Blue Arrangements: David Berman Remembered

We pay a sideways tribute to the late David Berman – of Silver Jews and Purple Mountains – by republishing this entertainingly off-centre 2002 interview

Although nothing can compare to the impact felt by those closest to him, the recent and premature passing of David Berman saddened us all at Concrete Islands. As fans of Silver Jews, the group that Berman led and sometimes shared with Pavement’s Stephen Malkmus between 1989 and 2009, we have separately as well as collectively loved his unique wordplay and warmly-tangled Americana over the years.

Having had a somewhat restless retirement from making music for the best part of a decade after the disbandment of Silver Jews, Berman returned earlier this summer with an eponymous debut LP from his new band Purple Mountains. A mournfully-rousing and upliftingly-sad collection, forged with members of shapeshifting psych-pop outfit Woods, the album felt like a genuine creative rebirth. Tragically however, personal events took over and Berman ended his own life at an all too young age of 52 in early-August, soon after this new record’s release and just ahead of an extensive tour.

Since then, there have been countless tributes to this man of loquacious and insightful songwriting; with friends, followers, collaborators and commentators alike sharing their thoughts on favourite anecdotes, lyrics and recordings from Berman’s career. It’s hard to say whether we can really add much more here of value that hasn’t been shared widely already. However, in digging through personal archives, a 2002 interview originally published in the final edition of this writer’s long-defunct DIY print fanzine Under The Surface was rediscovered.

Conducted via email some while after the appearance of 2001’s Silver Jews long-player Bright Flight, it captures Berman in a bitingly-playful and seemingly-happier place, having recently moved to Nashville and recorded said album with on-loan members of Lambchop. We therefore republish it here again in full, barring the odd very belated typo fix and with some apologies for the then twenty-something’s more amateurish questioning, as a lateral homage to the late and already much-missed David Berman…

There was a considerable length of time between Bright Flight and its predecessor American Water. What took you so long? Can you explain the gaps in your Silver Jews employment record Mr Berman?!

I don’t know why. I spaced out for a minute and then four years had gone by. Bright Flight means spaced out.

Was it a conscious decision to not have Stephen Malkmus involved this time around or did your schedules and geographical proximity just not make it feasible? With no disrespect meant to Steve, do you think that his absence gave the new album a much more personal focus? Is the door open for him to return to the fold in future?

Are you asking if I didn’t ask him to play because he’s an irresponsible selfish brat? No, it was meant to be the five or six who played on the record from the beginning. Steve being a horrible creep had nothing to do with it. I saw it another way. Of course, he’ll be back in someday.

Did decamping to Nashville to live and to record have a major impact on the approach taken on the new album?  It seems to have a more authentic country slanted sound…

If you’re talking about Nashville ghosts, well they do get in my mind. People can really play their instruments here. That’s one thing I’ve learned.

How did you recruit Mark Nevers, Tony Crow, Paul Niehaus and William Tyler from Lambchop to record with you on Bright Flight? Did you actively seek their assistance or did they somehow gravitate towards you when you arrived in their neighbourhood?

First, I was introduced to Mark at a barbecue by a third party who knew I was looking for someone to record with in town. The other fellows just kind of fell in after that. Tony Crow is an old friend of Mark’s who plays piano for the parks and rec. dept’s ballet classes.

Was it good to finally bring a female voice into the Silver Jews equation with Cassie Marrett? Has she been in any other bands before?

She and I are getting married on Oct. 20, she helps me with my songs so it makes sense to have her in there. She was in Papa M playing bass for a year or two.

She does a sterling job with you on “Tennessee”. Is that your homage to old school Emmylou Harris/Gram Parsons and Lee Hazlewood/Nancy Sinatra duets or a wry celebration of the state of which you’ve recently become an inhabitant?

It’s just a fun song. I’m not usually so ‘fun’ so I had to go with it.

What have been the best and worse things about your new hometown of Nashville? Do you think you will stay there a long time? 

