Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament is also a photographer, and you already know his work: he photographed the sheep close-up on the cover of the 1993 film. Against.as well as the covers from 1998 Yieldyears 2002 Anti-riot lawand the 2003 rarities collection Lost dogs. He’s also turned his camera on his bandmates since the early ’90s. His excellent new book, Always – created with his brother, designer Barry Ament – brings together more than 250 of these black-and-white photos, along with his written thoughts.
The book was released on September 25, the same evening that Pearl Jam played its first concert since Matt Cameron’s departure, a surprise appearance at the Ohana Festival – with Paul McCartney’s longtime drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. behind the kit. Vedder told the crowd that Laboriel was helping out for the evening, and the group wouldn’t say whether he had joined for good. Pearl Jam headlines the festival tonight.
In the new episode of Rolling Stones music nowAment details the stories behind the photos in Alwaysand takes an in-depth look at Pearl Jam’s beginnings, touring with Neil Young, the band’s next chapter, and much more. To hear the full episode, listen on Apple Podcasts or Spotify, or just press play above. Here are some highlights from the discussion:
Ament sold his camera to move to Seattle in 1983, and only received a new one when the Simple production told him to blame it on the film. “Those first two or three years I lived in Seattle, there are literally five photos,” Ament says. “That’s the sacrifice I had to make. I had to sell my camera to move to Seattle. It was the most expensive item. I think I got $100 or something for it, which was a lot of money in 1983.” That changed when Cameron Crowe brought him to the art department to Simple. “They needed pictures of something, and I said, ‘I don’t have a camera,’ and they said, ‘Go get a camera.’ And I’m like, “What do you mean?” And they say, “Dude, just go get a camera and load it for the film.” And I was like, “Can I do that?” »
Ament’s DIY trend began when he learned that a photographer hired by the label could charge $8,000 for an hour and that Pearl Jam footed at least half the bill. “The funny thing is, I wasn’t trying to document a lot of that early stuff,” Ament says. “I was trying to find content for the albums that we were making, or at one point, pretty early on, we were putting out newsletters, and we needed content for those newsletters. And even with the album covers, it became obvious early on, like, you know, the label would hire a photographer, and then you’d find out we were paying for that or paying for half, and a photographer was charging like $8,000 or something like that for an hour. And there was like this frugal DIY part of me that was like, “This is ridiculous, man. Like, this is four times the value of my camera equipment.”
Ament was surprised to find that he had taken photos of Eddie Vedder shirtless in the vocal booth during the recording sessions for Ten. “Looking at the contact sheets, I didn’t know what these photos were,” Ament said. “You’re just like, ‘Man, this is weird. There’s three pictures in a row, like, just the dark side of the studio.’ And then when we digitize them and you put them on the screen, all of a sudden it’s like, oh, he’s singing in the booth over there. He did not clear the plans with the group. “I hope he’s cool with me,” he said. “I didn’t direct any of this (by them).” As for the missing shirt: “Because it was fucking hot, man. Those isolation rooms, there was no air in them, so I’m surprised he didn’t have his Speedo. Not that he has a Speedo, but…”
The sheep on the cover of Against. followed Ament along a fence on a farm in Montana. He didn’t know he was shooting an album cover. “I could tell this sheep was following me along the fence, so I just started taking pictures of it, and it kept trying to get through the fence,” Ament said. “It wasn’t until I got the contact sheet back that I was like, ‘Wow, that would be a great cover,’ because we had already written ‘Animal,’ and there was a little sense of us against the world at that point, and us against the record company, us against, you know, whatever the machine was. And so it was sort of… so much more natural than the first album cover which was, you know, very literal. … It was cool to put all the contact on.” or most of the contact sheet, in there just to show people I wasted a whole roll of film on this For the record, Ament thinks it’s a sheep and not an Angora goat as some accounts say.
