Q&A // Stephen Malkmus

Hi Stephen. How has the album been received?
Well I think. Everyone seems pretty psyched on the label side and that’s usually a good sign.

Black Lips always say that they don’t know whether what they’ve done is any good or not…
I think that’s true. I guess you assume, because of your ego, that it’s good in some way, but you don’t know how much if it connects or if it’s extra special at this point. I’ve made a lot of records so whatever I do is not necessarily going to be a revelation, unfortunately. Without going really weird, – doing a Bowie “I need to be famous! I need to be heard!” – and changing things up a lot, it’s not gonna blow the world away. Everyone I talk to so far has heard something I’ve done before. You’ve probably heard Pavement, you’ve probably heard some Jicks, that’s just the way it goes. That also can be the same for lots of people further down their career.

But this is quite a different record for you though, isn’t it?
It sounds different. I think it sounds different. A label will always say “Gimme something to work with”, “Gimme a news story or something we can say”, so we’ve got Beck. We’ve got after –Pavement and then we’ve got… the same old thing! [laughs]

The songs are shorter though, aren’t they? Was that a concession on that front too?
Not necessarily, it was just what I was doing. I liked the way the songs were. Their form met their function, as Mies van der Rohe would say. Maybe there’s a little more modernist architecture style involved in these…

Who is Mies van der Rohe?
In America Mies van der Rohe is a famous architect, almost of the Bauhaus school. He made “form follows function”; buildings that are real plain on the outside with no ornamentation. Joy Division would be like a Mies van der Rohe band, probably. It’s minimalism in a certain way. It’s hugely influential in any architecture. Any downtown you see Mies van der Rohe, his style dominates skylines. Chicago has an especially amazing skyline so we were looking at a lot of his buildings.

So where did you record this one?
Los Angeles, I was just there in Chicago. So from a music perspective, by now if you’re working with someone like Beck or another of the professionals, it just adds a little more entertainment synergy vibe when you’re recording or something. You just feel like it’s time to be professional a little more. It’s kinda fun.

Don’t you feel professional?
Not really. I feel like I was writing my own script to a movie that Hollywood would never pay the budget for. It was done on like VCR or Betamax and was just quirky and Weird America or something…

Do you feel like you’ve just been “having a go at music” kind of thing?
I dunno, but when you go into a proper studio it becomes more real. I tried to imbue the proceedings with the idea that “Oh, I’m like a classic singer now, in a real band, and I’ve got my one shot in LA to make my album in the Cookie Cutter studio. This is our week with a producer and we have to prove ourselves and do a good job or we’re just gonna be washed down the drain with all the other psychedelic bands from the 60s…” Y’know. You’ve only got three or four days so you gotta get a good performance and capture the moment. I didn’t think of it that way on our other albums, I just did it without thinking. Maybe the big city thing was good for us.

You worked with a producer before though, right? Nigel Godrich on the last Pavement record?
Yeah but that wasn’t LA-ish. This was like, for some reason the LA thing makes me feel like I’m in the entertainment dream world where you’re a musical artist; like that’s the thing that you put on your tax form or something. Usually I’m just some dude in a band that started in a garage, getting away with it.

Do you keep expecting to get a proper job or something?
Mm-hmm. This was like, “maybe Jim Morrison felt this way too”; he was a little nothing and then he was a star all of a sudden.

So many bands reference what you’ve done over the last twenty years. How do you feel about it?
Obviously, when it’s bands like Yuck or Mazes, these next generation indie bands, I like it. I think it’s cool. It’s not like you wanna be off on some forgotten footnote corner of the Rock tree, or just seen to be some geezer music or something, I like to be part of the dialogue of young bands, new bands. [referencing your heroes] is all part of why I did it… I mean, it’s what I did too…

When you started out you couldn’t ever have thought you’d be in this position. Unless you had a massive ego?!
[laughs] Yeah. But if I’d have thought there’d be a younger band who were into what we did, then that’d be fucking cool.

Lyrically on ‘Mirror Traffic’ where’ve you derived most inspiration? If it’s not from architecture…
It’s all inward-looking. I guess it comes from some younger bands and people… A feeling I get about some young people’s music – I’m not trying to be Mr. Old here – is that the climate is like “we, we”, we’re just saying what you’re all thinking. I’m your vessel. I’m the audience’s vessel. We’re all one here. But my lyric style is not really like that. I guess I’m a child of Me Generation people or something. The songs I write are more like country guys or Johnny Cash or something. They take the perspective of the one lonely existential man – or person – having some thoughts. And then there’s also just jokey funny shit in there too…

Did you suddenly panic that you were a member of the Me Generation and that maybe you hadn’t been a standard-bearer for selfishness or something?
Yeah well, you know. The way you determine your knowledge… What can you learn from a record? Obviously, when you interview bands they end up talking about – I see NME and what they talk about their album means, they write songs about the people around them: “This one’s about Jean! She’s got a hard life,” or something – I’m not really looking out at other people too much; my friends, how they’re feeling or whatever. I just drift more through my own subconscious and whatever comes out is the good stuff.

Talking about the press… how do you feel your relationship with the press has personally changed?
Press. I dunno man, it’s hard to tell. It changes because the people are older than you, then they’re your same age and then you’re older than them. That’s how it really changes. Sometimes you’ll do something for a trade magazine and it’ll be like an old dude. But usually it’s people like you. You’re not even thirty yet?

I’m 28.
Yeah, see? That’s where we are with most people. And I was there too. Pavement started, most people that are covering music and stuff, they’re at that age, because they span a gap of being able to be into Yuck and more like legacy artists of that style, like me or Will Oldham or something like that.

Do you get asked about b-sides and techy questions by the older journalists?
It’s hard to say. Sometimes there are old guys who want to talk to me about folk music and Fairport Convention. They’re like “Yeah, you’re into that man! 60s wild music, like I did!” They’re more Mojo type guys, which is fine too.

What kind of things do you do when you’re not writing music?
We watch TV shows. Trashy TV shows. True Blood. Friday Night Lights. My wife has a crush on one of the guys in that show, so I give her that. For putting up with me she can have that.

Do you ever get any superfans when you’re out?
I don’t get much hassle when I’m in Portland. It’s pretty mellow. Other than that, it’s a lot of hanging out with my kids – teaching them how to ride a bicycle.

Perfect for an At Home With Stephen Malkmus feature…
[laughs] There’s lots of that. I listen to records, I play my records. I don’t buy as many weird records as I used to. And I play tons of guitar.

Do you have a lot of vinyl?
If you can imagine that whole thing [gestures to three floor-to-ceiling bookcases]. It’s not outrageous, but enough for it to be a problem when you think about moving house… It’s a pain in the ass. I’ve sort of tailed that back. I wish I could go on eBay and sell some of them but it’s a real hassle. I have friends that do that and people complain about things and send you bad cheques, or they send you empty letters and claim they sent you a cheque that got stolen because they decided the didn’t want to buy it. So watch out for that…

Who would be in your supergroup?
Sandi Denney from Fairport Convention on vocals. Andy from Stereolab on drums. Oh no, I’ll change the drummer to Jim White from Dirty Three, he’s amazing. On violin I’ll also get Warren from Dirty Three. We’ll get Joanna Newsom and Cat Power on backing vocals. Steve Marriott from Humble Pie playing some guitar. On bass we’ll have whoever played bass for KC & The Sunshine Band. On the maracas we’ll have Beck.

Stephen Malkmus & The Jicks’ ‘Mirror Traffic’ is out now on Domino.