Since I now officially have Monoxyde's blessing to "yammer" about all things Jeff-related, I thought I would give this topic a whirl:
We all know there will come a day when Pearl Jam, as a band, is no more... or at the very least, there may be a time when Jeff feels comfortable doing more on his own outside of the Pearl Jam spectrum. With the impending release of Jack Irons' solo album with Jeff's guest appearance on "Dunes", I got to thinking about Jeff's creative future beyond PJ, and I'm curious as to what you might be most interested in seeing. Below or some things I personally think would be likely to happen, based on past work and interview snippets from the man himself...
- A Three Fish reunion.
- Jeff releases a coffee table book of his photography or puts together a formal exhibition of his artwork.
- A full-scale Jeff Ament solo album, or the release of solo compositions as part of soundtracks, etc.
- Jeff starts a new band/side project in addition to 3F and PJ.
- Jeff continues to do guest appearances on other artists' records.
- Jeff becomes a producer, engineer or gets more involved in the behind-the-scenes aspects of record-making.
If you can think of any other possibilities, I'd love to hear them! Just for a little while, let's all speculate, wonder, peer into our crystal ball...
3F reunion, I seriously doubt about. Although I would be absolutely thrilled to see that happen, God! I think I would even follow them on tour for a good 4-5 shows, making up for those I didn't see, meaning all of them! 3F, to me is not a side project but an total legitimate band, and one of my favorites, I found them a little too late to my dismay as I said before. I even think it's odd they didn't hit the charts with, well, at least The Quiet Table, although Laced (song) is one of the stongest ones they have.
As for the book he talked about before, I hope there would also be a section, like a two parts, one being photos, of course and the other one, his other artwork, paintings and so on. I would love to see and exhibit, as he (and we) talked about that before, I wouldn't miss it for the world.
I would be very happy to see a solo album and even more if he sang lead. I don't know if he has enough material for such a project though. Maybe he does, he just doesn't talk about it all that much. We know he does write quite a bit, but as far as if they're good enough (at least to his own taste though, we know he's picky) ... well, I'm puzzled!!! But I don't think he's the kind to go on his own, I think he'd rather work with other people, I may be wrong. He'd be totally at home on ambience work as in soundtracks and the likes of atmosphere stuff, I would be delighted to listen to his music, his "sound" if he were to write more for this purpose.
As for a new side project, we're still waiting for his work with Doug Pinnick. I wonder what's going to happen with those tracks they recorded? I have a feeling we'll never see that project take form.
As for the producer-engineer hypothesis, I truly think that's never going to happen. He doesn't like that aspect of the business, and I don't see him there at all.
Charitable work -- I would add to the list of possible professionnal direction he might take. He's been involved in that stuff for quite a while, although he doesn't seem as dedicated a Ed, I know he's sensitive to social and ecological issues. He would be most "efficient" I think if him and Pandora started projects together. Pandora is also involved in such work as we know, and I think they would be able to achieve great success in that area.
Funky possibilities?!?!? Back to the kitchen??? Hahahaha! "Jeff's Vegeterian Recipes For The Band On The Road"! Skateboard teacher-monitor on a project to get the kids of the street?!?!
I definately don't think 3Fish will happen again, I think he will be most likely to do guest appearences and stuff on other peoples records. Maybe do another 'side project' type thing, but i think if he does-it will be a one off thing and won't be heavily promoted, you know it would just be for his own fun and creativity.
After that he will probably want to retire to his lovely montana home and paint all day.
As a bookseller, i do hope he brings out a book though!! That would be fab, I would order loads in for the shop (even if that kind of thing wouldn't appeal to the market for the store i work in!)and i would push it really hard-get people to buy it, cause he is a fab artist/photographer.
OOhh maybe i could ring some of my contacts in the book world and get some signed copies... ooh maybe i could get him to do a signing at the store!!!! If he did i'd get him to sign copies for you guys!!! Okay now i'm daydreaming.... (would be nice though....)
Take Care guys amy xxx
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"...ahhh, passive aggressive rage...makes for some good rock n roll, my brother"
Amy! I think you got your finger on it. Jeff has talked about devoting himself to painting, I remember him saying so in an article, that he was also thinking (then) of getting a studio in New York.
And if he does publish a book, collection of his artwork, yes, do invite him to do signing at the store itself! If I can't make it to your store --I do believe that you're in the UK-- if you could get him to sign some for us! Yeah!!!
He's way overdue on that book to my opinion, I wonder why he doesn't push his artwork more then he does? There's a painting of his that I would like to hang in my house, if he ever was going to part with it... would he sell? Somehow I doubt it.
On another note, I finally got "Benaroya" yesterday, what a beautiful, wonderful show, I could have made it then but all the tickets were gone by the time I knew about it.
Monoxyde, which painting is it that you like so much?
I agree with pretty much everything that has been discussed in this thread, as it's all stuff he's brought up in the past... To me, that either means he will do a little bit of everything, or never quite get around to any of it at all. Hehehe... In all seriousness, I'd really love for him to become more exclusively interested in getting his artwork and photos "out there", as I think the music end of things will always be there in some capacity, no matter what. I could, potentially, see him doing some kind of exhibit in the same vein as the Ames Bros. show his brother and that crew does when he becomes a little "less famous" or when PJ is broken up.
