In early February, Splendid sent Jason Jackowiak -- the biggest GBV fan we know -- to interview GBV frontman Robert Pollard prior to the band's two-night residence at Chicago's Empty Bottle. To keep things interesting, we also invited the other biggest GBV fan we know -- Nanette, of the ever popular weblog Amplified to Rock. This is their story...

Let me begin by confessing that I was absolutely petrified at the prospect of interviewing Robert Pollard. You see, I’ve been a huge Guided by Voices fan for years, and he is honestly one of my idols. All I could think about was "what if this all blows up in my face". I had a nightmarish vision of the interview going horribly wrong; he would think me to be an inept journalist and wind up breaking a bottle of Bud Light over my head, cackling fiendishly all the while.

Luckily, this is not at all the way it went down. In fact, the interview couldn’t have gone more swimmingly. After a brief wait (for me to stew in my own sweat no doubt) and accompanied by Nanette (from the wonderful Amplified to Rock), I sat down with Bob, pre-show and pre-dinner, to discuss life in Dayton, OH, former neighbors, roosters, cilantro and his group’s new album, Isolation Drills. Throughout our discussion he was warm, funny, honest and respectful -- despite the fact that I’m sure he could tell I was quaking in my boots! Hopefully you will find this interview as enjoyable to read as it was to conduct. So, without any further ado, let me introduce you to Mr. Robert Pollard -- or, as he wished to be addressed on this particular evening, Mr. Dean Mercury...

Splendid: So let's talk about Isolation Drills.

Robert Pollard: That's what we're here for. You got one? You got a copy of it yet?

Splendid: No, unfortunately. Not yet. Will you be selling 'em tonight?

Robert Pollard: Nah. It's not out yet. April 3rd... We just got advance copies of 'em, but that's all. Once they come out we're gonna start selling them at shows. We've never sold records at shows before. But it'll be out soon, man.

Splendid: Why the title change? I remember the working title was Broadcaster House.

Robert Pollard: We had a song called "Isolation Drills" that almost made the album -- it was the last one to get cut -- and I thought that title reflected the tone of the record a little bit better. Lyrically it's kind of a dark, personal record. Our band went through a lot of changes last year, brought on by being on the road all the time -- you know, relationships and so forth. So I thought Isolation Drills was a more apt title.

Splendid: Who did the record with you? Was it the same batch of people as last time?

Robert Pollard: Rob Schnapf produced the record. Or do you mean the band?

Splendid: Yeah, the band.

Robert Pollard: On the last album Greg Demos played bass, and Jim MacPherson played on it...they didn't play last time. We had a different bass player and a different guitar player. But Doug (Gillard) played, and Jim MacPherson played on it. He's not in the band any more, though. It was his last work with us.

Splendid: How was Rob Schnapf to work with as opposed to Ric Ocasek?

Robert Pollard: He was good. They're both good producers, and they both have different approaches. They're both good guys. Ric was a little intimidating for me because...he's Ric Ocasek. Just the nature of who he was kind of made it intimidating. And also, and I've been saying this and Ric's probably going to read this and get mad, but he didn't let us drink. We weren't allowed to drink with Ric, so for us -- for me personally -- it created a little bit of tension, performance wise. My hands sweated... When you can have six or seven beers and then perform, you've got a more laid-back performance. Rob, on the other hand, had no problem with us drinking, smoking, whatever. Bringing prostitutes into the studio... We could do whatever we wanted, so it was a little more relaxed atmosphere.

Splendid: Did you record at Schnapf's studio?

Robert Pollard: No, we recorded at a place called Lo-Ho in New York City, and then we mixed -- where was it, Green Street? We mixed at Green Street. Lo-Ho's a really cool studio too, a nice relaxed atmosphere. We spent probably the same amount of time as we did for Do The Collapse. We spend three or four weeks on a record. When we used to do our four-track stuff we'd spend like, three or four days and that'd be it.

Splendid: Was it a big step to go from basement recording to a big studio, or was it pretty easy?

Robert Pollard: No, we've been in big studios...we just haven't had a whole lot of success there. It was scary working with Ric, and having a producer, but we've done that now and we feel like we jumped in the water already. So with Rob it was really easy. We're there now.

Splendid: I heard Elliott Smith dropped by to play on the record.

Robert Pollard: Yeah, he played organ on one song and piano on a couple of songs. Tobin Sprout played on a song, too.

Splendid: Any plans to work with Tobin on a regular basis again?

