Brighter Corners

An Interview with

Bob Nastanovich

of

Pavement

By Stephen Head

At least one high-school guidance counselor, after questioning a student's direction in life, has been greeted with an all too eager response

I want to be the second drummer for Pavement.

For, simply put, Bob Nastanovich has the greatest job in the world.

Anyone who's seen Pavement perform has invariably had a hard time suppressing a smile while watching Mr. Nastanovich's stage antics. Bob is the hulking presence who repeats the chorus of "A Conduit for Sale" with a hyperactive fury, the one who reassures lead vocalist/guitarist Stephen Malkmus that Geddy Lee indeed speaks like an ordinary guy, and the bandmember who always seems to be enjoying himself the most on stagewhether tinkering on a keyboard or spitting forth the band's ugly vocal parts with mike in hand.

Grip's Stephen Head caught up with the erstwhile Charlottesville resident at his Louisville home to find the University of Virginia alumnus in a self-described "chill-out phase."

Grip Monthly I guess you get a little relaxation now. It seems like you guys were on the road for all of 1997.

Bob Nastanovich Yeah, we played over 150 shows. We spent the whole year on the road and started even before 1997. We took a break in November and December working on the record and the promo stuff, but we spent most of the rest touring. A long year.

Grip Have you gotten used to touring by now? Do you enjoy being on the road?

Bob N. You get to a certain point where you sort of develop a sort of personality where you can enjoy yourself under any set of circumstances on the road. So yeah, it can be a real barrel of laughs. Generally the people that we work with have their sense of humor intact, so I manage to have a good time.

Grip Did you guys do anything here when you were in Charlottesville. . . kindle any old memories from college?

Bob N. I walked by Littlejohns. It used to be very popular when I was in school. They used to stay open from two until six in the morning, so it was a place to hang out. Other than that I didn't do anything new at all. I went to that really good Southern restaurantI forget what it's calleddown on Main Street.

Grip Southern Culture?

Bob N. Yeah, that was good. My parents were there. But I didn't really get to hang out or anything. I was pretty burned out at that point, so I was kind of just trying to make it through.

Grip What do you remember of Charlottesville back when you were in school? Was there any real music scene apart from the classic rock cover bands playing bars and fraternity houses?

Bob N. Happy hour was alive and well back then. There was a really small punk rock scene, and it was extremely hard to get people to go to shows. The guy who booked shows at that timeI've since lost track of himbut he would bring all these small interesting bands into town to play in front of anywhere from three to forty people, and I actually spent a lot of my first two years handing out flyers for him. But it was good. There was a pretty constant steady flow of bands that you would be willing to drive to Richmond to go see. I just remember having a really good time.

We always used to take road trips to clubs, and I guess I was a little irresponsible being a college student. But my roommate had a Volkswagen, when you weren't supposed have a car first year, so we used to park his car out in the Catholic church by the Observatory. We were constantly on the road, mainly to D.C. and Richmond, but also to New York and Athens. It was kind of a glorious time, but looking back on it, I was too immature to be in college

.Grip You were in Ectoslavia with Stephen Malkmus, James McNew and David Berman. How long did you play together and what was that like?

Bob N. Stephen and I actually got kicked out of Ectoslavia for no apparent reason. Essentially what it was. . . there was a house on 14th Street which was called the Red House, and in the basement of the Red House this one guy found a huge collection of metal percussion stuff, oil drums and stuff like that. . . it was all set up down there with some crappy guitars. I guess we felt like we couldn't do anything except make noise, and it was the thing we felt coolest about, so we would make a lot of noise in the basement. Dave Berman sort of took the reins with Gate Prattthey were the ones that were most spiritually involved with Ectoslavia, and they wanted to try and develop into a more competent act, but it never really developed into anything. I think the most legendary moment for us was when we played live on the air for WTJU during the Rock Marathon. That was a lot of fun. But none of us really had our hearts into it except for the three guys who sort of took charge. But for me it was high comedy.

Grip I think I read or heard somewhere that Steve Malkmus was going back through some stuff he recorded in college and possibly planning to releasing something. Is there any truth to that?

Bob N. Well, he was in a couple of bands in school. He was in this band called Lake Speed that actually recorded a tape. It was a three pieceSteve and a couple of friends of his that I didn't know really well. And I think that that experience, with the tapes and going through the recording process, sort of propelled him toward the first Pavement record and played a certain role getting Pavement off the ground. I think that Steve sort of felt that he was finding his niche.

Grip I guess it's pretty widely known that you're a horse racing enthusiast. How did your interest in that develop?

Bob N. It actually started for the most part when I first went to school. One of the places we would go if we were driving to see bands was Charles Town racetrack in West Virginia. I worked quite a bit in college, and I would save my money and to try and make money gambling there. And that's where my real fondness for the sportthe combination of the gambling and, of course, it's such a beautiful thing to watchthat's where it all started for me, at Charles Town.

Grip You own a thoroughbred, don't you?

Bob N. I own a couple of shares. One of my horses is a five percent share, and he's raced for about twenty minutes at Hoosier Park. He's been a little bit of a head-case; he's kind of frustrating, but he's extremely lovable. This other horse I own a five percent share with, he just won a race at Churchill Downs last week; he's doing pretty well. But we're thinking aboutsix or seven of us, including Malkmusmaybe getting another one next season, simply because it's a lot of fun.

Grip It seems that Louisville is a pretty big attraction for a lot of musicians to settle down for at least a brief period of time. Why do you think that is?

Bob N. Because it's extremely cheap, and it's an extremely laid back place. In general, the people are nice. I've found it to be an extremely comfortable place to live. I guess the main thing just for meand not for other peoplebut for me, it's my favorite city in the world. It's really a fun town and there are a lot of things to do.

