Eddie Vedder released a pair of tracks, “Matter of Time” and “Say Hi,” after performing them at a special virtual charity event Wednesday night, November 18th.
The event, Ventures Into Cures, was to benefit the EB Research Partnership, a nonprofit Vedder and his wife, Jill, co-founded to help find a cure for the genetic skin disorder epidermolysis bullosa. Kids with EB are born with fragile skin and are subject to severe pain, external and internal wounds, and must undergo a rigorous bandaging process every day.
Both of Vedder’s new songs are tied to that cause. “Matter of Time” is a tender piano ballad that builds to a rollicking, optimistic end — “I’ll take the joy, I’ll take the pain,” Vedder sings, “We’re just like you, we’re all the same” — and it arrives with an animated video in which children suffering from EB are finally able to shed their bandages and play.
“Say Hi,” meanwhile, is a song that Vedder has performed live over the years, although this marks its first official release. Vedder wrote the rousing acoustic tune for a 6-year-old boy named Eli who suffers from junctional epidermolysis bullosa.
Back in September, Vedder released another new solo single, “Cartography,” plus a remix by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ Nick Zinner. Vedder originally recorded the instrumental track for the soundtrack to Eric Becker’s 2018 documentary, Return to Mount Kennedy.
In March, Pearl Jam released their first album in seven years, Gigaton.