Robert Pollard: I just finished an album with him. We call ourselves Airport Five. I just finished an album with him where he sent me a bunch of instrumentals and I sang my lyrics over the top. It'll probably be out in August. It's really nice, really good. If you have Tonics and Twisted Chasers, it's like that, but much better sounding. It's really cool. So we're back together. We plan on doing that once or twice a year.

Splendid: Will that be released as part of the Fading Captain Series? (The Fading Captain Series is a series of releases on Bob's own Rockathon Records imprint. It's his clearing house for extra, mainly non-GBV related material.)

Robert Pollard: Fading Captain Series, yeah. I finished a solo album, too. I've got a solo album that I did with MacPherson and Demos. So I've got a bunch of stuff. I'm getting ready to do an album with Mac MacCaughan from Superchunk, too, the same way I did the record with Toby. So I'm busy.

Splendid: Definitely. What's the next thing we'll see from the Fading Captain Series?

Robert Pollard: There's a schedule of releases. I think we're going to release a single from the Airport Five, with a couple of unreleased B-sides, in May. We're going to release another single -- we're trying to build up some enthusiasm for the Airport Five, so we're gonna release another Airport Five single in June. Then my solo record -- the band name is Robert Pollard and His Salt Rock Renegades -- is called Choreographed Man of War, and that'll be out July 4th, I think. And then the Airport Five in August. So an album every month.

Splendid: Will there be a single before Isolation Drills?

Robert Pollard: There should be a single in a month, a song called "Chasing Heather Crazy", with non-album B-sides.

Splendid: Have you been playing that one live? Did you play it last time you played here?

Robert Pollard: We probably played "Glad Girls". That was going to be the single, and then they decided to let that be the UK single. Radio stations kind of decided that "Chasing Heather Crazy" was a better song for radio.

Splendid: Is the new record as polished as the last one, or is it a little rougher?

Robert Pollard: It's more rock. It's bigger. More anthemic. It's a big studio, and it had a producer -- it's polished, but it's not slick.

Splendid: Yeah, 'cos Do the Collapse was so slick...not that there's necessarily anything wrong with that...

Robert Pollard: Isolation Drills rocks harder. It's a bigger rock record.

Splendid: Will we hear a good portion of it tonight?

Robert Pollard: All of it. In order. Right off the bat.

Splendid: That must have made it a little easier, having part of the set chosen in advance. You have so many songs -- how do you figure out what you're going to play?

Robert Pollard: Live?

Splendid: Yeah.

Robert Pollard: It's hard. We actually have, like, fifty-seven songs right now that we do live, but there are always people yelling out that they want to hear this, or that...and we can't know all of our songs at the drop of a hat. We have about four hundred songs, like you said. We've had people say "Why can't you play them? You wrote 'em. How can you not know it?" But you can practice only so many songs... I do the songs that I like to sing. If it's kind of a labor to sing a song... Like "Big School". You know that one?

Splendid: Yeah.

Robert Pollard: "Big School" is a good song, and every once in a while we bring that back to the set, but it's really tough to sing. It's hard to say "Big School really high that many times. It's too hard to sing, so I don't feel like doing it. So just whatever I feel comfortable singing, that's what I do.

Splendid: Change of subject: how's the Monument Club? (The Monument Club is the makeshift bar Bob maintained in his house in Dayton)

Robert Pollard: It's now the Portable Men's Society (from the song on Mag Earwig). I actually don't live in that house anymore, so it's just sitting there now, and it's kind of a sad thing. But the guys who went to the Monument Club, we go around on Wednesdays and Sundays and meet someplace else. It exists, still, in a brotherhood sort of way.

Splendid: So Nana's no longer your neighbor?

(Nana is Bob's old neighbor. She has a rooster named Big Daddy that was the inspiration for the song "Don't Stop Now" from Under the Bushes, Under the Stars.)

Robert Pollard: No she's not, but I went back to my house the other day and she fuckin' yelled at me. I went back to my house to get something and she yelled at me for backing around. You never get away from her. You never escape Nana. (To Nate) Did I tell you Nana yelled at me the other day? I was getting shit out of my house and I started to back around and Nana yelled at me? I go "Fuck you!" (Laughter) Like, "you bitch!"

Nate Farley: Why was she yelling at you?

Robert Pollard: She thought I went in her yard a little bit. I was like, "This is my fuckin' yard!"

Nate Farley: What'd she yell at you? "Git outta my yard?"

