Opscene Phone Interview

By Joep Vermaat. Originally appeared in Opscene Magazine.

Since a few months I’ve been working for a music magazine in Holland called Opscene. It’s not that big a magazine, only a few thousand copies get sold. It’s completely independent and because of that also completely voluntary. But it’s a great way to get my opinion across to more people than usual. Recently I had the honour to do an interview with David Berman of The Silver Jews. It was quite a nice experience, although it was only my second interview ever. The editor at Opscene didn’t mind me spreading the interview around the net, because you won’t ever buy the magazine anyway. It’s a language thing.

Named after Silva Joao, an ancient Brazillian hero. That was what the release info said about The Silver Jews’ third record, Starlite Walker. But the boss of Drag City didn’t hear the name right and made ‘Silver Jews’ out of it.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about”, David said, amused, when I asked him a question about the hero, “but I think you’re the victim of a bullshit story thought up by Drag City; they’re notorious for that. No, we have had the name for a long time. And we just thought it up because we’re fan of a lot of bands like The Silver Apples and The Silver Beatles. We wanted something with Silver in it, but Jewish. So, Silver Jews it became. ”

The Silver Jews were founded around 1989 when David, Steve Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich still went to college together in Virginia. Far before Pavement had recorded anything.

“Most people think Silver Jews is a side project of Pavement. But it’s really the other way around. Pavement only grew out to be a very popular side project.”

Because of their popularity, Silver Jews became more and more a solo vehicle for David.

“Still, we have lots of plans to do more things together in Silver Jews. Steve wants to make an album of his own, singing my songs. And there’s gonna be a new EP on which I’m playing with other people for the first time, but still by the name of Silver Jews. And in January me and Will Oldham of Palace are going into the studio to record two very long songs by the name of Silver Palace. And we’ll be touring early next year. ”

Although this is a very busy schedule, David still sees making music as a hobby.

“I don’t think Silver Jews will ever be very popular and that’s all right. I do it because I like to. And if somebody else likes it, then that’s fine.”

In daily life he’s an English graduate; he writes fiction and poetry and he’s working on getting his master’s degree. To make some money he teaches at the University. For writing the songs he doesn’t always use his writing skills.

“Early on, we just went into the studio, started a tape, smoked a joint and then started talking. Only ‘The country diary of a Subway conductor’ on the new record is made like that. But we used to record everything that way.”

For Starlite Walker David has taken his time to write songs. In the little city of Oxford, Mississippi, he rented a small cabin in the woods, just for inspiration.

“It was a very old laboratory of a retired chemist. It’s in the middle of the woods about fifteen kilometers from Oxford. That’s the place I lived and wrote the songs all summer long. And because Memphis is just an hour drive, we recorded them there.”

On the cover you can see why he chose this place to get inspired.

“That’s a picture of a small house near the place I lived. But it looks like it. Mississippi is a wonderful place; it’s very quiet. An area that has been forgotten for so long.