Best known as the frontman of the 1990s underground powerhouse Pavement, Stephen Malkmus explores folk on his new album 'Traditional Techniques.' 'It's almost scary, the naked quiet,' he says.
"It was in the back of my mind, always, that I might want to have some rules about making a record," he says."I was always curious about how my work would change if I was playing quieter and singing lower."
NPR's Ailsa Chang spoke to Stephen Malkmus about taking on the challenge of playing quiet acoustic music after decades in heavier rock, how his anxiety about the future has changed as he's aged and playing with Pavement again for the first time in 10 years. Listen in the player above and read on for highlights of the interview.
On returning to the music that he wrote in his 20s and reuniting with Pavement at this year's Primavera Sound festival It feels really exciting to get back up on that stage. There's this signature chimey guitar thing on one of our songs, called"Grounded" and I'm hoping I'm going to play that and it's going to go"dinga-dinga-dinga-ding," and then everyone's ears are going to prick up, even people who have never heard us. It's going to be like this clarion call. Then the next 50 minutes will pass, or hour, and we won't screw up too badly.
I can't deny that I would like to keep the Pavement dialogue in people's minds because we put in a lot of labor into it and a lot of love. So if we don't play or don't talk about it, it will be there but maybe it can be brought in context better.
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