Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard says there's no plans for new album

Pearl Jam is playing it by ear when it comes to jumpstarting the band's ventures after the pandemic concludes.

In an interview with Anne Erickson of Audio Ink Radio on Tuesday (April 6), guitarist Stone Gossard explained that the band will likely prioritize touring above recording a new project. "Pearl Jam will definitely be back," he declared. "I think we'll probably be on the road. I mean, my hope is that we'll start playing some shows in the fall or early winter. I don't know what they're gonna be or when they're gonna be, but that's my hope. And after that, we've got a lot of makeup shows to do. We've got a lot of work to do."

As for the follow-up to 2020's Gigaton, Stone said that the band is always recording, but the idea of investing in a full-length project is not on the table right now. "We're always kind of recording and doing stuff. So, it wouldn't surprise me if we did some more recording, but there's no plans as of now," he explained. "I have no idea what we're gonna do, but I'll be ready to go when I get the call."

In November 2020, Gossard also said that he’d like Pearl Jam to record a project that "really shocks people." "There's some new territory [on Gigaton], and I think it bodes well for whatever comes next," he told Kerrang!. "I think we're still scratching the surface in terms of what really could be significantly different-sounding songs. I guess I would probably compare [what I'm thinking of] to an 'OK Computer'/'Kid A' moment, thinking about Radiohead's transformation and the journey that they went on… It's not going to be 'OK Computer', obviously, but a moment where we stumble onto something that is significantly different. That prospect always intrigues me. I'd like to make another record that really shocks people — that makes them go, 'Wow, that's unexpected.'"

This article was first published on iheart.com and is republished here with permission