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Chop Suey DVD transcription

Matt: When you do make records and, you know, play music in a band I guess the perception is that, you know, your music is gonna change as the band gets older and, you know, people think that, like, maturity equals, like slowin down and I guess to a certain degree it does, but, uh. I think in..in our case it's a benefit because we're all able to kind of focus in on what we're really good at. I guess there's kinda like a maturity factor that, that, that's happened here.

Jeff: It seems to me that there's actually a bigger range of emotions on this record than a lot of the other records that I think there's a lot more depth in the songs than it just being melancholy. I think I think there's a a magic, surrealism in there and I think there's some, uh some humor. So, in that way, it is grown up and not in a not in a bad kind of, Bing Crosby kind of a way.

Matt: Yeah, the the lyrics are probably more direct in the sense that, uh, it seems like they're very personal. I think they're a little more focused in on what that lyricist was trying to, uh to portray, or, you know the feeling that they're trying to get out
there.

Jeff: That was the thing that was different with this record is that there were, kind of, five people actually comfortable in being there at the same time and, um I think being a little bit older and kind of everybody deciding that this is kind of what I want to do with my life and if I'm gonna do it, I might as well approach it full-on. It's made a big difference. I mean, you really hear everybody's personality in the in the songs and, you know, people started writing songs, like, probably when we were on the road a couple of years ago, and I know everybody wrote a lot in between the road and making this record.

Matt: It's good to be in a band where everyone can write tunes.

On working with Adam Kaspar

Stone: Working with Adam was great um you know, different producers definitely bring a different style in the studio, um Adam Kaspar was excellent in his ability to allow the band certain sort of take the lead role .He was very good at, at..um at adding his opinion when it was really needed.

Matt: Yeah, I'd I'd worked with Adam on a couple of Soundgarden records and different sessions over the years, and found him to be, you know really great engineer hut he creates a really relaxed vibe in the studio, and, uh I suggested that he work with us on, uh Riot Act.

Jeff: I mean, he was kind of the invisible producer in a lot of ways where we would be working on a song and he would..uh he would kind of come out while we were working on it and kind of put mics in the right places and kind of get it happening and then, um :shrugs: It was kind of none of the typical waiting around.

Matt: Yeah he'd come out and tweak stuff on the sly after we tracked something and like, we weren't you know just go in and listen to it and come back and do a do a version that we all liked and it would sound different, you know it'd sound like, better somehow, so he's kinda - he's kinda sly; you gotta keep your eye on him. But he's good.

Mike: He's very easy to work with, got great drum sounds from Matt and, um, it was very mellow in that he would get but yet, but yet he would be ordered, quick; get good takes.

On the name

Jeff: Riot Act was actually the very last kind of piece of the puzzle. The the artwork was actually kind of there, and we just finished sequencing the songs and I think we spent the last couple of weeks like just kind of throwing words back and forth, and at the end of it, uh Ed threw out "Riot Act" and I think all the rest of us just kind of we were so tired
we just kind of gave in :laughs:

[video for I Am Mine]

STATEMENTS:

Roskilde Denmark
On June 30, 2000, nine people were killed at a four-day, outdoor rock festival when a huge crowd pressed forward during Pearl Jam's main stage performance.

"Our lives will never be the same, but we know that is nothing compared to the grief of the families and friends of those involved. It is so tragic there are no words." - Pearl Jam

Jeff: I think initially, I didn't know wh I didn't know h I didn't know what I was feeling, you know I think it's such an onslaught of confusion that I mean, the last time that I felt like that was when Andy Wood died, and I think at that time I I di you know, being younger and not really knowing how to deal with it, I didn't know I didn't know if I wanted to play music anymore.

Stone: Oh, I'm sure everybody, uh had that thought cross their mind at least once that, you know, that :shrugs: somehow there's a chance that we might not play again or something like that. You know, not knowing how..how it was uh, what exactly was happening how it was all gonna turn out..

Matt: Yeah, it wasn't just the band that experienced it, you know, it was the entire crew. Everyone that that works with the band was there, saw it happen, so you know, we had a lot of grief-stricken people that experienced their grief in individual ways, you
know so Yeah, sometimes like it's hard to get, you know to to deal with that kind of grief but it does help when you have other people there with you.

Stone: I think we knew how we felt about each other and I think realistically we really all wanted to play music together, and that was gonna be something that we were gonna continue to do.

Jeff: We owed it to ourselves to to kind of be on stage again and kind of work through those feelings together you know, and try to know it was, it was a heavy .It was a heavy situation. If there's anything good that comes out of out of that is that it does, uh it does force you to to deal with any shit that you hafta work through and and I think uh I think it makes you feel alive. You know, I think it and it makes you feel fortunate to be alive. It's good it's good to have kind of gone through that. I think we're a better band because of it.

Stone: Roskilde affected everyone in the band you know to an amazing degree. I think, um there's a song on the record, "Love Boat Captain", which talks about it, um sort of directly, and uh that was probably the most horrific event that any of us has sort of experienced, particularly having it associated with, uh with a show that we were playing at um, was terrible, um But I think those are exactly the kinds of things that are the big impact moments in your life that that that do can become uh, there can be songs that come out of those those events.

[video for Love Boat Captain]

On the lyrics

Jeff: It seems that Ed is really coming into his own as a not only as a lyricist but also as someone who can approach the lyrics from a lot of different angles.

Matt: A couple songs I brought in that had lyrics, like..one was kind of an unfinished lyric and he was great at helping me finish it and make it, like, really a lot better than than what I had brought in which was kind of mediocre, like not very good, you know, rock lyrics or whatever. But he kind of made it poetic so Thank you, Eddie.

Jeff: It seems to me that a lot of the lyrics aren't that direct and I think it allows the listener to uh kind of attach that feeling to, uh to their own life.

Matt: I think we were just trying to be as honest as we could with these particular songs, and uh that's all you can do when you start a record process you know, you just try to go in there and do your best and, you know, hopefully it there will be a connection made with your made with your audience, but I don't think that's that's the sole intent, a lot of the times when you do make a record I think, you know, it has to come first from the artist, from the band, and if that statement is kind of strong and true, then hopefully, you know, that'll that'll carry over into your audience. Your audience will will appreciate that. But, uh, you know I I think we do it the correct way which is to just kind of have have the band be satisfied with it first, you know

[video for 1/2 Full]

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