Robert Pollard: "Git outta my yard!" She's a witch. I understand, though, she's sad because I'm not there anymore. She's just happy to get one last jab at me.

Splendid: She's sad because she doesn't get to yell at you on a daily basis?

Robert Pollard: Yeah, now she has to wait and do it just once every couple of months. And then it's a good yell, too.

Splendid: Moving on...why did you release the Suitcase box set last year? Was it just because of the relative lack of GBV releases?

Robert Pollard: Yeah, it was gonna be a while before the next Guided By Voices album came out, and I really didn't put out much new material last year. I'm putting out a lot this year. So I thought it was a good time for it. We've thought about doing it for a long time, and a couple of friends of mine and I got together and started compiling stuff, so we decided, "let's do it." I was apprehensive about it, but I was surprised -- it's been really well received. It's getting really good reviews...and it's the shit. It's the trash. It's the Suitcase. You're not supposed to like that stuff. But people love that. I like the band names, though. The band names are cool.

Splendid: The band names are awesome. It's a lot to absorb, but that makes it very very good.

Robert Pollard: That makes it better, because you listen to the song and you read the band name and you imagine that's the band. You have to imagine that that's the band.

Splendid: So I'm supposed to imagine you with a wig on...

Robert Pollard: No, it's not me, it's someone else. Guided By Voices presents Suitcase. I should've put "presents Suitcase".

Splendid: All these different people with your face...

Robert Pollard: One hundred Dayton bands!

Splendid: Speaking of Dayton, are you getting any respect from Dayton these days?

Robert Pollard: No.

Splendid: Not at all?

Robert Pollard: I was crucified recently for a performance we did -- we played for three hours and during the last half hour I was kind of drunk, and just falling around a bit. And I was crucified for that. There were two or three articles like, "Letter to Robert Pollard", y'know? "You need to check into Betty Ford," or whatever, all that kind of shit. I don't care, because it's kind of cool for me -- all the kids who play rock look up to me and say "Man, he's wild." But my mom and dad and those kinds of people are all embarrassed. Their friends are going "Man, your son is like a fuckin' hippie. He's in the gutter, isn't he?" I think that's the way it is with a lot of cities. People are used to you, they've seen you all your life, so they're not gonna give you any respect, no matter who you are.

Splendid: That's unfortunate.

Robert Pollard: I get respect from other bands and other people. And the press, the papers, they write good stuff. But when they want to hit hard, they really come down on me. And that doesn't happen anywhere else but Dayton. I tried to tell my family, when the papers here write that kind of stuff that's all you see, but everywhere we go we behave the same way and people love it -- we get good reviews for our performances. I just try to tell them that, but they don't believe me.

Splendid: Has there ever been a time in your career when you've thought about giving it all up and going back to teaching?

Robert Pollard: No, not going back to teaching! I've thought about giving up, but not going back to teaching. I've thought about maybe driving a cab or something...something like that. But not recently. Not in the past few years, because I really like where my band's going and where my band is, but a few years back I said "This is going to be the last album. I'm getting pretty tired of it." But I was only going to break up Guided By Voices -- I wasn't going to stop recording. I would've just stopped touring and done my own shit. But it's too much fun -- it's a really close-knit band and it's still too much fun to quit. I'm getting old, too, man. I'm forty-three years old, man. I'm getting old. It's too much fun, though. As long as I still rock it. As long as we can still do that, it's gonna be hard to quit.

Splendid: You're still doing it. I read an interview with Brian Wilson where he said that every day of his life, he goes to the piano and tries to write a song. Is that the way you are?

Robert Pollard: No...when I feel like writing, I'll write a bunch of songs. If I feel good, I'll get a guitar and a tape recorder and I'll write thirty songs. The rest of the time I don't even worry about it, unless we get together as a full band and just kind of jam out songs. But I don't press it at all. It's not like a routine or a ritual. I think Brian Wilson's full of shit.

Splendid: Well, he only said "try". He didn't say succeed.

Robert Pollard: No, he's crazy. The guy's crazy.

Splendid: Do you still have everybody else writing song titles for you?

Robert Pollard: Yeah. I'll take titles. I'll accept titles. Yeah. I like that. I think it's cool when people get into the practice of writing titles, 'cos it's fun.

Splendid: Do you still have your notebook with all your song titles and stuff?

Robert Pollard: Oh yeah.

Splendid: Do you ever write songs the opposite way...?