When Pearl Jam supported Neil Young on the 1995 film Disco ball tour, Young would play songs for them 20 minutes before the show. “Almost every show, he would come back about 20 minutes before the show and he would say, ‘Hey, I think we’re going to do ‘Mr.’ Soul’ tonight,” Ament says. “And we were scrambling everywhere, like trying to get out a tape of Decade. … Luckily, Brendan (O’Brien) had played a lot of these songs in bands when he was a kid, so he kind of knew what was going on. But we were literally back there with our instruments, learning the song, and then we would go out to Berlin and play the song for the very first time. I’m just hanging on to the seat of our pants. Young took the same approach on stage: “He would just decide, ‘We’re doing a 15-minute version of this song tonight,’ and he’d kind of hit some pedals and his amps would get really loud, and you’d just have to go with him.”
Ament and Matt Cameron joked that they had about three years left in Pearl Jam. Ament joked. It turned out Cameron wasn’t. “He and I would even joke sometimes, like we were saying, ‘So what do we have left, like three more years…?’ And he was like, “Yeah, yeah. This seems fair. Three more years. Like, “So we’ll both be 60.” Yeah, it’ll be perfect,” Ament says. “And I think maybe that would make the other guys a little nervous. But I was joking, and then it turned out that wasn’t the case. … And I get it, man. You’re 60, and we’re still lucky to be here at 60. But you also have, like, maybe some unfulfilled dreams and other things that you want to do, and maybe the unfulfilled dream is like you just want to stay home with your woman. It could be that simple. ” Still, Ament is not ready to stop. “Every once in a while we’ll have a show where I’m like, ‘Ah, fuck, man. I’ll put that up against any 25-year-old band,'” he says. “I love spending time with these guys so much.”
Pearl Jam’s new drummer was everyone’s first choice. “That was the first name that came up…In our mind, let’s start at the top,” Ament says. “And we all have really good friends who are drummers. …The hardest part was telling…my friends who are killer drummers that we had a guy.” Speaking before the reveal, Ament wasn’t ready to call him permanent: “I hope he’s our guy, but I don’t know if that’s the case. We haven’t played a show yet, so it’s pretty hard to be fully committed.” When it’s suggested that the new drummer might turn out to be a robot, Ament plays along, referencing the band’s endless takes of “Even Flow”: “We finally figured out the ‘Even Flow’ thing. It really relies on choruses. We programmed it into this drum machine. It’s amazing. You’re going to love it.”
Ament wants Pearl Jam to make a new album and tour next year. “I would love that,” he says of the possibility. “We’re kind of due. … It’s like we have a new energy, and like we just have an opportunity to use that energy to the fullest and turn it into something different and great.” The band has just started writing new music. “I think everyone writes, but we haven’t really written a lot of stuff together, but a few things we’ve done are really good. So I think we understand the potential. … In the free time, you kind of sit around going, ‘Oh, shit, I can’t wait to do this.’ “I’m champing at the bit. … But it’s going to take a little while, at least a few months. He and Stone Gossard have talked about it. “It’s like it’s always been with Stone,” he said. “We have these conversations every week or two where it’s like, ‘Ah, we could do this, we could do this.’ And it’s like, ‘Let’s not move too fast.’
A former White House photographer recalled Ament trying to stop him from taking photos when Pearl Jam visited during the Clinton era. He had drawn two rolls. “My friend Pat Williams, who was a congressman here in Montana, passed away, and there was a funeral, and this lady came to see me,” Ament said. “She says, ‘Oh, I was the White House staff photographer.’ And she goes, “I have a great photo of you guys.” And I said, ‘Oh, yeah, I have a bunch of pictures too.’ She responds: “Yeah,…we told you you can’t take photos here. » I don’t really remember, but I remember at that moment saying to myself, “You invited us here. We didn’t ask to come here. So I’m going to do what I want. And so, yes, I have two rolls of film from that trip, and a bunch of great photos of us with Mudhoney before we split. …Bill didn’t care, man. Bill said to me, “Where do you want to go?” I’ll take you wherever you want to go. “Can we go to the war room?” “Yeah, sure. Let’s go to the war room.’
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