PEARL JAM

BAND DISCOVERED
In Germany, the album came out a week before the US release. On release day, I skipped my first few classes and waited outside the record store that morning to get my hands on one of the Vs. CDs, fresh out of the box and without a price sticker yet. Ever since the MTV Video Music Awards in September, I’d been listening to the live version of “Animal” on repeat on my Walkman – copied from VHS onto cassette. What an exciting time to be 16. Later, I picked up the vinyl. I was completely under this band’s spell. The sheer power, the rawness, the anger – I could lose myself in it completely. I made a promise to myself back then: never to lose that feeling, never to let go of what music could do to me. And I’ve held on to it ever since. Without this band, music would mean only half as much to me.

WISH
I hope that Seattle sound of the early ’90s always stays with me.