Dan Bejar on Pavement's 'Slanted and Enchanted': "It Robbed Me of 10 Years of My Life"

In a new feature reflecting on the band's legacy, Bejar says listening to the 1992 album "was the first time that I was really hit hard by lyrics."

Photo: Nicolas Bragg

BY Kaelen BellPublished May 30, 2022

A lot of artists get likened to Pavement — hello Parquet Courts, mostly — but one disciple of the legendary Stockton band that rarely gets the comparison (certainly not anymore, anyway) is Dan Bejar's Destroyer

But in a new feature at Brooklyn Vegan that explores Pavement's influence through a series of interviews with artists like Speedy Ortiz, the Goon Sax, Horsegirl, Rolling Blackouts Coastal Fever and Destroyer, Bejar says the band's 1992 debut Slanted and Enchanted "robbed [him] of 10 years of [his] life" because he loved it so much.

"Slanted and Enchanted was massive for me. It robbed me of 10 years of my life because probably in 1992, I totally turned my back on music from the UK, which had been my whole world since the time that I started listening emphatically to music," Bejar said. "I was super into Manchester, super into shoegaze. My Bloody Valentine were like gods to me. And then I heard Slanted and Enchanted, and it was like 'this band is saying what I'm thinking.'"

Given Bejar's love of abstract, humorous lyricism and goofy turns of phrase — "A snow angel's a fucking idiot somebody made," anyone? — that worship makes a whole lot of sense.  

Bejar goes on to talk about the lyrical inspiration, saying "it was the first time that I was really hit hard by lyrics. I started writing as a precocious teenager, but I didn't really care about lyrics in music from the age of 14 to 19 or whatever. It was really with Slanted and Enchanted that I got really into that. And it made me think, 'Oh, maybe this is something I would like to do. I've never pictured myself going on stage."

You can check out the full feature here. You can also check out Exclaim!'s chat with Bejar from earlier this year. His latest album, Labyrinthitis, came out in March. 

Pavement are celebrating the 30th anniversary of Slanted and Enchanted and the 25th anniversary of Brighten the Corners this year. They're also releasing a new Terror Twilight deluxe reissue and heading out on a sprawling reunion tour

 

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