Pearl Jam hope to have their next album out «this year, for sure,» guitarist Mike McCready tells Rolling Stone. Preparing to travel to New Orleans, where he will perform «The Star-Spangled Banner» and run a half-marathon in support of his close friend Steve Gleason, the former New Orleans Saint, McCready says the bandmembers are «working on demos right now and we’re going to be recording soon.

«What everybody’s been saying is halfway done,» he says of the follow-up to 2009’s Backspacer. «I think that’s true – we have seven songs that are relatively completed. But then we have an additional 15 ready to go aside from any that Eddie brings in, so we’ll weed through those.»

Though he’s reluctant to categorize the album just yet – «because what I can say won’t make any sense until you hear it» – he can offer a few details.

«I would say as a cliché answer it’s kind of a logical extension of what Backspacer was,» he says. «But I think there’s a little bit more experimental stuff going on. There’s a Pink Floyd vibe to some of it, there’s a punk rock edge to other stuff.»