"On top, you have your brain -- just like the body, the brain's on top. It's neurotic, it's weird, it's malfunctioning. It's like a broken computer."
— Malkmus, Stephen (b. 1966)
Author
Work Title
Date
May 14, 2018
Metaphor
"On top, you have your brain -- just like the body, the brain's on top. It's neurotic, it's weird, it's malfunctioning. It's like a broken computer."
Metaphor in Context
For years, people have talked about your songs as though they're puzzles, full of clues and allusions, but always avoiding a clear meaning. Implicit in that is a belief that you know what the songs are about, but you're keeping it hidden. Is that the case?
Definitely not. A lot of things come out and I don't know where they came from. It's all built on your experiences, and poetry, and taste -- what you keep. It's all cumulative. It's intentional in that way. Me, me, me, me -- telling you how I feel, that's not going to be the kind of thing I like to hear, and I don't do that.
I wouldn't say they're puzzles. Sometimes they've been. Really, the music is the most important thing. That's the underlining hum, the electricity. On top, you have your brain -- just like the body, the brain's on top. It's neurotic, it's weird, it's malfunctioning. It's like a broken computer. That's what the lyrics are like. They're more about the head. The heart is in the music itself. I don't know when we made the heart this big thing, anyway. To me, everything's in the brain, pretty much.
Definitely not. A lot of things come out and I don't know where they came from. It's all built on your experiences, and poetry, and taste -- what you keep. It's all cumulative. It's intentional in that way. Me, me, me, me -- telling you how I feel, that's not going to be the kind of thing I like to hear, and I don't do that.
I wouldn't say they're puzzles. Sometimes they've been. Really, the music is the most important thing. That's the underlining hum, the electricity. On top, you have your brain -- just like the body, the brain's on top. It's neurotic, it's weird, it's malfunctioning. It's like a broken computer. That's what the lyrics are like. They're more about the head. The heart is in the music itself. I don't know when we made the heart this big thing, anyway. To me, everything's in the brain, pretty much.
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Rob Tannenbaum, "Stephen Malkmus Doesn't Think He Was a Jerk," The New York Times (May 14, 2018). <Link to NYTimes.com>
Date of Entry
05/16/2018
