THE EDITED PRESS RELEASE: “In The Moment That You’re Born is the first new music from Brad — Stone Gossard (Green River, Mother Love Bone, Pearl Jam), Regan Hagar (Malfunkshun), Shawn Smith and Keith Lowe — in over a decade, and arrives 30 years after their 1993 debut Shame.
The album features 10 previously unreleased songs, and all the lyrics were solely written by vocalist Smith before his untimely passing in 2019, with one notable exception: Stars N’ You, written by late Seattle musician Andrew Wood (Malfunkshun, Mother Love Bone) and recorded by Malfunkshun for C/Z Records’ 1986 Deep Six compilation, an album that documented the early Seattle grunge scene.
“For a lot of us, Deep Six was the first time we heard Malkfunkshun recorded,” Gossard says. “We’d all seen the power of Andrew in the local clubs, but it was amazing to hear how good he and the band really were in the studio. Stars N’ You is Brad’s way of acknowledging our love of Andrew and the profound impact he had in our lives.”
Barrett Jones plays piano on Meadow in Autumn, while Hans Teuber plays horns and keys on various other tracks. The album was self-produced by Brad, and recorded and mixed by Floyd Reitsma at Studio Litho in Seattle (except for In The Moment That You’re Born, which was mixed by Josh Evans). The artwork was crafted by Regan Hagar with the addition of pictures taken by Lance Mercer.
Gossard offers some “notes about the past:”
“You always return to the scene of the crime. Well, Brad has always been good at looking back and returning as well. Cherishing those times in the past, where we allowed ourselves to experience the magic of creation together, with all the sense of adventure, fear and fearlessness, insecurity and bravado. We always loved the old rough mix that we spent no time on vs. our labored-over ‘pro mix.’ Our most beautiful songs were the ones we shared with each other the most, and inspirations came in an instant. It’s easy to look back and see this wisdom in action. It’s harder to recognize it in the moment. In the moment that you’re born. The name of our new record. The name of our first single.
“We had texted a lot the week before Shawn’s passing: ‘Let’s do this. Let’s finish this record we started five years before.’ Lots of reasons for the pause in finishing. Some good. Others not. Our texting that week described how we were gonna take all our lessons from lost days about how we were better together, each part perfectly imperfect, and finally get back to the magic of music and our unique sound.
“Regan, Keith and I finished these tracks without our spiritual leader and our singer. We had a special experience, hearing these songs fresh after all that time tweaking, adding, discovering hidden gems. All the while thinking of what would Shawn like? How would he make this great? How would he make us laugh, or totally change the direction of a song in an amazing way?
“Anyway, it’s a lot of water under a lot of bridges. We love this band, Brad, and our record we made. It’s our last, but not least.”
