Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament is also a photographer, and you already know his work: He shot the sheep close-up on the cover of 1993’s Vs., as well as the covers of 1998’s Yield, 2002’s Riot Act, and the 2003 rarities collection Lost Dogs. He’s also been turning his camera on his bandmates since the early Nineties. His excellent new book, Since Forever — created with his brother, designer Barry Ament — collects more than 250 of those black-and-white photos, along with his written reflections.
The book came out Sept. 25, the same night Pearl Jam played their first show since Matt Cameron left, a surprise appearance at the Ohana Festival — with longtime Paul McCartney drummer Abe Laboriel Jr. behind the kit. Vedder told the crowd Laboriel was helping out for the night, and the band hasn’t said whether he’s joined for good. Pearl Jam headline the festival tonight.
In the new episode of Rolling Stone Music Now, Ament breaks down the stories behind the photos in Since Forever, and goes deep on Pearl Jam’s early days, touring with Neil Young, the band’s next chapter, and much more. To hear the whole 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 got a new one when the Singles production told him to charge it to the movie.
I had to sell my camera to move to Seattle. That was the high-dollar item. I think I got 100 bucks for it or something, which was a lot of money in 1983.” That changed when Cameron Crowe brought him into the art department for Singles.
And even with album covers, it became apparent early on, like, you know, the label would hire a photographer, and then you’d find out that we were paying for it or we were paying for half of it, and a photographer charged like $8,000 or something for an hour. And there was like that frugal DIY part of me that was like, ‘That’s ridiculous, man. Like, that’s four times more than my camera equipment’s worth.
Like, I can do this shit.'” Ament was surprised to see he had shot photos of a shirtless Eddie Vedder in the vocal booth during the recording sessions for Ten. There’s three photos in a row of, 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 there.” He didn’t clear the shots with the band. Those isolation rooms, they didn’t have any air in them, so I’m surprised he didn’t have his Speedo on.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
