Interviewed autumn 1994 by phone

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 alright. I do it because I like to. And if somebody else likes it, than that’s fine.”

In dayly life he’s an English graduate student, he writes fiction and poetry and he’s working on getting his masters 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. If you’re there, you get the feeling your not on this world, that no one can ever find you. It’s like you’re living in the past. In Mississippi the past is more present than the present.” It’s a feeling you can hear in the songs. “Because I’ve grown up in the south, I was influenced by it’s past. I’m interested in stories and telling stories. That’s how I spend the time with people. Because of that, a lot of my songs are based on stories.” He has a lot of respect for people who put emphasis on words. In his record collection you can find records by The Band, Chuck Berry and more recent Palace, Beck and Royal Trux. Lots of the Drag City label. “It’s one of the best labels in the whole world. If it ever stops existing, only then people will realise what a great collective it was. Now they’re going on strong, nobody notices.”

One of the funniest moments on the record is the “..and were stuck inside the song..” part in ‘New Orleans’. “It isn’t really meant to be funny. It’s a two way thing. It’s sort of a long song and we’re still in it. And the other part of it is the subject of the song. The `I’ in the song is a guy literary trapped in a house he has broken into a hundred years ago. And he’s now some sort of ghost trapped inside the house. And the song is a house. I have this idea you could make a record and it would be like you can live inside it forever. It’s like an old photograph, everything would still be in there. Songs are like rooms and houses. I’ve had that idea with that song that he’d would be preserved in it.”

Because writing is David’s first love, he does that the most. “The past few years I’ve been collecting all of my own stuff. And at the end of the year I hope to send a big text to some publishers, just to test the waters.” But he doesn’t worry about that much. “I know I’m going to do that the rest of my life. Hopefully I’ll be ready to put out books in my thirties. But if it doesn’t happen, it doesn’t.” Just like with the Silver Jews, David has enough plans for himself. “I want to have a huge family. A dynasty of children and grandchildren. So I can sit at the head of the table and tell all my offspring stories. Living in Oxford. And fishing..”