Pearl Jam guitarist Mike McCready was moved to tears when he and the band saw a screening of Tim Burton \'s latest film, "Big Fish.""I personally was crying and trying to hold back tears at the same time," McCready says. "I didn\'t want people to see that I was crying. It\'s a beautiful, beautiful movie. It touched me in so many ways."Frontman Eddie Vedder , a longtime friend of Burton\'s, also was moved and immediately sequestered himself for two days to write a song for the film. The result is "Man of the Hour," a melancholic, melodic alt-rock ballad that is vintage Pearl Jam."Within a few days, Tim and I got this demo tape," producer Richard Zanuck says. "It was very crude, but it had the poignancy that matched the picture ... Both Tim and I felt that the last thing we wanted to do was throw in a song for marketing reasons. I in particular felt that the picture was so moving at the end that I was particularly sensitive about breaking that spell if we didn\'t have the right (end-title) song.""Man of the Hour" marks Pearl Jam\'s first soundtrack contribution since 1998\'s "Chicago Cab.""I\'m glad we\'re expanding our horizons," McCready says. "I think we shied away from it before."This might also mark a new turn in Pearl Jam\'s career. "Man of the Hour" is the first new song the band has commercially released since 200O\'s "Binaural" and its first without a record label. (The group recently fulfilled its long-term record agreement with Epic and has not re-signed.) With no label ties, the band is now free to offer "Man of the Hour" for sale as a digital download from its Web site. McCready says there also is talk of a new studio album; the band hopes to start recording again as early as April."Now that we\'re free from our contract, we\'re just going to see how things go from here," McCready says. "We\'re not sure exactly how we\'re going to put out the next record, but to go in (to the studio) to just purely do music right now would be cool."Pearl Jam has been toying with the idea of starting their own label, possibly through Sony, but McCready says it\'s not likely."We\'ve thought about it," McCready says. "But the problem is (that) we don\'t want to become a record company, we still want to be a rock band. To get into that aspect of starting your own label and worrying about distribution, it turns into way more of a business than any of us want to deal with. It\'s intriguing, but I think the five of us don\'t want to be (those) kind of businessmen. We want to rock and play music."McCready adds that the band has not decided how to release their next studio album. They might go with an independent company or even release it online."Everything can be sold online now," McCready says. "It\'s completely changed from where we were when the band started. I would not want to be in a band trying to get signed right now; it would be pretty tough."As far as illegal downloading is concerned, McCready says it has affected the band\'s overall record sales, but artists need to find a way to embrace and monetize it."(Downloading) is part of life now, and I think people have to adapt," McCready says. "It\'s not going away. We have to adapt, and the record labels have to adapt and embrace it and figure out creative ways to sell music through iTunes and (other services). It forces everyone to think out of the box."The soundtrack to "Big Fish," which hits stores Dec. 23, also includes score songs from composer Danny Elfman (marking Elfman\'s 10th film score for Burton) and classic tunes from Elvis Presley , Buddy Holly and Bing Crosby.
