Interview:
Guided By Voices
Robert Pollard : Singer, guitarist, song writer, & founder
June 24, 2001
The Fillmore, San Francisco
 |
|
Click on image to enlarge |
Video Vision (VV): Bobby?
RP: Bobby Baby. People who have known me for a long time call me Bobby. That's who I was, until like 1993 when I had to become Robert. When it became important. I didn't want to become known as a "Bobby". Because that's like Bobby Goldsboro, or Bobby Vinton, or Bobby V , because Bobby's light-weight, Robert's heavy.
VV: Light-weight Bobbys. Who are all these light-weights?
RP: All 60's light crooners. I didn't want to be a 60's light-weight crooner, I want (ed) to be a heavy hitter. Robert is better - like Robert Fripp, but not like Robert Palmer (eeww, right!).
 |
|
Click on image to enlarge |
RP: I was going to change it back in '93 or '94 when we broke. And I didn't want to be Bobby. My middle name is Ellsworth, so I was gonna go with that. Sounded good - Ellsworth Pollard. Sounds a little like Elvis Presley, but I decided to go with Robert to keep it basic. I could use Ellsworth Pollard maybe for a solo project.
VV: Ellsworth. Kind of regal sounding.
RP: Yeah, it is kind of regal sounding. I used to hate the name and try and keep it a secret. Like girls in high school would ask me what the E. stood for and I wouldn't tell them. But later I became kind of proud of it.
VV: Is it a family name? Where is it from?
RP: It's my dad's name. I'm a Jr. I've lived in Dayton, Ohio my whole life. My parents have lived in Dayton their whole lives.
VV: And your grandparents too?
RP: I don't know (laughs), I think they're from Kentucky. Everyone in Dayton has ancestors from Kentucky.
 |
|
Click on image to enlarge |
VV: In a newspaper
article about you, it said that your behavior is judged by Dayton natives
more severely because you come from Dayton and have spent your whole life
in Dayton, so you represent Daytonites to the rest of us. Do you feel
judged by the locals about your public behavior or performances?
RP: Well, you know. Dayton's a drinking town. Kind of a drinkin', pot smokin' town... it's not a very wild town. It's not a very culturally hip town either. But it's a nice town, and nice people...nice people who like to drink.
VV: Why do you stay?
RP: To stay grounded. It's where I write my songs. I write on the road, but at home is where I put it all together. You need a place like that. And I've thought about moving, because occasionally I've had some nasty things said about me in the local press, like about my drinking and so forth. Because I'm kind of in the spotlight now. And I've thought about moving to New York. Or Austin, cause' Austin is a really cool place. But... I can't. I have too many friends in Dayton. So the Dayton press call me and my gang of friends the Dayton Mafia.
Elvis had his "mafia", the Memphis Mafia. But about Dayton, I have all these friends that I grew up with, and I want to leave, but it's too hard. I mean, my family's all there, and my friends, so...We're out on the road a lot anyways, so I still go to New York and Austin but in the end it's just a good place to go home to.
 |
|
Click on image to enlarge |
RP: Yes. At first I was afraid to release this kind of music. But, first, I knew I didn't want Guided by Voices to get any kind of attention, or to get any recognition. Because if we did, I thought that would mean that we would have to explain what the music and lyrics mean. And I would have to explain what all these strange, and out-there lyrics are...and it scared me. I thought, "I can't explain this stuff." And after a while I just said, "I don't have to explain. It's up to everyone else to figure out what they mean." It's like an abstract painting, the artist doesn't really explain to all the viewers. So I just got over that fear. And now, the lyrics are a little more straight forward sometimes, they're not as whimsical, but still you've gotta dive into it, and figure out what's going on there. I don't think the lyrics are obvious, but I also know they're not quite as cartoon-esque as they used to be. (Because before) I was teaching at the time (around the time of Vampire on Titus, and Bee Thousand), and I was around 10-year olds all the time, so I kind-of thought as a 10-year old.
VV: Do you miss that influence? The childish delight in goblins and monsters and silly word jokes?
