David Pajo is a legendary man of many feathers, a founding member of Slint and having played with Tortoise, Stereolab, Royal Trux, Zwan, Bonnie 'Prince' Billy & The Palace Brothers and many others as well as having various solo incarnations. He’s run the gamut of genres and expectations. His new band, Dead Child, is huge jump back to his Metal-head origins and is a hard-core surprise.
Slint
BCR: How is Dead Child going?
David Pajo: It’s going really well, we finished mixing and everything right at Christmas and we’ve been working with Touch And Go getting all the artwork together and post, follow-up recording. We’re trying to set up a European tour. Some of these Metal festivals in Germany and Belgium.
BCR: It’s always Germany first for metallers.
David Pajo: Germany’s weird. I used to tour there a lot in the early 90’s
BCR: With which band?
David Pajo: With Will Oldham first and then later with Tortoise. And then when I started doing my solo stuff we went down really well and then it was like live music wasn’t popular in Germany any more. It all stopped. Nobody was interested in seeing Guitar based bands. But with Metal…
BCR: Metal is kind of ubiquitous and forever there…. So how do you find touring Europe? Specifically Pajo rather than the bands.
David Pajo: I like touring Europe I just don’t do it as much now. I’ve gone there for Slint for all the reunion stuff. In general it’s better. It’s more enjoyable to tour in Europe than it is in America because you’re kinda taken care of better. In America it’s just a bunch of dirty guys in a van fending for themselves. In Europe nobody knows how to drive in all the different countries so they give you a driver and the venues are a lot more accommodating.
BCR: You said "whatever is precious about Slint, we don't want to step on that. We want to play together again, but we've been trying to figure out what our next step should be if we do anything at all." - So have you thought about what that might be apart from the reunions?
David Pajo: The way Slint operates is that you set a goal and focus on it. When you're about to reach that goal, quickly change your mind and abandon it. Repeat ad infinitum.
We originally planned on recording an album of new material. We ransacked the vaults and discovered great song ideas from Spiderland era (and later) that never saw the light of day. At some point during the reunion tour the motivation to continue as a band seemed too overwhelming. So we closed up shop. Again.
David Pajo with Will Oldham
BCR: So what’s the difference for you playing the big Slint shows and then the solo stuff?
David Pajo: The solo stuff is so weird I can’t even begin… I feel I can’t really talk about it because I don’t think I have any perspective.
BCR: Because you’re too close?
David Pajo: Yeah, it’s so personal and it’s so difficult to go up there on my own and do it. I like playing with a band because you’ve got support. I don’t like being the centre of attention and all.
BCR: You picked the wrong profession really
David Pajo: Yeah, I need to wear Kiss makeup or something.
BCR: Are Dead Child going to wear masks or something like Slipknot?
David Pajo: I don’t know, maybe for Halloween. But I have been trying to think of an outfit for our singer. I do think he should be wearing something and the rest of us shouldn’t.
BCR: Like Metalocalypse?
David Pajo: Yeah, definitely. That’s actually a really good show as far as satirising the genre and such. But again, the solo stuff is really difficult. In one way it’s really grounding because the Slint stuff is so revered and the tour bus, gosh, I’ll probably never tour with that kind of luxury again. Right after the Slint tour I was doing my solo stuff, in America, I was driving myself to gigs. I do enjoy touring but I like to do it with a band or other people as long as I get a certain amount of privacy. But touring by myself is real weird. I’ll go days with only saying a few words to people. Not that I really get lonely but I get really introverted and withdrawn when I’m by myself, as a stranger. After doing that for a while it puts you in a weird state of mind. Nothing dangerous but…
BCR: Staying with your solo stuff, you’ve had M, Ariel M, Papa M… what is the “M” chain?
David Pajo: It was sort of like… It was 1994 and I didn’t want a band name, I wanted an anti-band name. I was at one of those marquees and I looked down on the ground and saw the letter M and was just like, wow, that’s such a cool symbol. Almost like a lightening bolt or something. So I just started calling it M. Also, it’s the thirteenth letter of the alphabet which I sorta… I like that number.
BCR: The thirteenth number? You’re a metaller at heart aren’t you? I know your first band was Solution Unknown which was a hard core band, so Dead Child does actually seem like more of a return to form for you personally than Slint or Tortoise which has, especially in the guitar, that discordance and dissonance. How does it feel to go back?