I’d like to buy a house here and stay for a while. I like the food and the people and also like eating the people here.

What is “Slow Education” about? Does the lyric suggest you’ve been contemplating the thorny subject of spirituality?

What, did you really think I was going to fall for that question?

From the new record “Time Will Break the World” feels like a heavier menacing sequel to “We Are Real” from the last Silver Jews album. Is it the potent political statement it seems from the lyric?

Yeah, those two songs are the same that way, though I’d never noticed it out loud until now. I guess this is where you’re supposed to say, “I think I’ll just let them stand for themselves.”

Someone once observed in a review of American Water that your songs documented the flipside of the American Dream. How do you feel about that assessment? Are you ever embarrassed to be an American? Do you think you could ever live in any other country though?

I’ve been embarrassed, definitely. Smart Americans know how the rest of the world sees us. We witness the clumsy geo-politics right alongside you. Anyway, I thrive on whatever that reviewer was trying to get at (that’s too obvious, the flipside of the American Dream, give me some credit people!!!) so I could never live anywhere else.

Does the humour come easily and automatically into your songs or do you sometimes have to deliberately bring in some levity to lighten-up your darkest moments?

In my real life I have a hard time lightening up when things go wrong. I tend to simmer resentfully in the corner. But it seems to be the logic in my imagined world that that’s what one does when things go wrong.

Who originally recorded “Friday Night Fever”? What drew you into covering it? It seems to sit next to your own songs so well that I was really surprised, perhaps even disappointed, that you hadn’t written it yourself…

George Strait. I’ve always loved it. He really has so many great ones. Like all country singers though his albums as a whole aren’t good. A couple singles and the rest filler.

What inspired the instrumental “Transylvania Blues”? It certainly has a Spaghetti Western flavour…

My mom and dad met at Transylvania Univ. in Lexington, KY. I guess the joke was the ‘blues’ is the fact that I was born.

The lyrics are obviously at the core of the Silver Jews’ magic. Are the lyrics written before the music or are they integrated at birth? Do you ever consider the words more important to you than the music?

Harlan Howard said country music is 85% words and 15% music. I think I don’t tip so far but it’s close. I write little guitar parts, attach some words and build a song that way. 

Do you tend to write song lyrics in the same way that you compose your poetry? Are your song lyrics taken from a large amalgam of collected writings or are they looked after separately?

No. I even use a different room for poems. Sometimes they are amalgamations of parts but the last years have grown more organically out of a bole.

As a renowned published poet outside of the Silver Jews do you despair at the dearth of good song lyricists at the moment?

I thought [Bob Dylan’s] Love and Theft was the worst fucking record I heard last year. Boring puns and delta clichés.

Do you ever wrestle with writer’s block? If so, what’s the best cure you’ve found?

Just walking away. I never force it.

In a recent interview featured in Time-Out you were quoted as saying, “People treat Silver Jews like a piece of shit.” What formed this impression? Has the American rock press been more dismissive or indifferent to your records in the same way they ignore bands like Lambchop despite their bigger European following? The thing is though, I don’t think I’ve ever read an uncomplimentary review, at least in the British music press.

I was just having a pity-party. I now prefer to think that we get what we deserve despite the overwhelming evidence otherwise.

A lot of the characters in your songs seem to have a fair amount of running-off the-rails regret. Do you share these regrets? What do you consider to be you biggest mistake in life?

Again, mostly imagined regrets. I’ve lived probably too safely inside of myself to have risked any real regrets, to my fault, and I guess, regret.

If you could devise your own epitaph for the Silver Jews, what would it be?

‘Will make bad zombies.’

Note: Accompanying photos courtesy of Drag City. The featured image is by Brent Stewart.

In the UK, whatever you’re going through, you can contact The Samaritans free any time by calling 116 123 (this number will not show-up on your phone bill) or via other methods detailed on their website. In the USA, anyone needing help can contact the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 1–800–273–8255 or at SuicidePreventionLifeline.org to chat with someone online. For support elsewhere in the world visit IASP.