RP: Sure, I miss that. I kind-of miss that influence, I used to get a lot ideas from that. But now I just get my ideas from immature people, instead of kids, so it's pretty much the same thing (laughing... this is either the first time he's made this joke and it's damn funny, or it's one of those jokes that really does get funnier each time).
 |
|
Click on image to enlarge |
RP: I'm not an avid reader. Mostly, I get inspiration from meeting people in different towns. And the towns themselves. We have a lot of time to drive, so I sit in the van and look out the window a lot. And that's when I write a lot too.
VV: You've said before that you do a lot of writing at home. What's the difference between writing on the road and writing at home?
RP: Writing at home, I have my little crappy table, and my little crappy tape recorder, and my crappy guitar. And that's where I make my music. I get up in the morning, have coffee, then smoke cigarettes while I write music. I take my compiled notes of lyrics, all written on the road, or most of them. It's things that I hear. And I actually sit down and circle things, and highlight others until I have some pieces that I like. And once I think I have the right lyrics, then I put music to it.
 |
|
Click on image to enlarge |
RP: Not always. Sometimes I come up with something that I think has a good chord progression or melody first and then I put lyrics to it. And that's more difficult. It may be structurally better, but it's more difficult to come up with good lyrics that way.
VV: Then you take these ideas into the recording session and work it out with the rest of the band...?
RP: No, I make demos first. I make 4-track demos that I send off to the band and get their input and ideas. Once we're pretty settled about what we want to do, we make our own demos in a studio. After all that we do pre-production, then we go do the actual studio recording time. Back in the 4-track days the demos used to be the album, and I miss that.
VV: Is that why you continue to release solo and side projects like that?
RP: Yeah! And because I like to do things fast and spontaneous. So I started my label, the Fading Captain series, so I can still do it that way. I can do it quickly with no obligations. I still collaborate with people, but no press obligations, no sales obligations, and I don't have to explain anything. Every GBV album requires a whole round of press, and every journalist comes around and wants to talk about new things. It's "What are we going to talk about?", because everything's been said, everything's been asked. So what they start asking about is titles. "What does this title mean?" Usually I've got to describe things. I always have to describe the album title. What does it mean. And then I have to talk about producers. That's a new thing for me too. What do I have to say except, "Yeah, he's cool. He's a good guy."?
 |
|
Click on image to enlarge |
RP: Both. But it really opened doors for me. Without the whole "Indie" thing, and the whole lo-fi movement, I don't think anything would've happened for my music. So it's good. I didn't really know what it was when it was happening, but I thought, "Ok, we'll be part of something." But we've been stereotyped as an "indie, lo-fi, rock band". It's funny that people still call us "lo-fi" - they want to, they just don't want to let go of that. But I've never considered us a lo-fi band. True, we did things on 4-track but I've written songs that are inspired by Pete Townsend and Lennon-McCartney so I've never really felt like we were part of anything. So in that respect, it's been kind of an albatross. But for the most part, it's been good. College radio has always been good to us.
VV: And they've given you a kind of cult status.
RP: And that's good, it gives you some kind of feeling of security. Yeah yeah, I like that - it allows me to keep making records the rest of my life. I don't want to go back to teaching. I won't go back to teaching. (British accent) I won't!
 |
|
Click on image to enlarge |
RP: Well, I've always loved buying records and I'd buy anything that looked interesting. So I knew what was out there, I knew what was in the underground. But I never knew what we were part of, I never felt like we were part of anything - I still don't know what we're part of, if anything. It was nice that we were kind-of crowned the lo-fi kings, and that's cool. Because I think we kind-of did do it first, as far as the first early 90's movement. But there's always been lo-fi music, like Robert Johnson and before. But as far as a real underground rock movement in the early 90's we were there. It kind of upset other people (that GBV became the "kings of lo-fi") who thought they were first. Bands like Sebadoh and Pavement. It didn't upset Pavement, but it upset Sebadoh. But we've become friends since then. We had kind-of a feud going for a while but we're all right now.
VV: This was an open rivalry at some point?
RP: Oh, I don't know. They were more like, "Who're these guys?", because we got thrust upon the scene so quickly. But I guess we were first: we did an album called The Devil Between My Toes in 1987 and it was totally lo-fi. Really before the whole movement got going. So we accepted the crowns.
