FEATUREMUSIC THE SILVER JEWS’ DAVID BERMAN TALKS ABOUT CYCLES, THE CONVENTIONAL, AND LOOKING OUT FOR “NEW ORLEANS” by paul carusoe photo by cassie berman 12_antigravity: your new orleans music and culture alternative
FEATUREMUSIC In 1993, David Berman and two guys from Pavement got in a room together with some instruments and pressed the record button on a boom box. What resulted was The Arizona Record, the first album by the Silver Jews. The Pavement guys left the band years ago, but Berman went on to release six more Silver Jews records, including this year’s Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, an album that sounds nothing like The Arizona Record...which is a good thing. The Silver Jews went on their first full-fledged tour in 2006 and they’ve just embarked on their second tour. They will be playing at One Eyed Jack’s on Wednesday, <strong>September</strong> 17. ANTIGRAVITY sent David Berman an email with ten questions. Here are the questions and his responses: ANTIGRAVITY: You started your last album with the lyric, “Where’s the plastic bag that holds the liquor, just in case I feel the need to puke.” This time, you open the record with the line, “What is not but could be if. What could appear in the morning mist?” Those are two very different ways to kick off an album. Do you think those lyrics set the tone for each record? David Berman: Yes, that’s true. They also both seem to take place at parallel 6ams, years apart. Nothing about sunrise could ever be charming to me anymore. AG: Three part question: On “My Pillow is the Threshold,” you’ve got the following lyric: “Life takes time then time takes life. Now the next move’s up to me.” That’s pretty deep stuff. Do you ever write poetry and think, “That’s good, but wouldn’t fit in the context of a song,” and then keep it for your poetry? Is everything fair game for a Silver Jews lyric? What would be off limits? DB: I probably wouldn’t say a piece of good writing wouldn’t fit without going through the fitting first. In a worn out small perimeter medium like rock music lyrics you’re wasting everybody’s time if you’re not trying to bring anything fresh to the table. I preserve good units that get edited out. I don’t know if they’ll make it over to poetry as much as lay around a recessed scrapheap. Anything has a shot [to be included in a Silver Jews lyric]. City council minutes; bugspray minutiae; mistranslations. I try to stay away from out and out blasphemy, I guess. AG: You’re about to embark on your second touring cycle after the release of a new record. Do you see yourself doing the conventional: record an album, release it, tour, talk to the press type thing for a while, or might you switch to something else? DB: I guess if I wanted to live through cycles like that I should have gotten into farming. It seems weird. So many people like me have their act together; that instead of dropping dead like nature intended, they’re coming back alive and releasing new music. The rock and roll career is starting to look more and more like competition for tenure. AG: When was the last time you really sat down and listened to the Arizona Record? DB: Summer of 2002. AG: How about Starlite Walker? DB: 2003. AG: Are you excited to play New Orleans? The city inspired one of your best songs. DB: I have a whole separate wing of my memory for time spent in New Orleans. AG: Have you ever played the song “New Orleans” live? DB: Yes. I definitely will make sure to play it in New Orleans, but not in the cities adjacent to New Orleans, in order to make it a specifically local event. AG: How do you pick your set list these days? About how many songs does the band know? DB: I guess thirty-five? I cut it down to twenty-five. Some are just no fun for me to do. Really, there are no more than fifteen I’m really happy with at one time. AG: What new song do you look most forward to playing live? DB: The first one on the album. AG: What older song do you look most forward to playing live? DB: I like to play a lot of songs off the second album. “How to Rent a Room.” AG: What song on the last tour got the biggest reaction from the crowd? Why do you think that song got such a positive reaction? DB: I think it was “Tennessee.” I don’t know why. It was something they loved in Ireland. The Silver Jews and James Jackson Toth play One Eyed Jacks on Wednesday, <strong>September</strong> 17th. For more info, go to silverjews.net. photo by brent stewart antigravitymagazine.com_13
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