The album that gave Eddie Vedder an emotional breakdown
It’s anyone’s guess how any album cycle will go once an artist steps into the studio. Although it might be fun for the first few minutes of jamming, it is the moments when nothing is coming together that lead to bands moving to the brink of madness, struggling with all their might to find something that might be worth putting on an album. While Pearl Jam always took their time when it came to putting out a record, the pressure behind Vs. was enough to give Eddie Vedder to crack under the circumstances.
Before the band had even gotten their foot in the door, Vedder never took a liking to the entire rock star ethos. Since the past decade crammed as many disingenuous rockstars as possible onto MTV, Vedder was quite happy to fade into the background of the rock underground, thinking that any chance of him being in a rock band was not in his future.
Once Pearl Jam started to play their first shows in Seattle, the rise of grunge quickly enveloping MTV caused them to become one of the biggest acts in the world overnight. While Vedder claimed to be proud of what he put into the band’s debut album, Ten, he knew that the songs that he heard in his head and the ones that ended up on the record were drastically different.
Since Rick Parasher mixed the album to sound as arena-ready as possible, Vedder often complained that the album sounded too slick, as if they were trying to compete with the Wingers of the world. While Kurt Cobain would give the band a lot of shit for not being the true meaning of the word ‘alternative’, Vedder was determined not to lose any of their edge when it came time to make the dreaded sophomore album.
Even though the band had the ability to move to more comfortable studios, Vedder felt even more uncomfortable working in such lush surroundings. Since he was working in the same amazing surroundings that Hollywood studios worked in, Vedder was always on the verge of collapsing at the studio, trying his best to keep all of his negative energy for the record.
Once the album was finished, Vedder remembered having a huge breakdown, thinking that they had made a mistake, telling SiriusXM, “I literally had a breakdown in the kitchen, ‘What is going to happen here?’. [Producer] Brendan O’Brien assured me it would be okay, ‘We’re not ready to put it out, we’ll do a few fixes,’ which we did”.
As much as Vedder may have had his doubts about the record, it’s easy to hear that kind of frustration in the final mix of Vs. After feeling uneasy being the biggest band in the world, the punk-rock restlessness across the album has some of Vedder’s most raucous vocals on any project, somehow being able to switch between the smooth singing of ‘Daughter’ to the screams in ‘Blood’.
Even when the record was being mixed, Vedder made a point to stay away from the obvious singles, rejecting the song ‘Better Man’ because of how pop-friendly it was compared to everything else. Eddie Vedder may not have wanted to be the next go-to heartthrob for a generation of rock fans, but he could at least have control of the albums that he decided to make in response.
