American rock band Pearl Jam is planning to begin work on their new album in April, reports Billboard. The band has already put together demos of potential songs, and next month will start recording their follow-up to 2009’s Backspacer.
"We did a whole bunch of demos and everybody’s got a disc of 25 [songs] right now," explained bassist Jeff Ament. "April will be the time where we get together and learn to play all these demos and figure out which 12 to 15 of them float to the top. Hopefully we can get something done this year."
The band is also planning to commemorate their 20th anniversary with special expanded re-releases of 1993’s Vs. and 1994’s Vitalogy due out March 29.
The box set will include both extended albums and a recording of a 1994 concert at Boston’s Orpheum Theater. A special limited edition of the set will include five LPs, four CDs, a composition notebook, an envelope filled with memorabilia and a cassette recording of the band’s own pirate radio station from 1995.
"That was a little pirate radio station that we set up in a van on tour," Ament explained to Rolling Stone. "It was just a way to play with our friends, but we recorded all of it on 24-track so we have great versions of all the songs we did."