Context matters. David was absolutely gutted at this point of his life. Physically and mentally and financially destroyed. It's amazing that he was able to put out one more amazing album. What a legend. An ambassador to tender-hearted trodden-on.
When I read comments during the first half of the interview saying this interview was extremely sad, I was thinking everyone was being hyperbolic - but this truly is a heart wrenching, at times almost vulgar, listen. I've thought about David Berman and his music nearly every day for the ~18 months since he died: I've gone back to every album, read his poetry book Actual Air, watched whatever footage of him I could find including the documentary, read posts from his old blog, tried to figure out the backstory behind the "DCB Air" sign that was behind him in Purple Mountains promotional images. We're lucky to have this interview, even though it's sometimes hard to hear, because it shows that even in his bleakest moments there are flourishes of singular vitality, a sort of poetic vivacity, present in his words. The world will never know another David Berman, but it will know thousands of individuals who were changed by his way with words.
I just found David Berman's music by chance over the last few weeks and I fell in love with the sound and lyrics of his music.I started researching everything I could find about his early days in college and the bands he and his friends had etc. I've been listening to his music and gotten a feel some what for what he was about . I read that he had passed and then came across an article describing his death as suicide. I feel very sad about that and sadder yet when I listen to his last album. I wish he was still alive and making music . There was something soulful and sorrowful about him that reaches down deep.
@@soylentcompany5235 Nope, I think I've just kind of come to see it as an add on of the word - "the guy changed his middle name to "Cloud", so why not tack on a whole other word after?" is where I'm at. Calling his book "Actual Air" seems a solid enough clue that he was just interested in zooming in on the word/phenomenon of Air.
@@keechero47 Glad you found him. He left a body of work vast and powerful enough that he'll always be around. His old blog "Menthol Mountains" is definitely worth a deep dive as well, he left a treasure trove of stuff behind in there. DCB Forever 🤍
Hearing him talk about the 100 nights where he wasn’t sure he’d make it to the morning, and how he feels better having completed Purple Mountains, the album seems less like a comeback and more like a suicide note each time I hear it.
shit man, i’m a completely numb person after dealing with life destroying ocd, not even my close dad getting sentenced to 20 years in prison made me cry but david passing makes me cry all the time. he’ll never know how much he’s missed
I just had to explain to my seven year old daughter that one of daddy's fav artists passed away last night - she knows him from recent purple mountains songs that I play during car rides around town - she said that when you die you go into the clouds and the clouds are happy - a simple answer that gave me some relief during these sad times - RIP David, we will keep listening and re-listening, from generation to generation - thank you for giving us everything.
Wow....your daughter’s response was sweet, insightful and brought tears to my eyes. Me and a few friends had a Silver Jews/Pink Mountains listening session not long after David had passed - a very memorable evening. Peace ~
Silver Jews literally saved my life in high school. It’s really heartbreaking we lost such a great person..this is the first time I’ve heard an interview with him and it’s great I just have to say his voice really surprised me lol. Really going to miss this man
My twin brother and I have been covering the Silver Jews for years, introducing people to the poetry of David Berman. I have been totally crushed since I read the news. This whole Purple Mountains feels like a goodbye. I'm literally hiding tears from people because it hurts so bad.
I haven't stopped crying since I heard the news. Couldn't even eat today. Lou Reed and Leonard Cohen didn't even hit me this hard, and nobody I know really understands because they didn't know about David's music. Glad I'm here amongst people who understand. Makes me feel less lonely.
@@nickfromCO same here, this one's hit me differently than Leonard Cohen's too. I spent the last ten years trying to 'catch up' on whatever bit of Berman sprung up online or otherwise, it was almost an exercise of catching up with myself mental-health-wise. Leonard died surrounded by his family and at peace with his life which is a worthy goal, this one feels closer to something I'm trying to avoid. It's good we're not alone.
@@flowerdoodle2438 No. Didn't think that at all. At that moment I was dealing with my own feelings on the matter. But thanks for making things perfectly clear... ASSHOLE. OH YEAH, go fuck yourself. FUCKIN' DICKBAG.
To have David Berman back feels like a good omen to me in these uncertain times...we need our humanitarians now in the face of the corporate onslaught of war profiteering, lies, propaganda and enslavement
A lot berman turmoil with his genes. His dad was high up grabbler (J) lobbyist that funded and control the lie that is dem/repub when they control it all and the pain
The last 12 minutes are so hard to listen to. Listening to David talk about the future, you can just hear his heart isn't in it. I hope he has found his happiness somewhere beyond.
Agreed. He probably didn’t “know” he was going to kill himself at the time of this interview. I think he was trying to muster up as much positivity and excitement as he knew how. Depression is the worst.
I look back to a few months ago, when I was stranded in Lithuania listening to this interview at a train station at 5 in the morning, and - it was a happier time.
