The Making of SPIDERLAND by SLINT - Feat. brian mcmahan, britt walford, david pajo and todd brashear 

Intro: 

Dan Nordheim: You’re listening to Life of the Record. Classic albums, told by the people who made them. My name is Dan Nordheim. 

Slint formed in Louisville, Kentucky in 1986 by Brian McMahan, Britt Walford, David Pajo and Ethan Buckler. McMahan and Walford had first started playing together in bands in junior high, including Languid and Flaccid and Squirrel Bait. They formed another band called Maurice that included David Pajo on guitar. After Maurice broke up, Pajo and Walford started a new project with Ethan Buckler. McMahan joined on vocals and second guitar soon after and they called the band Slint. In 1987, they recorded with Steve Albini for their first album. Tweez was self-released by their friend Jennifer Hartman in 1989. Buckler was unhappy with the sound of the album and quit the band so Todd Brashear took over on bass. For their second album, they signed to Touch & Go Records and recorded with producer Brian Paulson. Spiderland was eventually released in 1991. 

In this episode, for the 35th anniversary, Brian McMahan, Britt Walford, David Pajo and Todd Brashear reflect on how the album came together. This is the making of Spiderland. 

David Pajo: Hi, I'm Dave Pajo, and I played guitar in Slint. In 2026, looking back on Spiderland, I mean, I just feel, like, super fortunate to have been around such awesome people back then that helped shape who I am now. But, like, if it wasn't for Spiderland, like, I, yeah, I would just have a completely different life. Like, that record gave me faith in music. And faith in the music business, to be honest. Like, because that's an album with zero promotion, zero touring, zero anything, it's just a record that came out from an unknown band in the middle of nowhere. With six songs on it, it's a short album, and it just showed me the power of the practice space, really. It showed me that the most important thing when it comes to being in the band is the practice space. And just if you can not leave the practice space until you have you know, done your best to shape what you're working on, that's enough, you know? That's better than touring, it's better than likes and followers, it's better than having a manager or a booking agent, it's better than, you know, having a soundtrack in a movie. To me, working on the songs is absolutely the most important thing, and, uh, I have to remember that myself, you know? But what a great lesson to learn from Slint.

Brian McMahan: I'm Brian McMahan, guitar player, sometimes singer in the band Slint. I met Britt at the J. Graham Brown School, in Louisville, Kentucky in 1981, I want to say. I might not have had a whole lot of interaction with him that first year, but it was a small school and before too long we were just sort of self-selecting (laughs) and hanging out.

Britt Walford: My name is Britt Walford, and I played drums and guitar in Slint and did some vocals. Yeah, he was friends with Will Oldham's older brother, Ned, in school. I was in sixth grade, they were in seventh grade and we became friends at school, and they were already into punk rock, and I was just kind of like looking for something different and just kind of became good friends with them.

Brian McMahan: Britt and I's first band was called Languid and Flaccid, and neither one of us, like, were trained on the instrument that we were playing in the band. We actually switched instruments a lot, but he had had significant training in classical piano, and he was actually quite good. But it was super casual. I mean, it was like a social pursuit as much as anything else.

Britt Walford: They already had that band, I think, when I met them, so I just kind of like, hung around and then eventually joined. Everybody kind of switched off on instruments, so I was able to kind of jump in there. 

Brian McMahan: So Britt played in a band called Squirrel Bait. He wasn't the first drummer, but he played drums in that band. By this time, I'd say summer of '84, he was already really good.  And every band practiced in his parents' basement, including Squirrel Bait. And I'm gonna say it was very early in 1985 that I joined the band of Squirrel Bait. And let me back up here, Maurice actually took place between Languid and Flaccid, my first band with Britt, and Squirrel Bait.

Britt Walford: That was also Brian's band that he started with some other guys. At some point, they sort of broke up, and then we reformed it with a guy named Sean Garrison and also Ned Oldham and a guy named Peter Searcy who sang in Squirrel Bait. And then later Dave Pajo and Mike Bucayu transitioned in. Mike joined first and quickly suggested Dave, and we hadn't met Dave. That was after Brian left. 

