Jeff Ament updates on the next Pearl Jam record

Speaking to The Rolling Stone Ament said:

"We're at least at the halfway point. The first handful of songs we had are a great, great start. It's been really important for us that in the middle of all this, we got together and recorded a bunch of songs. It sort of gave us a breath to go, 'Okay, we can go back and get ready for the show and book and movie and all that stuff."

The new songs have been recorded withlongtime producer Brendan O'Brien at the Henson Recording Studios in Los Angeles & Amnet says the studio change has helped them work more efficiently.

"We made the bulk of our records in Seattle, so it's just great to get out of Seattle for me," he says. "Everybody leaves all their stuff at home and you just go down for 12 days and it's all you do. It's like, go to a hotel and sleep, get a little breakfast, go back to the studio, repeat. There's just nothing else. It's taken us a long time to figure out how to do it right and have it take less time than it sometimes does. We're excited."

Pearl Jam hope to finish recording the new album early next year.