From 1998 to 2005, former Silver Jews main man David Berman methodically logged twenty lines of writing per day. Many of the words he wrote were used in Silver Jews records. Some of the remaining writing will be featured in artist Friedrich Kunath's highly conceptual new book You Owe Me a Feeling.
The book is composed of 74 photographs shot by photographer Michael Schmelling, along with a dozen reproductions of Kunath's paintings. The subject of the paintings is the "male cliché of a drifter... [who] lives on his own terms with his own aesthetics and is somehow disconnected in a city that is all about connection," according to a statement.
At the request of Berman, Kunath and Schmelling went to Berman's home in Nashville to read the singer's notes and to choose words to accompany the photographs and paintings strung together for the book. "Berman's lines and lyrics range from the humorous to dour, but the overall sensation is one of an optimistic sadness," the statement reads. "Berman's lines function as a series of deadpan truths-- from the throwaway to what may become the lifelong, aphoristic companions of one's soul."
Here's an excerpt of Berman's contribution:
This life is not for you. It took forever to get home. Time is bullshit with top spin. He had goals but didn't call them goals. Bad ideas are good again. I will be modern until the day I die. There’s never enough sunset for all the birds. Me is my nickname. Passing out is traveling. You’re going to need a lot of memory to live with me. It was sunset and I felt a strong joy of getting away with it so far. I went down to the crossroads and there was a mirror planted in the road. Love is the 51st state.
You Owe Me a Feeling is out in March through Blum and Poe.
Watch the Silver Jews video for "Random Rules":