David Pajo: I joined Maurice, because my best friend at the time, Mike Bucayu, had joined them to play bass. And Maurice was actually my first punk show, my first live punk show. And it was Maurice opening for Malignant Growth, like, which are two kind of legendary Louisville bands. And yeah, and that was like a great first punk show ever. So I loved Maurice immediately, and I'd never seen like a drummer like Britt before. And so when Mike joined, Brian McMahan was playing guitar, but he left, because Squirrel Bait was kind of taking over. They were, you know, like touring with Big Black and Hüsker Dü and stuff. So he went to do that full-time. And so they were out of a guitar player, and he recommended me. And so I joined Maurice, and Britt and I just hit it off immediately. Like I have a recording of the first Maurice practice with me, and like we played the whole set straight through almost perfect. It's crazy. For the first time we'd ever played, and Britt and I are doing things like just improvising, like totally in unison. It's really weird. Like he'll do a fill that matches up with what the fill that I'm doing on my guitar. Like almost, it's crazy, just the connection Britt and I had immediately. 

Britt Walford: It seemed almost like other people were thinking that Maurice had ran its course. Like Dave thought of a new, a song called “New Dave.” I think that one is “Pat,” and it was like clean guitar and we like detune and uptune during the song, and it was just a strange song. And Mike and Sean Garrison, also known as Rat, just it was like they were like, "Uh, we don't know what to do with this." And Dave and I were interested in trying to play clean, and so yeah, we just kinda parted ways. 

David Pajo: It was just such a change in direction that the singer and bass player were, were just like, "I don't know what I can do with this" You know, it's like, "I don't know how to sing along to it." And I can't blame him, you know, 'cause he was coming from a punk background, and all of a sudden I'm playing these sort of dorky like melodic things and kinda music nerd songs. And then they split off into Kinghorse, and we got more and more into the clean sound as an approach. It just sounded, I guess, fresh at the time because there weren't a lot of bands embracing a clean sound at the time. And that became apparent when we went on our '89 tour, and we were the only band that I felt like ever played with a clean guitar sound. But part of that also was that everybody at the time was playing with distortion, and everyone was trying to get fuller and bigger. And I was getting into like, yeah, Meat Puppets, Minutemen. I really loved Philip Glass's, Mishima soundtrack, which has a lot of clean guitar. I loved the guitar playing on that album. So I was getting more and more interested in just clean sounds and trying to use note choices to make it interesting. That was '86, and we broke up in '90. So I always think of Slint as an 80s band and not a 90s band because I feel like we got our sound in the 80s. 

Britt Walford: Maybe it was influenced by the Meat Puppets and the Minutemen. I remember kind of like writing some stuff that way and Dave, like I said, had sort of pioneered in that direction. Anything he did was really kind of adept and almost complicated or flashy or something. So I didn't notice him like paring down much until later. It seemed like early Slint was similar to Maurice in that we were really experimenting and just kind of throwing stuff at the wall.

Brian McMahan: I think Brit and Dave came up with the idea of doing a much more reserved, quieter, somewhat, I don't want to say jazz inflected, but there was some of that. Like a music that finesse was involved and maybe it wasn't as dark and sort of overstated as the music that Maurice had begun to make. 

David Pajo: And then there was one Maurice practice, I actually realized this not too long ago that, like, this one little event (laughs). I always laugh when I think about it, kind of changed me forever. But it was when I went to Maurice practice once and, like, I didn't even realize I did this, but one way I warmed up was just by shredding, you know? Like, I'd be like barfing out all this nonsense, but it was just warming up, and that's just what I did, you know? And then Britt at one point, when I was just, you know, like, we were getting ready to practice and I was, like, doing my thing, he stood like right in front of me and he was just, he looked at me and he was just like, "Uhhhhh" just made this like as if he was mentally handicapped, like making fun of like everything I was doing. And I suddenly felt really stupid. And I, from then on, I think I felt like,, "Okay, I need to do something with substance." 

