http://www.twofeetthick.com/2010/10/tft-exclusive-archival-interview-with-mike-mccready/

At TwoFeetThick.com, we strive to provide unique, intense coverage of all things Pearl Jam. Two Feet Thick proudly presents an exclusive, previously unpublished interview with Pearl Jam lead guitarist Mike McCready from July 2006. During the nearly 90-minute interview, McCready discusses a wide variety of PJ- and non-PJ related topics, including: how the band relearns old songs it plans to add to its concert setlists; the estimated 30-40 unreleased songs still in Pearl Jam’s vault; inner-band tension surrounding the start of the 2006 world tour; McCready’s decision to publicize his long struggle with Crohn’s disease; running into a high school friend while wearing a dress; and the fate of the once-beloved Mr. Pickles. It’s rare to have such raw and direct insight into our favorite musicians; we’re fortunate to have access to this wonderful conversation with writer and passionate PJ fan Brian Smith.

McCready: Yeah. There’s a song called “Rise and Fall” that Ed wrote that didn’t make it.

of the earth?

On slowly breaking out Binaural and Riot Act tracks as the tour unfolded

McCready: I think we’ll see more of them as — well, this leg’s almost over. But as we get to Europe, maybe we might do a little bit more. We had a list of songs that we had been practicing, and it had, like, “God’s Dice” on it. But we haven’t put them into any sets. The only reason that I can think of is, that we’ve tried to do as much new stuff as possible.

On reworking older songs, such as “Garden”

McCready: Oh, you like it? OK. That one was really hard. Stone came in, and we’re all kind of tired, and he’s like, ‘I’ve got this idea. I want to re-work ‘Garden.’ ‘ And we’re like, ‘Mmm.’ (Laughs.) ‘Aw, man. Let’s just go home, you know? We already have ‘Garden.’ ‘ And it was a tough thing, because I think Ed was kind of at the end of his rope, and we were getting ready to go on tour. But after we did it about 10 or 20 times it came out OK.

(Stone arranged a new intro)

Yeah. He arranged that whole idea. I think he just woke up one morning and started messing around. I was skeptical at first. But it’s fun to bring that thing back.

On recording a reported 30-40 songs for “Pearl Jam” (avocado)

McCready: Yeah. There’s a song called “Rise and Fall” that Ed wrote that didn’t make it. Yeah, there’s a couple others. From this session, there’s another 10. And from all the past sessions, there’s got to be 30-40. And some are complete, and some are just kind of crap, and some are works in progress and some never really made it. Like, ‘Well, we’ve got a verse and a chorus and a verse and a chorus.’ But then we just put it on the backburner, because it never sparked any kind of (fire). “Black, Red, Yellow” was that way early on, and that came out and actually sounded OK. There’s more stuff. There’s a lot more stuff. And we just take all of those tapes and put them in this hermetically sealed (Laughs) — but that’s when we were at Kelly’s old house, in the basement. It’s a long story. But we have a new vault; we moved it out of there. … But there’s a lot of stuff. There’s a ton of different stuff. Plus, we record every single show, so there’s jams from that. I think you’re going to see some interesting, creative stuff come out. Not to toot our own horn, but some really creative ideas, via the fan club, via Kelly and us.

On how much feedback that band provides in terms of mixing for its official bootlegs -

McCready: We listen to the bootlegs and say, ‘Well, maybe we want to hear a little bit more crowd sound from the Argentina show,’ and preliminary stuff. But then we just let them run with it. … I think we listen to it more for the crowd. The things that get kicked around, oddly enough, are like what Kiss’ Alive sounds like. That’s what we want. That’s what we grew up listening to. The 70s-era live sound; that’s what we kind of want to capture.

I liked the reworked garden, but even if I didn't I'm in favor of them reworking old songs for a bit. If they like it great. if not abandon it, but it's fun to mix things up, and new arrangements can shed new light on the old ones.

Absolutely - I think you and I are the unlikely team that actually really liked the new Garden, stip.

we probably like a lot of the same stuff. It's not like either of us hate half the catalog

Garden sucks.

New Garden sucked.

New Garden sucked.

haha, loved the question about ed's hissy fit in camden. also, the guitar tech stuff might explain why mike sounded so terrible this tour, you could barely hear the guy. great read and real honest answers, thanks for posting!

the interview was from 2006, so i'm guessing/hoping that if the guitar tech did have any problems with Mike's setup, that he would have figured it out by this tour...

when i said "this" tour i was talking about the 2006 tour