This comment hurts so much now...he was an amazing artist, I'm so sorry that life was tough for him. Sometimes I understand why people want to leave this world, it's hard to find motivation to live in this world. But I am glad to know there's plenty of David Berman fans
@@jamiestrode9276”aged poorly” is better reserved for arrogant predictions of the future or things that were probably always offensive but not widely accepted as such at the time of utterance… not someone who was modestly excited about what an artist was intending to do before surviving became too difficult for them. the original comment is tragic as anything regarding david from this brief time period, but was and is fine. i’m also glad to be reminded that there were signs that david wasn’t simply finished with life and probably wavered from day to day like most people with chronic depression.
Approximately 32 minutes, about songs being architecture, building a house, he’s left a ghost to host us. He’s right but I miss him so much. I’ve never stopped going into his houses but it feels like part of me has died.
"We were never promised there would be a tomorrow..." Shine on in the wild kindness, brother... The rest of us will do our best to hold world to its word.
This is a fantastic, very heartfelt interview. i feel that the role the interviewer plays during this interview is or at least i hope is, therapeutic for David at times.. It's really good to hear David talk about all this. He is an extremely honest amazing person. It's hard to hear the sadness is his voice at times. It makes this such an an important almost voyeuristic listeners approach to this record. If you see this at all David, i'm sorry for the things life have thrown at you. Thank you for sharing this and blessing us with this record. I know it will be something that is important to myself and others for the rest of my earth days. Silver jews music has accompanied me when i have had similar feelings or felt a loss. I know know Purple Mountains will continue do the same. We are all excited to hear more from you in whatever form that may be or when you decide that may be. Thank you for this interview and thank you for your words.
Dan Caleb Beldom couldn’t have said it better... this “interview” touched me deeply. thank you Vish, thank you David. I hope this album brings amazing changes to your life.
Very sad to come bak to this comment I made after his passing . I had this awful gut wrenching sad feeling that this was going to happen. knowing there was nothing I could do other than care and hope is a real helpless feeling. Glad he has found some peace at last. love to all.
I like that David just accepts his understanding of the lyrics and doesn't always elaborate. When he talks about resorts and Margaritas being nice. I took from that lyric that it's all phony and window dressing; it's not done effectively, but it's a fake symbol of relaxing in a very unrelaxing environment (the purgatory of a symbol of commerce like the mall). He still just lets the interviewer's summary slide though, "Yeah..."
That’s how effective writing works in general. The image has many different connotations and implications, some intended by the creator but many more that are created by the reader when filtered through their brains, experiences, other texts they’ve encountered. If the line just described the single meaning that Berman meant ( maybe something like our past times are all artificial and fleeting distractions from the actual injustices and suffering of the world ), it wouldn’t work at all. A lot of the meaning making comes from us creating our own meaning from the text, things the writer didn’t intend as well.
48:52 I really hope Drag City or someone releases a book of all of this material. It's great to know that there's still some of his unseen work out there in the world. I can't believe it's been a year already since he's been gone.
At some point id love to share emails David and I exchanged in 2012 where he gives me advice, talks about writing, books, life, suicide, etc. They're pretty amazing, yet very sad to revisit.
"songs build little rooms in time, and housed within the song's design is the ghost the host has left behind... to greet and sweep the guests inside, the stoke the fire and sing his lines."
I just discovered him the day this album was released and own an actual ticket stub for when I expected to see him and Purple Mountains in the NW. In between, a part of me wondered if he’d make it to the show given the subject matter of the album and was unfortunately proven dead right in this case. The pain this man was in, just heartbreaking. Obvi I discovered immediately that his whole catalogue is incredible. RIP David Berman.
This is such a gem. We would have never had this insight into his final album if it weren't for the interviewer asking such good questions. Thank you for this!
rip david... this was the first interview i heard from you never thought it would also be my last... i just got into all your music 1 maybe 2 months ago your new purple mountains was on repeat since it came out. this blows hard. thanks for letting me find comfort in your songs when i needed them even when i just got into them they sure will stay with me. may u rest easy u fought long and hard.
Found out about his music through Kurt Vile covering Punks in the Beerlight and I wish it had been sooner. He will be missed and I look forward to listening to all his music.
@@marcottavi2655 Bartleby is a character from a Melville short story who doesn't do any of the things his boss asks him to do, famously saying "I would prefer not to." Berman here references that character and turns the character's name into a verb. It's just very funny because it's an old American lit reference that he casually drops and turns into a verb. He was so casually a genius, which is very charming.
@@dandan5928 yes !!! i've read Barleby :) that's why i was curious about it but i must have missed the exact moment of him using it as a verb. I'm a non native english speaker, i just missed it, but thanks a lot for your answer
Oh, baby! BERMAN IS BACK!!! Thank you so much for doing this interview! Amazing and full of such good content. I'm going to buy Purple Mountains from my record store today!
