Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament looked back at the recording of the band’s 1991 debut, Ten, which celebrates its 30th anniversary on August 27th. While appearing on the Kyle Meredith with… webcast, Ament credited Cheap Trick bassist Tom Petersson for influencing his playing on the band’s 1991 debut, Ten: “It was having a 12-string bass, I’d written that riff and the ‘Why Go’ riff on an acoustic guitar. I’d played a 12-string bass before, so I knew what it was going to sound like. Props to Stone Gossard and Mike (McCready) for coming up with interesting guitar parts on those songs when the bass is taking up so much sonic space.”
He went on to reveal, “I was really super influenced by Cheap Trick, Tom Petersson played a 12-string, and that song ‘Heaven Tonight,’ and ‘Need Your Love,’ they’re sort of symphonic and almost classical in a way. I think that’s what was coming out of me on that one.”
Regarding the actual sessions for Ten, Ament said, “We were so excited to be in the studio and we did it on our own, did it with a local producer, engineer guy Rick Parashar. I don’t hear the record necessarily that way anymore because it’s gone through so many iterations and we’ve played those songs so many times, but when you play those songs live, that feeling comes right back because I think the crowd hears it the way that we were playing it in 1990-91.”
FAST FACTS
- Pearl Jam‘s latest album, 2020’s Gigaton, entered the Billboard 200 albums chart at its peak position at Number Five.
- Gigaton is Pearl Jam’s 11th studio album, and all 11 of those have reached the Top Five on the chart.
- Recently released on vinyl and CD is Pearl Jam’s 1992 MTV Unplugged appearance.
- The set was officially released back in October for Record Store Day, featuring seven tracks: “Oceans,” “State Of Love And Trust,” “Alive,” “Black,” “Jeremy,” “Even Flow,” and “Porch.”