The Pavement Connection

David Berman on the Pavement connection

By Unknown. Originally appeared in Unknown.

The Pavement connection is really throwing the Silver Jews in the spotlight at the moment.

Yeah, when I was in England last week, I was sitting in a bar doing a Melody Maker interview when I thought “What the hell am I doing here? ” This doesn’t make any sense as far as my life goes. So I said to the guy “Are you doing this because you like the record or because of the Pavement connection? ” He said because of the Pavement connection.

Up until a few years ago only a handfull of people knew that the Silver Jews featured members of Pavement - what’s changed?

In the beginning I tried to hide the fact. I gave Steve a fake name and so forth but most people figured it out and it backfired. By keeping it a secret, people thought it was a bigger deal so we thought we’d stop telling secrets and tell the truth. If people then thought The Jew were a side project then fuck them. Bob and Steve treat it just as seriously as any other part of their lives. It’s certainly not a career for me, it’s like an extension of our friendship cos we’ve always played together. Technically, Pavement is a side project of the Silver Jews cos we were playing together well before Steve formed Pavement.