Spiral Stairs Retreads the Pavement

Scott Kannberg's previously amiable demeanour suddenly switches to one of irritated exasperation. He is recounting the fact that he's just been on the phone with one of the larger U.K. music titles "and all the guy seems to want to know is what kind of offer was on the table". The notion of an 'offer' makes a thinly-veiled suggestion that the 2010 reunion of Pavement (the hugely influential indie-band of the 1990's, with Kannberg, aka Spiral Stairs, as co-founder with Stephen Malkmus) might be grounded in reasons more economic than artistic or personal. "It seems to be a common question, people assume that we're just doing it for our bank accounts. In the end, I had to tell him to fuck off, and I need to make it clear that the Pavement reunion is definitely not about the money." 

As far as Kannberg is concerned, the reasons for the forthcoming reformation are indeed manifold. For starters, the legend of Pavement has grown to fabled status since their last performance at London's Brixton Academy in 1999. At that gig, singer Malkmus had handcuffs attached to his microphone stand, making constant subtle suggestions that this may indeed be their valedictory performance, a fact confirmed in the weeks soon after. "I think that we perhaps owe our fans, who never had the chance to see us, the opportunity to do just that. We didn't realise it would be this big when we decided to do some shows again. We just kinda thought 'Well, we'll just do a few here and there' and then the demand and excitement has been so crazy that we just recognised that we were much bigger than we'd ever remembered."

At this point in time, Kannberg is unphased by the notion it may tarnish their reputation as lo-fi, über independent trend-setters. Though he explains this by pointing to examples of bands who have already trodden that path. "I've seen the Pixies and Dinosaur Jr. and I'm a huge fan of those bands. I saw them in the old days, but it was even more exciting not having seen them for fifteen or so years. I'm hopeful that this is how it will be for Pavement's reunion, that they'll be as excited about seeing us, and hearing those old songs played live. Of course, we haven't even rehearsed yet, we don't know what we sound like. There's definitely another generation of people out there who have made us into a mythical band. That's exciting."

The reunion announcement comes exactly a decade since they went their separate ways, but has been touted as a possibility practically every year since. What makes now the right time? "Everyone has been doing different stuff for the past ten years, and those years seem to have gone by pretty fast. I think we were always ready to do something together again, we just got involved with other projects. Also people had kids, got married, stuff like that. Still, it seems that everybody felt that now was the right time. I think if we'd waited another five years it might not have been the same. We just said 'let's do it now while we still feel like we still love music and still want to play. If the opportunity is there, we might as well take it and make people happy; instead of trying to make something happen when people don't really care....which they may not in five years."

Kannberg kept himself busy post-Pavement by forming Preston School of Industry who released two albums. The last, Monsoon, appeared in 2004. After some side projects including time spent recording and touring with Broken Social Scene he released The Real Feel in October of this year, using the Spiral Stairs moniker. "I didn't feel like my new stuff was a Preston record, so I went with my solo name," he says. "I couldn't go with Scott Kannberg because I don't like the way that sounds."

The album deals particularly with the concept of relationship breakdown, Kannberg having gone through a divorce in the past while. "At the time of writing the album a lot of friends were splitting up. So it's not just about me specifically, more like my whole life, circle of friends. Divorce is just a general theme." Given Pavement's demise was primarily attributed to acrimony within the camp, could that general theme extend to what happened with the band? "These things can be overblown and people can pay more attention to them than is warranted. It is something you have to get used to. I think we may have gotten tired of being in the band, but there were never any problems with each other."

At that, Kannberg reacts with enthusiastic, yet guarded optimism when the suggestion that Pavement might even be inclined to write more material is raised. "Stuff keeps getting added to our calendar; it's already pretty hectic already. I don't know about new stuff, but it is a possibility!"