David Berman (The Silver Jews) Interview

Since forming whilst studying at the University of Virginia in 1989, David Berman’s country rockers the Silver Jews have been widely assumed to be a side project of Stephen Malkmus, frontman of cult lo-fi heroes Pavement. In fact, Malkmus, Berman and drummer Bob Nastanovich were performing together long before Malkmus and Nastanovich left to form Pavement.

Initially a New York noisy alt rock outfit, seven albums, various line-ups and nearly two decades later, those raucous beginnings are now largely forgotten in favour of a country sound, much more appropriate for their current Nashville location. About to embark on a tour of the UK and Europe to promote the new record, Berman took time out to answer a few questions.


The new album sounds more country-fried than some of your previous music. Why is this?

I’ve always had a strong affinity with country music. I love the storytelling style of songwriting that country and western embodies and I love that type of music’s limitations. Working within that is always interesting.

Has living in Nashville made the band’s sound more Country and Western?

It’s definitely affected how the band sound. We were a lot noisier with some of our stuff when we were living in other places, and the new music has something of a cleaner sound to it. I really like the way country music can be about the darkest subjects, veering from happiness to despair, but all the while keeping this upbeat sound. Going to extremes is really interesting.

That quite accurately describes a lot of the music of the Silver Jews: almost chirpy tunes with sometimes crushing lyrics. Would you say this applies to you as a person?

Yes, I’m quite similar to that. I go from almost being hermetic to being lively and really sociable. I can sway from one end of the spectrum to another. It’s been quiet whilst recording the album, but now we’re heading off on tour and it’s going to be a solid period of time just going out and being the centre of attention.

Are you looking forward to the UK and European tour?

Yes. It’s been a while since we were last in Europe and the last time was our first time. Before, we were newcomers to the continent and were finding our feet. This time around, it’s like we can actually experience the whole journey properly. We’ve never been to Brighton before and we’re stopping off at Leeds, Glasgow and Ireland, which should all be an education. Somewhere in particular we’re looking forward to is Germany. We’re playing Berlin, Hamburg and Frankfurt and it’s odd, but the Germans are always the most receptive to our music. We played there before with some punks from Tel Aviv called Monotonix, which went surprisingly well. We’ve never played in Berlin, so it’ll be like after fifty years, the Jews are returning to Berlin. The Spanish are also really good to us. It’s weird that the old Fascist states like us so much.

Why do you think the Germans and Spanish are so receptive?

I don’t know. It seems like people there are particularly sensitive and thoughtful about our name. The younger generation there are really uncomfortable with their country’s past. I was with some Germans and they didn’t want to cheer for their own country during the football World Cup. It’s weird, but I used to feel the same about certain things. I eventually learnt to separate culture from the people that are into it. It’s like I used to despise The Grateful Dead, but then I realised the music itself was good, and just that a lot of people that were fans were idiots.

You went to Israel in 2006. How did that go?

We were there for seventy two hours in total and it was an amazing experience. We played two shows and then war broke out between Israel and the Hezbollah. We were performing and then there were rockets being fired, soldiers being held captive and it all got pretty scary. It was scary not just for us getting out of there in one piece, but also for the fate of the country. It felt like World War Three was breaking out or something, and we were really worried we might never be able to go back there. It’s a terrible situation there with this horrible stalemate going on.

Are you looking forward to the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival?

For sure. We like trying different festivals, and this one seems like the opposite to some of the bigger festivals which are headlined by massive bands. There’s a festival in America being headlined by Metallica and Pearl Jam and it just holds no interest for me. Once a band becomes an institution like that, it’s like they just don’t have to try anymore. Acts like Neil Young or REM can put out a few mediocre albums, then put out one half decent one and it’s like ‘This album isn’t as despicably bad as the last two, so it’s ok’. It’s as if they think ‘this band’s still making money, so why stop the money coming in?’ It’s just grim and depressing.

Are you and Stephen Malkmus still friends?

I’m not asked this question that much anymore. Yeah, we’re still friends. It’s just that we live on opposite sides of the country now, and he’s got kids and I haven’t. That really divides people into these two separate camps. Also, when someone gets kind of canonised, like Stephen has been, it sort of distances you from them without much of a reason. With a lot of friendships, you feel bad about letting it go, but you’re not contractually obliged to remain friends with someone you’ve got nothing in coming with any more. Still, when we get together, it’s just like normal and we fall into the old relationship easily enough, and we’ve still got enough in coming to get along.

Any plans to collaborate with Malkmus again?

Well, it’s always a possibility, but as we’re living these very separate lives it gets put on the backburner a bit. There’s no reason not to work together again; just that other things get in the way.


28th April 2008.

Written by Nick Aldwinckle.