Other people move (there) maybe because they can practice. There are quite a few bands.

Grip You lived with Jason Lowenstein from Sebadoh?

Bob N. I did for a while. When he first moved here from Massachusetts, he lived in the house I used to live in for about eight months. We're good friends. He lives with his girlfriend across town. We have just directly opposite schedules. It seems whenever I'm in town, he's taking off.

Grip You guys had a project called Pale Horse Riders together, right?

Bob N. We did at one time, and then we sort of just stopped because everybody kind of went in different directions. Paul Oldham, who's Will Oldham's brother, he's now going to school in Bloomington. He kind of would be the one who would kind of get up and do things. It was hardhard in terms of the band playing so loud. It was extremely unpleasant trying to get them to turn it down, and we probably needed someone to help us through that. We were incredibly awful, but it was a whole lot of fun.

Grip A big deal has been made about how the members Pavement is dispersed across the country. You're in Louisville, Stephen Malkmus and Scott Kannberg are on the West Coast, Steve West lives in Virginia. . . How does that work when the band is coming up with material? What's the process like?

Bob N. The basic thing is that we can pull it off if we all get together somewhere and practice. I guess it's not an easy thing to do if you have a band that sort of writes songs all together. But Stephen pretty much has the backbone, the riff and a few other parts of the song down and then he'll show up. Last time before we recorded, we practiced at Steve West's; we kind of set up in the living room. And Stephen just kind of does parts of his songs, and we'll kind of jam it out and refine our parts and go from there.

It dictates to an extent how things go. I've said it before and I'll continue to say it It makes me comfortable to be in a band with somebody who's a pretty amazing songwriter. So we just kind of follow his lead. With the live shows though, everybody's doing something, I think that's more of an even contribution.

Grip It seems that Scott had a more active role on the new album. I read that he had only written five songs in the band's history. But on Brighten the Corners, he contributed "Date With IKEA" and "Passat Dream," as well as a b-side to the Stereo single.

Bob N. Yeah. He works on songs, it's just that he's nowhere near as prolific as Steve. Steve will sort of show up to these pre-recording practices with 25 songs, and Scott will show up with three or four or five. In general, Scott's stuff is much easier for the rest of the band to playwe can pick them up pretty fast, whereas working on Stephen's songs tends to be more complex. But Scott has contributed pretty much evenly throughout the band's history. He's always had a couple of songs on each record.

Grip What role do you see yourself playing in the band and how has that changed since you first joined?

Bob N. When I first joined up, my biggest responsibility was sort of to work with Gary. Not until after Gary quit the band did I start trying to make some noise on keyboards. And then Stephen kind of coaxed me to do the ugly vocal parts. But I think there's just like. . . in terms of. . . I've always felt like a member of the band. I've never felt like an outsider at all. It may sound corny, but a certain amount of teamwork is necessary, especially if you're spending so much time together and working together in high-pressure situations. As far as leadership, I consider myself to be very strong in that area. And I've always done a lot of the dirty workI've been a tour manager in the past, and I do a lot of stuff no one else wants to do. So I've always felt an important part of the band itself.

Grip How would you rate yourself as a drummer?

Bob N. I'd say. . . well, it's hard for me to tell, because sometimes you'll think what you're doing is not very good, and then with some things, you just have to stand back and realize that what you're doing is alright. I'm not really a real drummer. I sort of like to say that I really do'tt like playing drums, and hopefully that makes me different from other drummers. But, I certainly wouldn't consider myself in the same class as Steve Shelley.

Grip When did you formally join the band?

Bob N. Back in 1990, right before the first tour. I joined the band pretty much because I had a cara Chrysler LeBaron station wagonand they wanted me to go on tour. Romantically I always thought touring would be an extremely fun thing to do. So I was all set to be a roadie, but a few nights before the tour started, Stephen said, "Why don't you get up on stage and do something?" So he sort of encouraged me to play in the band. I hadn't met Gary until two days before our first show. We practiced at his parents' house, and we sort of took it from there. I never expected to be in any kind of band. It was extremely humorous.

Grip It seems there was a progression from Wowee Zowee! to Brighten the Corners, in that Wowee Zowee! seemed to capture the band stretching out and experimenting with different styles and genres, while with Brighten the Corners, there seems to be less experimentation. The new album rather seems a showcase of a band polishing up its strengths and honing in on a group dynamic. So what's the next step musically?

Bob N. Well, I thought that Brighten the Corners was too melancholy. From the first couple of practices, I thought that we should figure out some way to sort of juice it up. And in the end, I guess the tranquility of a lot of the songs is maybe one of the album's strengths. But I have no idea. The only thing we really have going right now is this one song that sounds probably a bit too much like mid-period Black Sabbath. Then we just a couple of little things that we're working on, but it's far too early to tell until next year when it's time to clamp down and get back to work. We're in a chill-out phase right now.

Grip Would you rather make your living at the track or with Pavement?

Bob N. (Laughs). I guess I'd rather make my living at the track because it would be such a breeze, and I'd never have to leave my neighborhood, which would be good. At the same time, making your living in a band, compared to many other forms of employment, is a real joy. It's a pretty nice situation to be able to take a block of five years out of your life and make a decent living off something that's just so fun. I've traveled around the world several times and it's just been extremely valuable.

But it's interesting because at the same time, we'll finish a tour or we'll finish a long year, and we'll kind of look at it as the end of an era. I'd be perfectly content if the band was over from the standpoint that right now, I feel I'd look back on it with fond memories. So it's hard for me to really tell what's going to happen with Pavement.