Robert Pollard: No, I sometimes write a melody first, or a riff first, and work from that point of view, but I like to write lyrics. What I'm doing now is writing all the lyrics first and putting music to 'em. That's the way to do it. That insures that even if it's not a good song, it's lyrically good because it's a poem, y'know?

Splendid: Your lyrics are kind of obtuse, but they seem to make more sense lately...

Robert Pollard: They make a little more sense. The last line of the first song on the new album -- the song's called "Fair Touching" -- is "At last the song you sing will have meaning." It's kind of prophetic. The songs on the new album are relationship-oriented, so they kind of have meaning. They're still not straightforward and obvious, though. They're still not interesting. They're better -- I think they're more mature. I'm finally growing up at the age of forty-three.

Splendid: So you chalk the more comprehensible lyrics thing up to being older and wiser?

Robert Pollard: Yeah, and meeting a lot more people, and having things happen to me in the last year. Other people in my band having things happen to them. There've been a lot of changes and a lot of good times, but a lot of kind of bad times in the last year, too. So the lyrics are more personal. Last year we toured for a long time, and when you're on the road for a year it makes it really tough on your home life. It's hard to do both of 'em.

Splendid: Does your family understand? Obviously they know what you do, but I'm sure it's hard.

Robert Pollard: I think they understand the nature of the beast, and what's going on. I think they expect me to fuckin' grow up one of these days, too.

(Bob pauses to order his dinner)

Robert Pollard: Chicken burrito, no cilantro.

Splendid: No cilantro?

Robert Pollard: I don't like cilantro, man.

Splendid: Good move. Otherwise you'll stink all night.

Robert Pollard: I don't like it anyway, man. That's one thing -- I can eat anything but I can't stand cilantro.

Splendid: Really?

Robert Pollard: Yeah. It tastes like soap or something.

Splendid: I know you did a couple tracks for the Colonel Jeffrey Pumpernickel compilation/concept album thing. We just listened to it in the car.

Robert Pollard: Oh, yeah. We did the opening track and the closing track. The reprise. It's the same song.

Splendid: We just listened to our advance of it.

Robert Pollard: How'd you like it?

Splendid: It sounded really good.

Robert Pollard: Sounds like the beginning of a rock opera, doesn't it?

Splendid: How'd you get involved with that?

Robert Pollard: That's him, right there (he points at a guy at the other end of the table). Chris Slusarenko. He asked me how I got involved with the Jeffrey Pumpernickel project.

Splendid: We just got a copy of it.

(Bob returns his attention to the waiter.)

Robert Pollard: Yeah, a chicken burrito, with no cilantro.

Waiter: It comes on the side.

Robert Pollard: On the side? I guess that's okay.

Waiter: Do you want it off or is it okay on the side?

Robert Pollard: Is it difficult to take it off?

Waiter: So you'd like it off?

Robert Pollard: Yeah, off. And I'll take another Miller Lite.

Splendid: I thought you were a Bud man.

Robert Pollard: I used to be. You drink a lot of beer, you go on tour for a year, you gotta drink the lightest, most watered-down beer you can drink.

Tour Manager: What about Coors Light, then?

Robert Pollard: Coors Light? I'm not drinkin' that shit! That's Nazi beer. You like it?

Tour Manager: (Noncomittal noise)

Robert Pollard: I can drink it, I guess.

Splendid: Speaking of drinking... A friend of mine asked me to ask you this, and he didn't mean it to be demeaning. He wanted to know if you drink as much when you're at home as you do when you're on the road, and if you do, how do you write such great music?

Robert Pollard: I don't drink in the morning. I write in the morning. I don't drink in the morning. I don't get up and need, like, a shot of whiskey or anything. I drink about three or four times a week, the way I do on the road. On the road we'll play maybe four days a week, and the other days I don't drink. Well, sometimes I do.

Splendid: Is it more to get over performance anxiety?

Robert Pollard: Yeah! I can't go on stage sober! I tried it once. It was horrifying. I could see how drunk everyone else was. When you're not drinking and everyone else is, people seem foolish to you. They seem silly. Then they started noticing that I wasn't drunk, and they were like, "What's wrong with you, Bob?" So I never did it again. I told Nate (Farley), "Man, I'm not gonna drink tonight." He goes, "I'll boo ya." He said he'd boo me if I didn't drink. So I had to drink -- I didn't want to get booed. I get mad when people boo me. I start throwin' shit at 'em -- throwin' beers at 'em.

(A discussion with Nate and Tim ensues, over the throwing of beers and the phrase "Boo Me." This results in the mention of Pollard's latest identity.)

