10 Questions w/ Robert Pollard of Guided By Voices

Tell me about the influence and inspiration that your teenager friends known as “The Monument Club” impacted your life both as an artist as well as a person during those formative years.

The Monument Club wasn't comprised of teenagers. Just very immature men in their 30's. I wouldn't say they had a great deal of influence on me as an artist, or songwriter other than providing me with some fairly interesting song titles that came out of some of the absurd things that they said. "158 Years of Beautiful Sex" for instance.

Prior to graduating from highschool in the mid 70s, you played baseball. I’m curious to know what it was like to coexist in an athletic realm at that time, but dying on the inside to become an artist, or musician and shake those expectations of being something you knew you weren’t.

I loved playing music and making art, but make no mistake, I totally had expectations of being an athlete. I was a three sport star in high school and played basketball and baseball in college. It was music and art that I had zero expectations for.

After graduating college, you became a teacher. What was it like after all those years of being a student to then be on the other side? What are some of your most fondest memories during that time and did any students in particular make an impression on you like some of your former teachers may have when you were a student?

It was just 'back in the classroom', you know. I have many fond memories of both students and teachers that I had. I have a few not so fond memories also. Human beings work both ways when it comes to positive and negative influences and memories.  Some students and teachers were awe inspiring and others were real assholes.

Prior to GBV you occupied projects and outfits such as Acid Ranch and Instant Lovelies. What ultimately inspired the name for the band and what was your overall vision and dream of being a frontman for what would eventually become one of the most influential bands to date?

I found the name in a notebook of band and song titles that I had compiled. I saw "Guided By Voices" and it just sort of jumped out at me. That's it! It just seemed vague and mysterious. My vision and dream of being a front man was pretty much relegated to the basement and living room and then later to small, local clubs.

The band is monumental and devastatingly prolific. What are some of your personal favorites regarding albums/songs and why?

I have too many favorite songs to get into "I Am A Scientist" seems to be a signature song based on my prolificacy, or output. It's also a crowd favorite and last in the set a lot of times. My favorite albums are Bee Thousand, From A Compound Eye, Moses On A Snail, Zeppelin Over China, Tremblers And Goggles By Rank. They're cohesive records with a log of good songs. Very well executed in terms of production and sequencing. I love Alien Lanes, Isolation Drills, Space City Kicks and Universal Truths And Cycles. The list is long. I've made a lot of albums and songs.

To finance a lot of the band’s early works, you and your brother obtained a loan from the school's credit union. What were those years like for you as an artist really trying to make a beautiful body of work as well as balancing the tides of being an adult and leader of a band?

It was difficult and frustrating. I was pushing against a strong tide of near zero support and negative feedback. I did it out of sheer love for having a band. And not out of any aspirations for success or stardom. That's what a lot of people didn't seem to understand. Lucky for us that people who did understand were able to somehow take notice.

Have you always kept your career in education tethered to your artistic pursuits in terms of having both somewhat rely on each other to keep one another going?

Not really. I mean, I did feed off aspects of my teaching experience and incorporated them into my art.

Having been a band for over a half a decade at the time, what was it like to officially sign with a label such as Scat Records to help take some of the workload of financing/pressing and be able to then focus on touring and moving the band around?

It was very gratifying. To tell you the truth, I didn't think it was possible, but it was a springboard and it really took off from there. I'm very grateful for the opportunity that Scat and Robert Griffin offered us. I'm also very proud of the fact that when we were signed, we rose to the occasion and were actually much better artistically. I became a much better songwriter. We found our voice. I don't think that typically happens.

“Vampire On Titus” and “Bee Thousand” are both gorgeous works from the band that in my opinion really show what you guys were capable of. What were your experiences and feelings of writing and recording those records back to back in ‘93/’94?

It was truthfully a magical time and I had no idea exactly where it was going to take us. We were just enjoying the moment. The access of the 4-track in allowing us to pump out a lot of records and the world wide interest we were garnering.

My last questions: When you reflect back on your 30 plus years as an artist, what are you most proud of? What makes you the most happy and fulfilled as a person?

That it's lasted this long and is still going strong. In my opinion, stronger than ever.