They call us "lo-fi pioneers", and I like that. Kings of crappy music.
 |
|
Click on image to enlarge |
RP: Ohio is a very inspirational state as far as musical output. There's been really great bands that I've been proud of, or felt proud to be part of, like Devo, Pere Ubu, The Breeders, and Thomas Jefferson Slave Apartments. But as far as Dayton, there was nothing. There was nothing to grab onto. That's why we hid away in a basement and made our own kind of music. When we left the basement and did try and play for people, they were not sure what to make of it (makes a sour face and blows air out of puckered lips). And I wasn't sure what it was in the beginning. Because I was writing these really complicated songs...I played guitar, Mitch Mitchell played bass, and Kevin Fennell played drums. And I wrote really complicated songs that we could barely play, so it was probably pretty lousy. But you gotta have a starting place.
 |
|
Click on image to enlarge |
RP: The guy who did that, Noel, is really cool. I was doing press one day at TVT & Steve Gottlieb asked me to come over and check out this guys work. And I thought it was really cool because it's kind-of "Yellow Submarine" looking. And they asked if I wanted to do this for "Glad Girls". And they said it would take very little effort on my part, which was good because I don't really like doing videos. So we did a little singing and dancing in Seattle, but mostly he hired a bunch of girls, a bunch of models to dance - but it's all animated so you can't really see us that well. And I like that better because I don't really want to be looked at, on film.
There's more videos. There's "I Am a Scientist", "My Valuable Hunting Knife", "The Official Ironman Rally Song", "Bulldog Skin", and "Motor Away". There's also a documentary called, "Watch Me Jumpstart". It's really cool, it was done by Banks Tarver who works for MTV now. I think he did it for his thesis... he did a really good job. At the time I wasn't interested. I didn't want to be bothered with it. But he said to me, "I think you need to be documented at some point, and now is a good time." I think that was around 1995.
 |
|
Click on image to enlarge |
RP: No, he's not our official biographer, but...I'm thinking that we should do another documentary soon. No, I don't want an official anything, I guess. I'm not so interested in people knowing so much about us, I don't really want anyone digging around our lives. I'm flattered, but I'm a shy guy (and is now physically twisting away from the camera, which I think he had forgotten). I want the music to get the recognition. I personally don't want to be the focus. That must be why I still live in Dayton.
VV: Since you've made so many music videos, would you say you like them or are they a necessary evil?
RP: I liked "Glad Girls" because it was animated. But I don't really like making or watching videos. I like Tool videos because they're in claymation and they're weird (!). I'm tired of looking at bands playing. For every 100 videos, there's maybe one good one. I don't like how videos give you the imagery for a song, I think you should get the imagery in your own head. The Tool videos are visual but they don't overwhelm the song.
 |
RP: Me and Gene Simmons and Sting. But I'm not exactly in the same range as those guys (laughing). I was a teacher, and I get letters all the time from musicians who are teachers, and they say I inspire them.
VV: Well, what advice can you give them to continue with their creative life while they teach? How to do music while maintaining a straight job?
RP: Just do it because you love it. My philosophy for the band, which may have been because we weren't really good, was that we were not going to sell ourselves: we didn't do any bios, we didn't send any kits to people, we didn't even send our records out. One of my friends sent our records out to magazines without me even knowing about it. 'Cause we weren't going to do it, we were just doing it for fun. I would say, (make music) because you like to do it, but don't do it because you have an ambition to do it professionally. Because that's really difficult to make "It" happen. It's a stroke of luck, it's odd timing. So it's like beating your head against a wall if you make music thinking, "Something's really gonna happen with this." Do something because you love to do it, but not for ambitious reasons (like "I want to be a rock star"), because that's the most difficult. Make your art but don't do it because you think that's the way you're going to make a living.
But I get to do it for a living!
Interviewer: Catherine Lee
Camera & Photos: Rodwin Pabello
Transcription & Editing: Catherine Lee
Comments & Feedback: Rock Prog
© 2001 Evans Media Group, Inc.
Related Links:
Video Vision CD Reviews - "Music" section
Official Guided By Voices Site - lots of info and updates