Also, monoxyde, while I agree with you in that I don't think he'd be much of a "knob twiddler" from the production end of things, the reason why I brough that up as an option is that it was mentioned in passing as part of the Missoula high school newspaper interview from last year that Amy posted a while ago. I believe the article said that he feels in ten years' time he'll want to be settled with a family but would want to still be "involved in the music process". Now, perhaps my instincts were totally wrong, but when I read that, my mind initially went to him doing something in the Brian Eno mould -- both as a solo recording artist and also potentially as a producer or engineer, as I know Eno is one of his biggest inflluences. And I totally agree with you 100% about how effective he could be as somewhat of a "soundscape" artist (ie. soundtrack music and atmospherics). If I may speculate massively, I think if he were ever to do any kind of solo project, I'd see that has the most likely form it would take -- or maybe, if he were to vere more into the classic singer/songwriter type of record, I could at least see him incorporating significant amounts of that "sound", either in the form of instrumentals or interlude-type tracks, or at the very least within the actual music itself.
I think we all spoke too soon about that Pinnick project! How great is it to know that's no longer on the backburner!?
You bring up an excellent point about charitable work, and I feel badly about not including that in my original "possibilities", as my mind was kind of only thinking in terms of "work" and "projects". I think he's very sensitive and dedicated to the issues, in his own way. I think he and Ed are very much on the same page philosophically about a lot of things, particularly in the political and social realms, but it's two different approaches at time, and without trying to sound like I'm badmouthing Jeff, I don't think he has Ed's "drive" in the sense of maybe feeling compelled to "save the world" in one fell swoop, the way Ed seems to sometimes want to function. I think if Jeff and Pandora were to team up for charitable causes, it would be great. Seems like something they could/would do, in some form.
"Vegetarian Recipes for the Band on the Road"... ... Hehehe! He strikes me as someone who knows his way around a kitchen (), but damn, I swear he must have a steel stomach... Have you guys seen the ingredients in his Hack Thai Peanut Curry Thang?!
Yeah, I totally see it that way too, Sarah, if he did go solo, that's what I would naturally expect from him. And he says it again in the interview that you linked here, slower tempos, and I add, moodier music, and soundscapes like you said; even his lyrics are like that, if that can be extrapolated in that way. A delight! Speaking of mood music, did you check Jack Irons website? I think he recorded something really interesting (but I don't like the title of the album). And he's my fav PJ drummer, for those reasons actually, like In My Tree and the Red Dot track on Yield. I love stuff like that. Darin Schaffer, that I was talking about in the Direct From Montana... thread, is in the same lines, go check him out if you can, well, if you like that kind of music.
Yes, it does sound like bad mouthing, but I so agree with you. They do have two different motivating factors, for Jeff I'd say that his motivator is some sort of obligation, as it's logical to do that kind of stuff, whereas for Ed it's passion, and obviousness like breathing; that would explain the drive Ed has about these matters.
Hehehehe, hahahaha! I just read read your comment on his Thai sauce, I take it you never tried it! It's delicious! I've been a veg for (pretty much) all my life, one feeds oneself on stirfries, as soon as I found that recipe, I tried it and still make it, I modified it a bit along the way but it's still Jeff's thai peanut sauce. I guess he (jeff) must like cooking since he "tolerated" working in a restaurant for eight years, and he must have learned a lot of stuff cooking-wise during that period. Yes, he must know his way around a kitchen! I love people who have a good relationship with food.
I'm a bad little omnivore, I must say, so although I do enjoy some vegetarian cuisine it's not what I eat exclusively, and alas, I know not the culinary goodness of the Jeff Ament's Hack Thai Peanut Curry Thang. I would gather the man knows his food, and his coffee, for that matter, given his infamous stint as a barista when he first moved to Seattle.
I think Jeff's feelings on charitable work were best explained by him in a radio interview he did a couple of days before the band played Groundwork in 2001. I'm at work right now, so I don't have my copy of the interview or the transcript I did of it on hand, but essentially, he said that he does it because he knows what it was like to grow up without a whole lot of money and that when he hit a certain level of income, what went through his mind was "How do I share the wealth?".
I checked out Jack Irons' website a couple of weeks back, but haven't surfed over to there since, but the track samples I listened to were very interesting. Call me unexciting, but as much as I love what Jack does, I personally have to go with Matt Cameron as my favourite drummer -- not so much for his technical expertise or pure "sonics", but mainly because of the attachment I have to his overall body of work dating back to the Soundgarden days. He'd be my favourite drummer no matter what; the fact that he's been playing with my favourite band for a lot of years at this point is really just like the cherry on the sundae for me.
Your Darin Schaffer recommendation is duly noted.
Fingers crossed for that Jeff Ament solo soundscape record someday, too.
Hehehe... In all seriousness, I'd really love for him to become more exclusively interested in getting his artwork and photos "out there", as I think the music end of things will always be there in some capacity, no matter what. I could, potentially, see him doing some kind of exhibit in the same vein as the Ames Bros. show his brother and that crew does when he becomes a little "less famous" or when PJ is broken up.