Robert Pollard: That's my new name, too -- Dean Mercury. It's a combination of Dean Martin and Freddie Mercury. Say you spoke to Dean Mercury.

Splendid: We spoke to Dean Mercury.

Robert Pollard: The name of the album is Don't Let Me Forget I Spoke To Dean Mercury. That's the name of the album.

Splendid: So you released something as Kuda LaBrache, which was one of the weirdest names I've ever heard. Where'd that come from?

Robert Pollard: Kuda LaBrache? I made it up. It just sounds cool. Somebody in an interview once said "Kuda LaBranch" (like tree branch). I said, "It's LaBrache" (as if it was spelled "bronsh"). I just made it up. Most of the lyrics and things that I do I make up phonetically. That's why a lot of the time when you look at it it doesn't make sense, but then later on it does. Most of the stuff I write is just kind of stream of consciousness.

Splendid: It seems that way, but when I listen to your music I get distinct mental pictures. Do you ever get mental pictures around you write a lyric?

Robert Pollard: Oh yeah. One line could be a mental picture.

Splendid: Like "Liquid Indian", I always get all these ideas and weird images in my head...

Robert Pollard: "Liquid Indian" ended up being a silly song, but the concept was supposed to be very spiritual -- the three phases of matter are physical, liquid and gas, or whatever. Liquid's between the physical and the spiritual, or whatever. And also, the Indians, you know how they'd get all really fucked up on firewater? And they couldn't handle it? That kind of thing. You know, they say that about Native American Indians. I don't know if it's true or not, that they'd start drinking gasoline and shit.

Splendid: Another semi-soundtrack question: didn't you do stuff for that Dean Quixote movie?

Robert Pollard: I don't think it's out yet.

Splendid: I've seen it listed a thousand times, but I've never actually seen it, so I didn't know if it was out. Was that new stuff you did?

Robert Pollard: We did "Psychic Pilot Clocks Out", "Hot Freaks"...we did some crazy shit. That was fun. I did some stuff on the new J. Mascis album, too. Did you know that?

Splendid: Yeah, how was he to work with?

Robert Pollard: I should've done it as Dean Mercury, though. I didn't work with him -- he sent me the tapes. I know him. He called me and said "I'm gonna send you some tapes. Put some backing vocals on 'em." So I went down to the studio I use and I did that. I think his album's good -- the best album he's done in a while. Of course, the songs I sung on were the best ones.

Splendid: Of course. I liked that record, but I couldn't totally get into it. Your vocals were good, but the album seemed a little flat.

Robert Pollard: The J. Mascis album?

Splendid: Yeah.

Robert Pollard: No comment.

Splendid: Okay.

Robert Pollard: There are some good songs on it, though. His albums are like that, with the exception of his early albums -- the early Dinosaur albums, like Bug and Living All Over are amazing. It's hard to maintain that level of intensity. It's hard to keep it going. But we do. We manage to keep it going.

Splendid: I wanted to ask you about that. What's the secret of GBV? How do you stay rocking?

Robert Pollard: Maintaining, carrying the torch in your heart for rock. It's your religion -- rock has to be your religion. You can never let down. You can never place anything before it. Except God.

Splendid: I know The Strokes are opening tonight, and I've never heard 'em before --

Robert Pollard: They're a good band.

Splendid: Are your opening acts usually hand-picked?

Robert Pollard: Yeah, but sometimes people suggest things, and I go "yeah, whatever."

Splendid: I know Elf Power will be opening for you on some dates.

Robert Pollard: Yeah...and then Creeper Lagoon will be with us on the west coast. But The Strokes -- I got an EP. They have a three-song EP. It's really good.

Splendid: Do you ever do any production work yourself?

Robert Pollard: No. I've been asked to. I ask, "What do you want me to do, make it sound shitty? Why do you want me to produce your record?"

Splendid: One last thing. A friend of mine told me this great story about you. He ran a house at Princeton University and I guess you guys played there. And I guess the day was so crappy and rainy, and you walked onto the porch and looked up and said "The sun always shines on GBV. God loves GBV." And it did. Why?

Robert Pollard: Because it does. God loves us. We've played festivals where it's nasty all day long, and then we come out and the sun actually breaks through the clouds. It's because God loves GBV. He really does. We channel through him. It's the work of God. I'm serious -- you get inspiration from something that's not you. I don't know what God is... God takes mercy on GBV, that's it. God loves fools and drunks.