PEARL JAM has not yet begun recording its next studio album, according to bassist Jeff Ament.

The Seattle rockers surprise-released a new single, "Can't Deny Me", back in March, and said the song would appear on a forthcoming studio album. The announcement didn't mention a release date, but it's likely fans will have to wait until next year for the 11th PEARL JAM studio LP.

Asked by Jeff Sweatman of 106.1 The Corner for an update on the next PEARL JAM disc, Ament said (hear audio below): "I wish I had an answer for you. We have a bunch of stuff that's sort of partly written. Unfortunately, we have rehearsals coming up for Europe and the shows this summer, so it's in a little bit of a limbo state right now. We still need to record it; we haven't really recorded anything. But [there are] a lot of ideas.

"We've sort of been telling ourselves that we weren't gonna put a ton of pressure on the situation," he continued. "We really wanna make something great, and we wanna have the freedom to live with some of these ideas for a while and then maybe record them in a different way. We're sort of exploring all sorts of different things right now. So I think it bodes well for whatever the next album is."

Ament said last week that PEARL JAM's touring activities over the next few months are getting in the way of any new album plans. "We just need a good six to eight weeks carved out where we're just in recording all these ideas we have," he told the "Kyle Meredith With…" podcast.