I’ve been pretty constrained in what I can say about the Pearl Jam collaboration publicly, but with the Backspacer art gone viral all over the web today (I don’t have a link for you because the full cover hasn’t been officially released, but if you poke around — cough cough Wikipedia cough — you’ll find fair approximations fans have put together) — anyway, it seems like a good moment to publicly say thank you to the band, and especially to Eddie, who dreamed up this crazy scheme to begin with. I was feeling like my career had just been kneecapped with the loss of the VVM papers, and might have spent the next six months moping and feeling sorry for myself — instead, I ended up embarking on one of the great adventures of my professional life. (Not that this was a freebie — what I was offered, initially, was a chance, nothing more. Had I fumbled the ball, I have no doubt that the art you’d be seeing today would be something very different. But happily I didn’t, and it’s not.)
As the album drop date gets closer I’ll be able to talk about this in more detail. But for now, I just want to express my heartfelt thanks to the band, for trusting me as an artist, and for changing my life these past six months. It’s been a fantastic wave to ride so far.
… and while I’m on the subject: everyone in the PJ offices has been amazing to work with. And big, big props to the invaluable Andy Fischer, who’s been handling the production details on this thing for months.