Some of you may have noticed the announcement in our “coming soon ” section that I would be posting an interview with Silver Jews frontman David Berman. Some of you may have even been eagerly awaiting to read it. Berman prefers to stick exclusively to email interviews because he feels that they give him more time to answer any questions in depth and prevent him from repeating himself. I met with Berman in October after an amazing performance in Seattle and spoke with him about how I had been in contact with Drag City records and would be sending him my questions via email. He expressed interest and told me that he loves to receive interview questions while touring because it is one of his only creative outlets while on the road. Berman is one of my favorite songwriters and I put a lot of care and thought into my interview before sending it out to the contact from Drag City. From there, I waited.
I never got my interview questions back but I’ve received a lot of emails responses that simply state that they, “Haven’t heard back from David, yet“ I was concerned that my questions were too intense and that I had been too personal with the angle that I had taken so I sent the following email,
“I was wondering if there has been any headway as far as the David Berman interview questions that I sent out a while back. I’m beginning to worry that my questions have offended him in some way, or that there is an issue with the interview.
Please let me know if you have any information because I was raised by a Jewish mother and I am neurotic.
Thanks ”
I got the following response,
“I don’t believe it has anything to do with you. David has been EXTREMELY slow to respond since he’s gotten back from tour. He’s not responded to others as well. I think he is taking a mental break, but I will continue to follow up. ”
That was on October 30th, 2008. David and Silver Jews have a show scheduled for the 31st in which they will be performing in a cave in Tennessee. I felt that it would still be a great time to post the interview and that I should try and follow up with the status at least one more time. To my surprise, before sending my email, I found out that Berman officially dissolved the group today via a message in the Silver Jews forum section of Dragcity.com. He further posted an extremely personal message to his fans about his personal life and his father. I will continue to try and contact David, hopefully with better results. I know that some of my questioning referred to the future status of the group. I guess that we all know the answer to that question now. It is clear that he has been busy with introspection and Drag City is still an amazing label. They have been extremely accommodating and helpful in other ways and continue to represent many other terrific groups. This is clearly a turning point is Berman’s life and, whether the interview ever gets posted or otherwise, I wish him and his wife/bassist, Cassie, the best possible success in their lives and their future endeavors. We also thank him for the tremendous contributions that he has provided to the world of music, literature, and as an individual as a whole. Simply based on the brief interraction that I have with Berman, he was very generous with his time and energy.
Here is exactly what David C. Berman posted last night on the Silver Jews bulletin board: Read the rest of this entry →
