Pearl Jam On: Producer Brendan O'Brien

Brendan does this thing when you record vocals
Where you, he doesn't really let you hear your voice
So you're kind of singing, and, and you can't really tell
If you're hitting the right note
Because he thinks that you sing better that way

So in the headphones, he's, when he's singing
His voice is down in the mix
So he's really having to, like, sing louder
To just be able to hear himself to make sure he's on
So it's sort of, it's kind of, it's tweaking you (and to get the right pitch)
Yeah, it's a great theory and it makes you insane
Like, it's really just brutal, and it works
I'm so pissed off about that

Yeah, there was a moment, I guess we were having dinner in the back lounge
And you were in the vocal booth
And you came, you came out and you just, just came back to the lounge
And said hello and you were just covered in sweat

So it's interesting, you're working with a guy who knows how to get stuff out of you
That's a little different, but, and it's not always you know, comfortable
It's that whole thing of, of trusting him and, and dealing with the discomfort
Hoping that it will all work and in the end, and with the mixes and the...
But a lot of things change in the last, just working on the record the last week
Just in mixing, and a few edit parts here, and a few melodic changes and
But that's when it really kind of, finally, took shape
Before that, we weren't really sure what we had

I told somebody that it's going, it's like going to a ten day graduate school class, you know
Like, you have ten days to do a semester's worth of work
And come out of it with a thesis, you know
But he's also a guy that, I mean, I think from the get-go, just even making that first record with him
That's never belittled anybody in the band in terms of not being able to kind of...

When he can play all the instruments almost better than all of us can
And, I mean, it would be sounding different and it would be him
But he's a very good musician, so for him to be able to be so good
And encourage you to kind of be who you are and to get you right up to where you need to be
But he's not, he's not expecting that you're gonna be Jimmy Page or John Paul Jones
He's expecting that you're gonna be yourself and that he's gonna help you figure out what that thing is
That one little thing you can do or that one little thing that kinda elevate your part