Re: Boom Birthday
Posted: Wed February 05, 2014 3:30 am
hahaLuNY wrote:theplatypus wrote:hahaLuNY wrote:Ed noticed him as a "world class" organ player. Because he is.
"The sessions got an extra boost of experimentation thanks to the presence of keyboardist Kenneth “Boom” Gaspar, whom Vedder met and quickly began collaborating with in 2001 in the midst of a yearlong sabbatical to a remote Hawaiian island. One of their songs, “Love Boat Captain,” serves as the album’s emotional centerpiece, as it reaches out to the families of the nine fans who were killed after a crowd surge during Pearl Jam’s June 30, 2000, set at Denmark’s Roskilde Festival.
“I started disappearing into surfing areas about five or six years ago, as a way to refuel whatever I’d lose being around a lot of people,” Vedder says. “I’d just go where there was no people. This place where there’s no stoplights. It’s very small-town living. I met this big kahuna-type guy on the island. His friend was this other guy who was a musician. There was another guy on the island who was recording some of the locals there. He passed away; a young guy. He left a wife and kid. I would never go to functions or whatever, but I went to this wake on a big porch. Musicians were playing all night; the guys he had recorded. It was pretty intense and very sad. I noticed this guy playing B3, just world class! I bumped into him a couple other times, and then I threw it out there that we should play sometime. I had a little recording setup for when I wanted to get away and do some writing. He just showed up, and we started playing. That night we wrote what turned into ‘Love Boat Captain.’ Within an hour, we had this thing we put on the stereo and played it loud. It was probably about an eleven-minute version at that point.”
Prior to meeting Vedder, Gaspar had never heard of Pearl Jam, much less recorded with a multiplatinum rock band. Vedder says, “Without really any knowledge of our band dynamic – although I have to admit, since it’s such a solid one, it’s a little easier to fit in – he was able to find his place and was doing just what we were: adding things and not subtracting.”
