being in Pearl Jam and those other guys being in Satchel and Shawn (Smith) being in Pigeonhed, too. (Brad) has always felt like a little bit of a no man's land where we're making records together but then maybe it's not quite as serious of a band, and Pearl Jam casts such a big shadow."
About how Brad tackled their latest album: "We kinda figured we're stuck with each other and we're gonna make a record once in awhile and we might as well make more of them because we really like it. So we went in giving ourselves more time to make it. I think we went in with less expectations of what it was supposed to be, and I think that helped us to just appreciate each other more and be more present in the studio, and I think it paid off. I think it ended up that we made one of our better records just by having recommitted ourselves to our little group... And we're confident that at some point the band will sort of be acknowledged and appreciated by others more, too."
About starting off with 70 song ideas from the band: "It was really a great process to have that abundance of material and then to be able to pick and really choose the 10 we used. We were able to represent the variety of ways that we wrote for this record -- rock songs, more dance-oriented songs, ballads, real downbeat stuff. You want to have a little bit of all those flavors, and then it becomes like you're making a collage or you've got all these different stories and you're putting them together in a way that hopefully has a structure that's cool. We feel like we accomplished that more than ever on this (album)."
About the Pearl Jam album still in progress: "It's too early to tell what it's going to be yet, but we've recorded some great songs and we've written some more and we're going to do some more recording over the next three or four months and most likely the record will come out hopefully next year. I don't like to talk about it too much before it's done because it has a tendency to change direction on me. We're just in that process and we're having a great time and are as excited as ever about making music."
United We Stand Track List:
1. Miles Of Rope
2. Bound In Time
3. A Reason To Be In My Skin
4. Diamond Blues
5. The Only Way
6. Last Bastion
7. Make The Pain Go Away
8. Needle And Thread
9. Tea Bag
10. Through The Day
BRAD Tour Dates
April 27: Seattle (Showbox at the Market)
May 3: Los Angeles (Troubadour)
May 4: San Francisco (Cafe Du Nord)