What a great, in-depth interview with a thoughtful and very sweet man. I wish I had heard of David Berman earlier.: I only discovered him via my RU-vid suggestions and this was a couple of days after he died. I’ve been listening a lot to Purple Mountains and early Silver Jews - it’s beautiful. At around 27 minutes in the interview when David is discussing his untreatable depression and says that “there’ve been around a 100 nights over the last 10 years where I didn’t think I’d make it to the morning “ it is truly heartbreaking. RIP DB - I will keep digging and listening...and thinking. Thanks.
hearing what he says at 27:11 is the real crusher to me here. treatment resistant depression is a tricky diagnosis, and leaves a lot to speculate about. i've also seen david in other interviews and i really do wonder if he has anything that bars him from communicating more naturally. he strikes me as somebody on the spectrum. he's a genius who seems to have felt alone for most of his life.
Damn, I've never felt so sorry for someone in an interview...at 26:46 when Vish says "David, are you ok?" it really hurt me. It is a very interesting interview and I like Vish as an interviewer, but honestly, it fucking breaks my heart how sad and depressed David was. I'm so sorry for him and it's a shame that I discovered his music this year.
Better late than never I suppose. But yeah that moment is so rough. It's so confusing...how do you navigate this...telling someone you're deeply concerned about them, telling them "we're so worried about you", without that conversation just reinforcing their thoughts of "Oh i'm fucked". It's so hard :(
@@andyz9793 I still can't believe that David is gone, I just hope he was able to find peace. Another thing that breaks my heart is that I believe that he actually had real fans and maybe he felt unappreciated, I mean, I absolutely love his Purple Mountains album and I am still discovering amazing songs from Silver Jews. I wish we could have shown him how much he meant to us. And yes, in these situations it can be extremely complicated and sad to deal with someone who is suffering that much because you want to help him/her but everything is very delicate. At least I'm glad that a lot of people paid tribute to him and we still miss him. David was one of the most underrated artists out there. All this stuff makes you realize that mental health is a joke for most people and authorities and that's horrible. When you open up with someone and when you can also afford a therapist (psychologist or psychiatrist) you can see how crucial is to take care of your own mental health and to be a better person with everyone because you discover they might be going through a lot. Take care out there and greetings from Costa Rica (:
That shania twain supermarket story story killed me. Have had something similar with Sheryl Crowe. Everyones had those emotional moments with guilty pleasures. So relatable.
Man hearing him talk about how he felt about the pitchfork review on the last Silver Jews album was really sad. I know how it feels to feel like you’ve made something really good and have an underwhelming response to it. Incredible sad
It's understandable, but at the same time they probably turned thousands of people on to the Jews with super positive reviews of albums like American Water. I know I only learned about them after the review for Tanglewood Numbers. I definitely understand that one middling or negative review will almost always stick with someone more than a hundred positive reviews will. This goes for humans in general about positive and negative feedback from other people about almost anything.
To Myself BY FRANZ WRIGHT “You are riding the bus again burrowing into the blackness of Interstate 80, the sole passenger with an overhead light on. And I am with you. I’m the interminable fields you can’t see, the little lights off in the distance (in one of those rooms we are living) and I am the rain and the others all around you, and the loneliness you love, and the universe that loves you specifically, maybe, and the catastrophic dawn, the nicotine crawling on your skin- and when you begin to cough I won’t cover my face, and if you vomit this time I will hold you: everything’s going to be fine I will whisper. It won’t always be like this. I am going to buy you a sandwich.”
This is amazing. Thanks for sharing this. It feels very intimate. I miss David so much. I had just found his music weeks before he died with the 'Purple Mountains' album. I was so sad when I heard the news. I had just found a new favorite artist. Since then I have been diving into the Silver Jews catalog. Absolutely amazing music. His Lyricism and music is fantastic, such a loss we have all endured. RIP David.
Really wonderful interview with a genius - quite emotional at times! Glad to have found your podcast and looking forward to getting this new record. At this point in time it seems so bizarre that David would be as crestfallen by a middling pitchfork review - as it stands I doubt many artists would place any critical relevance in what a clickbait-driven mainstream site might write between their ticker of Drake news items... To think that it might've permanently deprived us of his work is awful really.
i just started learning about silver jews because of purple mountains and was listening to the purple mountains album and just wanted to check out David Bermans wikipedia page because i want to know as much as possible about the artists i like and then i saw that he died yesterday.....i was completely fucked....was listening to snow is falling in manhattan...... now i need to check out silver jews, David seemed to be an interesting human
So interesting. I write the same way, usually one sentence or phrase and music together, then the rest comes. I'm never really happy adding words after the music is done for a song.
thank you for saying that brother. It's like when they gave mogwai a 4.7 and i lost my mind. david is such a generational genius, you think they'd get over their clickbait appetite
Some insipid hipster reviewer who'd written nary a word of relevance derailing the work of the truest of American poets. Such tragic leverage that the confluence of his circumstance could allow for that.
I think his last album is a very much anew one, in regard to the happy silver jews. It is a sad dark album without no many humour. it is a very much jewish one, but after leaving Judaism. It is a very social album against the idea of the U.S. He left his wife, and the loneliness is writing the whole album looking for redemption. I love hearing it and always finding new ideas inside his words. I wished he would publish more poetry books...
