Recording
For its fourth album, Pearl Jam again worked with producer Brendan O'Brien, with whom they had worked on predecessors Vs. (1993) and Vitalogy (1994). No Code was the band's first album with drummer Jack Irons, who had joined the band as Vitalogy was being completed. Following the summer U.S. leg of the band's Vitalogy Tour, the band began work on No Code in Chicago, Illinois in July 1995 during the infamous Chicago heat wave. The Chicago sessions lasted a week at the Chicago Recording Company. During a break in a string of make-up dates for the 1995 tour the band went into the studio for a week-long session in New Orleans, Louisiana, where the band recorded "Off He Goes". The rest of the recording took place in the first half of 1996 in Seattle, Washington at Studio Litho, which is owned by guitarist Stone Gossard. The album was then mixed by O'Brien at his mixing facility at Southern Tracks in Atlanta, Georgia.
The sessions for the album began with strife and tension. Bassist Jeff Ament wasn't made aware that the band was recording until three days into the sessions, and said that he "wasn't super involved with that record on any level." Guitarist Mike McCready said, "I'm sure Jeff was pissed, but it was more about separating, because if we played all together nothing would get done. We'd all just get pissed off at each other." At one point Ament even walked out of the recording sessions, and considered quitting the band due to lead vocalist Eddie Vedder's control of the creation process. Due to Pearl Jam balancing recording and touring, Irons commented that the band was "more on-the-fly during the making of No Code, and some good thing happened out of that, but we were also really tired. It was difficult to tour and play these shows that were two or three hours long and then force ourselves to produce something in a studio."
McCready said that a lot of the songs were developed out of jam sessions, and said "I think we kind of rushed it a little bit." Ament said that the band members would bring in fragments of songs, and it would take hours before Vedder could have music to which he could add vocals. He added that "Ed's typically the guy who finishes off the songs...But by the end of No Code, he was so burnt, it was so much work for him." The band's mood had gone better by the time the album was finished, and the bandmembers gave credit for this to Irons. Regarding Irons, O'Brien stated that "everybody was on their best musical behavior around him." McCready said that Irons urged the band members to discuss their problems, and called him "a big spiritual influence, if not the biggest." Vedder said, "Making No Code was all about gaining perspective." Commenting upon the sessions as a whole, O'Brien said, "It was really a transitional record. We had a good time making it."
Read more about this topic: No Code
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