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David Berman Biography & Facts

David Cloud Berman (born David Craig Berman; January 4, 1967 – August 7, 2019) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and poet. In 1989, he founded – and was the only constant member of – the indie rock band Silver Jews with Pavement's Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich. With Malkmus he developed the simple country-rock sound that characterized the early lo-fi recordings of both Pavement and Silver Jews. He worked extensively on his abstract and autobiographical lyrics whose themes overlapped with his poetry, of which he only published one volume, Actual Air, in 1999, during a period of significant substance abuse and emotional disorder that culminated in Berman attempting suicide in 2003. Afterward, he underwent rehabilitation, and engaged with Judaism. Alongside his wife Cassie Berman he toured for the first time, but soon dissolved the band. He returned to music in the mid-2010s, in response to personal problems that occurred in his absence; he adopted a new stage name and released an eponymous album in July 2019, a month before he died by suicide. Purple Mountains was acclaimed by his dedicated following, whom Berman believed non-existent. He is regarded as a significant and influential indie rock cult figure. Biography Early life David Craig Berman was born on January 4, 1967, in Williamsburg, Virginia. At that time, his father Richard Berman worked as an attorney practicing labor law for the United States Chamber of Commerce, while his mother was a housewife. He came from a secular Jewish family, who he said had no literary or artistic inclinations. Raised mostly in Texas, he did not personally know or interact with many other Jews. He later said he had identified with Jews because he "felt like an outsider" in his youth. For most of his life Berman identified as "ethnically Jewish" but not religious. Berman's parents divorced when he was seven. Thereafter, he split time between each parent's household until he entered college. His father relocated to Dallas for a position as a lobbyist on behalf of foodservice businesses, while his mother moved back in with her parents in Wooster, Ohio, and became a teacher there. He later described his childhood as "grindingly painful" and said he kept "mostly independent of family things" into his adulthood. While he was an adolescent, his father rose to prominence as a corporate lobbyist representing firearms, alcohol, and other industries. Berman came to dislike his father at an early age. He was compelled to live with his father after 1979, despite his wishes to the contrary, because of concern he was "growing up to be a wimp". He attended high school at Greenhill School in Addison, Texas. During his teenage years, his father sent him to see a psychiatrist. Berman suffered from depression throughout his life and later said the condition had become resistant to treatment. By the age of 15, he said he began taking "every drug in every way", and said he had smoked PCP every day during his second year of college. For Berman, the burgeoning new wave scene in Dallas served as an early source of musical inspiration. He took an interest in a friend's rare Fairlight keyboard, and in the music of bands like Art of Noise, Prefab Sprout, X, the Replacements, the Cure, New Order, and Echo and the Bunnymen. In high school, he began experimenting with poetry by writing to girlfriends, considering the line "A cartoon lake. Wolf on skates" to be his first true foray into poetry. Berman hoped that his poetry would resemble the lyrics of punk singers Jello Biafra and Exene Cervenka. He read Henry Miller's The Rosy Crucifixion when he was 14: "It gave me permission to enjoy life". Reading significantly in his life, Berman said, reinforced his empathy, especially for those also troubled; he cited William Faulkner as an influence. Berman went to the University of Virginia in 1985. He had been, by his own admission, "too lazy" to apply for college, so his father's secretary completed and submitted applications on his behalf. At university, Berman met fellow students Stephen Malkmus, Bob Nastanovich, and James McNew. He frequently attended concerts, shared records, and discussed obscure bands with Malkmus and Nastanovich, having first encountered the former in a carpool to a show. The quartet formed the band Ectoslavia. He graduated in 1989 with a bachelor's degree in English literature. Origin of Silver Jews: 1989–1994 Upon graduation, Berman, Malkmus, and Nastanovich moved to Hoboken, New Jersey, where they shared an apartment. In 1989, they adopted the band name Silver Jews and recorded discordant tapes in their living room – that same year, Malkmus' band Pavement released their debut extended play (EP), Slay Tracks: 1933–1969. The Whitney Museum of American Art – where Malkmus and Berman worked as security guards – and its contents (such as the art of Bruce Nauman, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Sherri Levine and Louise Lawler) was an influence to Berman. He wrote lyrics and poems while working shifts at the museum, occasionally in collaboration with Malkmus, who along with Berman would "get high" at Central Park on their lunch breaks. According to Berman's longtime friend Kevin Guthrie, Malkmus and Berman had a harmonious friendship, and Nastanovich revered both artists' creativity. "It was mostly drinking beer and seeing grunge bands", Malkmus said regarding this time period and recalled that Berman appeared as a somewhat "scary goth" but was kind and enthusiastic, strongly desiring to be involved with Jewish culture. Though Berman sometimes felt irritated by a common view that Silver Jews were merely a side project to Pavement, the connection led to his signing with indie label Drag City, which would later release all of his albums. The band's relation to Pavement was responsible for them amassing a "national audience", a notice great enough that the resulting sales meant Berman did not have to tour. The band's first extended-plays (EPs) Dime Map of the Reef and The Arizona Record were not commercially successful but gained them attention. Kim Gordon was an admirer and Will Oldham said Dime Map of the Reef inspired him to send recordings to Drag City. Following the EPs, Berman began studying for a master's degree in poetry at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Dubbing this time an "academic exile", Matthew Shaer, in a 2006 Boston Globe article, speculated that Berman's extended time studying may have been an attempt to distance himself from Pavement. Three years earlier, Berman reflected upon his time there: after "meet[ing] grown dignified men who play with fucking words all day," he felt he had "permission to believe that I could try for that life". He tried to get poems published in the American Poetry Review but was rejected, which increased his interest in music, "despite scarcely knowing how to sing or play guitar". As of 2005, Berman's public appearances mostly consisted of poetry readings. By October 1994, Silver Je.... Discover the David Berman popular books. Find the top 100 most popular David Berman books.