Scared Of Fear

Album: Dark Matter (2024)
Play Video

Songfacts®:

  • After successfully working together on frontman Eddie Vedder's 2022 album Earthling, producer Andrew Watt was drafted back into duty for Pearl Jam's 12th album, Dark Matter. The band's first recording sessions for Dark Matter took place in April 2021 in the basement studio of the producer's Beverly Hills house. "Scared Of Fear" was one of two tracks that came out of their first day together after guitarist Stone Gossard played them an idea.

    "Stone had a great riff," bassist Jeff Ament told Mojo magazine. "It was just getting in a circle and throwing things out: 'Let's do this.' Within five minutes of having the bones of the arrangement, Ed came up with the crux of the lyrics."
  • The song is a time machine, transporting listeners back to Pearl Jam's grunge heyday while simultaneously feeling fresh and relevant. Vedder's raw and emotional vocals explore themes of endangered joys and communion that could be about love, friendship, or the old Seattle.
  • "Scared Of Fear" opens Dark Matter. In the intro before verse one there is a crack of a pool cue breaking the table. The sound was made by Vedder's friend Sean Penn and recorded by the singer on his phone.
  • The album's vaguely unsettling ambient opening echoes the "Master/Slave" intro and outros on Ten.

    "Jeff and Andrew came up with that," Stone Gossard told Spin. "We wanted to open the album with 'Scared of Fear,' but that would have been a dead start to set the table. So, we built this little intro, and I'm sure Andrew was excited about having something that harkened back to Ten a little bit."

Comments

Be the first to comment...

Editor's Picks

They Might Be Giants

They Might Be GiantsSongwriter Interviews

Who writes a song about a name they found in a phone book? That's just one of the everyday things these guys find to sing about. Anything in their field of vision or general scope of knowledge is fair game. If you cross paths with them, so are you.

Crystal Waters

Crystal WatersSongwriter Interviews

Waters tells the "Gypsy Woman" story, shares some of her songwriting insights, and explains how Dennis Rodman ended up on one of her songs.

Mark Arm of Mudhoney

Mark Arm of MudhoneySongwriter Interviews

When he was asked to write a song for the Singles soundtrack, Mark thought the Seattle grunge scene was already overblown, so that's what he wrote about.

Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat World

Jim Adkins of Jimmy Eat WorldSongwriter Interviews

Jim talks about the impact of "The Middle" and uses a tree metaphor to describe his songwriting philosophy.

Judas Priest

Judas PriestSongwriter Interviews

Rob Halford, Richie Faulkner and Glenn Tipton talk twin guitar harmonies and explain how they create songs in Judas Priest.

Metallica

MetallicaFact or Fiction

Beef with Bon Jovi? An unfortunate Spandex period? See if you can spot the true stories in this Metallica version of Fact or Fiction.