The great thing about Robert Pollard is that while he seems pretty pragmatic and passionate about his songwriting and Guided by Voices legacy, he’s also kind of fuck-off about it. He’s a 50-year-old grandpa who calls his new band Boston Spaceships, after all. And the name of their record is slightly skeevy—
. And he’s from Dayton, Ohio, but sings in a weird English accent sometimes. He’s Bob Fuckin’ Pollard.
One of my favorite GBV shows was when the band opened for Cheap Trick in 1999 at Roseland Ballroom in New York. Cheap Trick, by that point, of course, was this seasoned, tight, professional rock juggernaut intent on fattening their pension by delivering nostalgia with laser-like precision. In contrast, as a member of the opening act, Pollard drank canned beer from a Coleman cooler and changed his set list on the fly. Eventually, he returned to the stage, mixed drink in hand (completely unnecessary by that point), and joined Cheap Trick for “Surrender.” The band’s discomfort was palpable—but it soon gave way to Pollard’s insane enthusiasm. You could see the crazed 20-year-old in him, paroled from a basement air-jam session and now somehow onstage with the fucking rock stars who wrote his favorite song. It made a couple thousand people very happy.
Now, beyond the Boston Spaceships, Fantagraphics has just released
, a book of Pollard’s collages. He uses a lot of found printed material, and his artwork often feels like the visual equivalent of his obtuse, sometimes funny lyrics.
Want me to keep rambling? No. You don’t. OK. Here’s what he had to say.
Vice: You turned 50 on Halloween last year. Was that birthday significant to you? Was there a big party?
Robert Pollard: Did you dress up?
Bob’s wife later stepped in to clarify via email: I read that Dayton is shrinking in population. Do you notice this? How has the decline of industry affected people there?
Is it affecting the music scene there?
Did it feel like a radically different place when you were a teenager?
Heavy Metal Parking Lot Is there one city in Ohio that you try to avoid? There are like 45 moderately sized urban areas in your state.
What were the 1980s like for Guided by Voices? You didn’t really emerge nationally until 1993 or 1994, and yet the band existed for a whole decade before then.
How did you finally hit on the GBV sound?
Was it difficult when things took off for you, to juggle family and a band? You were a schoolteacher and you had two kids.
Did any former students of yours go on to magnificent heights?
Where do you get all the materials that go into making your art? Do people and fans send things to you now, knowing they might interest you?
Is the whole you-not-having-a-computer thing bullshit or the truth? If so, what’s the rationale?
How much of your time is spent dealing with business—managers, interviews, booking agents, royalties statements, and so on? Have you found a way to make your art and have other people take care of that?
What’s one thing you said to your son, now that he is a dad?
How is it being married again? Are there things you thought you’d never do or feel again that came back to you, or entirely new feelings?
One of my favorite GBV shows was when the band opened for Cheap Trick in 1999 at Roseland Ballroom in New York. Cheap Trick, by that point, of course, was this seasoned, tight, professional rock juggernaut intent on fattening their pension by delivering nostalgia with laser-like precision. In contrast, as a member of the opening act, Pollard drank canned beer from a Coleman cooler and changed his set list on the fly. Eventually, he returned to the stage, mixed drink in hand (completely unnecessary by that point), and joined Cheap Trick for “Surrender.” The band’s discomfort was palpable—but it soon gave way to Pollard’s insane enthusiasm. You could see the crazed 20-year-old in him, paroled from a basement air-jam session and now somehow onstage with the fucking rock stars who wrote his favorite song. It made a couple thousand people very happy.
Now, beyond the Boston Spaceships, Fantagraphics has just released
Videos by VICE
Want me to keep rambling? No. You don’t. OK. Here’s what he had to say.
Vice: You turned 50 on Halloween last year. Was that birthday significant to you? Was there a big party?
Robert Pollard: Did you dress up?
Bob’s wife later stepped in to clarify via email: I read that Dayton is shrinking in population. Do you notice this? How has the decline of industry affected people there?
Is it affecting the music scene there?
Did it feel like a radically different place when you were a teenager?
Heavy Metal Parking Lot Is there one city in Ohio that you try to avoid? There are like 45 moderately sized urban areas in your state.
What were the 1980s like for Guided by Voices? You didn’t really emerge nationally until 1993 or 1994, and yet the band existed for a whole decade before then.
How did you finally hit on the GBV sound?
Was it difficult when things took off for you, to juggle family and a band? You were a schoolteacher and you had two kids.
Did any former students of yours go on to magnificent heights?
Where do you get all the materials that go into making your art? Do people and fans send things to you now, knowing they might interest you?
Is the whole you-not-having-a-computer thing bullshit or the truth? If so, what’s the rationale?
How much of your time is spent dealing with business—managers, interviews, booking agents, royalties statements, and so on? Have you found a way to make your art and have other people take care of that?
What’s one thing you said to your son, now that he is a dad?
How is it being married again? Are there things you thought you’d never do or feel again that came back to you, or entirely new feelings?
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