Pearl Jam‘s Eddie Vedder and Jeff Ament have shared their thoughts on Taylor Swift – see what they had to say below.
This past weekend, Vedder and Ament joined Bill Simmons for the latter’s self-titled podcast, during which they talked about a myriad of topics, including Taylor Swift. Touching on Swift’s surprise set portion of her show, during which she’d perform a different song every night, Vedder said: “She’s an artist who’s respectful of her audience and I know from my daughter that she’s really kind of incredible at planting these little hidden codes that they can pick up. And then all of a sudden, it activates all those people that are listening, and has them involved in it.”
He continued: “I think it’s done in a very creative way. She changes it up and there’s talk about what she played that night. The other thing she has working so well for is she’s incredibly prolific, so she’s able to just keep putting out music and putting out music.”
Ament chimed in adding that he found her choice of producers “interesting”. “A couple records ago, choosing to work with the Aaron Dessner guy from The National and Bon Iver. Like those songs to me are the most interesting songs, because I think that palette I like,” he said.
He continued: “She’s not afraid to change and change in a way that maybe is kind of anti-pop in some ways, you know, which I have huge props for that.”
Vedder has in the past attended a Taylor Swift show with his daughter, who happens to be a big fan of the pop star. He previously said that attending the show reminded him of “punk crowds”: “They had found their tribe, they were all agreeing on something. The craziest thing was it reminded me of punk rock crowds, of being aligned with all of the misfits in our town, back in the day.”
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The Seattle band announced a tour of the UK and Europe back in February, with stops including Manchester’s Co-Op Live on June 25 and London’s Tottenham Hotspur Stadium on June 29, preceded by Dublin’s Marlay Park on June 22. Check out the full dates here and here for UK tickets.
NME gave ‘Dark Matter’ a glowing four-star review, and praised it as “some of their strongest work in recent memory”. “For those longing for the charismatic songwriting that first put the band on the map over three decades ago, ‘Dark Matter’ will come as a pleasant surprise,” it read. “Not only does it showcase Pearl Jam reclaiming the charm that first made them a force to be reckoned with back in 1991, it comes alongside some of their most impressive musicianship yet, as well as a determination to take risks after years of playing it safe.”
Eddie Vedder recently said that he thinks the band have “one or two” good records left in them after ‘Dark Matter’. “The older you get the better you are at living in the present,” he said. “The understanding you have less time is the biggest number in the quotient. The goal is to keep making music.”
The band’s drummer Matt Cameron has also been speaking about the time that he received a cease-and-desist letter from KISS as a teenager.