B wrote:No way, these guys pump out all the stuff they want with or without the band.
stip wrote:as B said, he is prolific as hell outside the band - not sure how pearl jam would have slowed that down. If anything, it would draw more attention to that work.
Just because we see the guys occasionally cranking out solo records and contributing to other things doesn't mean they are "pumping out all the stuff they want," or that they're satisfied with how the time, effort, push, etc. that they're able to give that stuff fits into a life where Pearl Jam is still the main gig. We really have no idea what creative/musical ambitions any of these guys have, how those ambitions slot into what else they want out of their lives, and how those ambitions/desires move in and out of prominence as they get older.
It might also not be about what Pearl Jam is stopping him from doing, but rather something about their evolved working methods over time that have made creating within the band less enjoyable for him. I'll say this -- I don't get the sense that bringing in Andrew Watt to produce Dark Matter was an equally democratic decision among all band members, and I do get the sense that his working methods were a shift from how the band have historically worked together to write songs. Maybe he just doesn't enjoy that as much, and isn't excited about the idea of continuing to work that way.
I would be relatively confident it's not some dramatic dispute over "creative differences," i.e. Matt and Eddie shouting at each other because Matt wants to write in weird time signatures and Eddie wants to write crowd-pleasing anthems, and I believe that the physical limitations are absolutely a huge part of it. But the idea that something quieter, slower-burning, and more nuanced might be among the factors influencing his decision doesn't seem unreasonable to me at all.