Brian McMahan: It was out of, you know, Britt and Dave's love of playing. I think they had a natural affinity, and they both became friends with Ethan Buckler. Ethan was into punk, and he was into the idea of playing in a band.

David Pajo: My other best friend at the time, Ethan Buckler, he was also getting into, you know, punk and all that stuff at, around the same time as me. And, you know, we would talk on the phone all the time, and he said he really wanted to join, or he wanted to form a band that was completely different from all the other local bands that were around at the time. There was sort of just like kind of basic punk bands happening that weren't super thrilling, and I guess we were just kind of frustrated with the local scene and, you know, like, we both just wanted to do something really different. And when I was talking to Britt, I was like, "You know, my friend Ethan wants to do this thing, I think you guys might get along," or I don't know if I said that, but I got the three of us together into Britt's basement. And Britt and Ethan hit it off immediately and became best friends and that's when Slint started. 

Brian McMahan: Somehow, Ethan wound up in the basement of Britt's parents' house, and they formed Slint. And in one instance, they performed as a three-piece with Will Oldham tentatively engaged as the band's singer in this performance at a Unitarian church in suburban Louisville. Will sat in front of the kick drum (laughs) to make sure Britt's drum set didn't jostle around too much. That was a really cool experience because it was them performing original songs as part of a service, like during the course of the service. And it was super odd, and it was super fun, and I just liked those guys so much. I really do not remember, I don't remember how I became involved, honestly. I think we were just friends (laughs). And I definitely did not want to sing, I did not want to do that at all. I ended up joining as a, you know, a second guitarist, but at some point, I feel like it was sort of expected, like, "You know, we should probably have some sort of vocal something." And I don't know, I think I probably took that on with some trepidation. I definitely wasn't interested in doing that. But I think I just felt like I had to. Maybe I felt like, "Well, shoot, if they're gonna let me in this band, I just have to do that." 

David Pajo: That's pretty much how Slint started. For me, that was my introduction to Britt. And I love Brian because, you know, he wrote a lot, like some of those Maurice riffs that I was playing, and I loved them. And Brian really liked Slint, and then Brian and I really hit it off you know? Like, so I was also the oldest. Like, Britt and Brian are a year younger than me, so I was actually in class with Will Oldham's older brother, Ned. So we all kind of shared the same circle, but it was just like, it seemed like it was a matter of time before we all kind of met and aligned with each other.

Brian McMahan: By virtue of having done shows, out of town shows and having bands pass through Louisville as part of this very homegrown DIY scene in Louisville, we met Steve Albini. Squirrel Bait played a few shows with Big Black, and we were able to have further interaction with Steve. He was starting to record bands other than his own right around that time. He had not yet assumed the role of recording engineer, which, like, came to really kinda dominate his sensibility. 

David Pajo: Britt and Brian had a really tight relationship with Steve, and I had met Steve, but I hadn't really associated Steve with Big Black. Like, to me, Big Black was, was an entity, and Steve was just a member of the band. But they set that up in '87 when they were going to Northwestern, the recording session, and I was going to Evansville University. So yeah, it was like we're all in, just starting college. And, you know, Slint was our college band, high school and college band, and then during school breaks or something, we would drive to get together to practice and stuff, and that's when the Tweez recording happened. I think it was around October or so of '87. 

Britt Walford: I was very influenced by Big Black and Steve in particular at the time, which you can hear in some of the songs, I think. And Squirrel Bait had met Big Black and played shows with them and, you know, kinda became friends with them. And then somehow we got in touch with Steve, and he said he would record it. And when we went into the studio, I think we were just kind of ready for anything. We were just excited to be there. We didn't have a lot of preconceptions at all and just, had a good time, like, kind of experimenting with him and kind of taking him on. 

Brian McMahan: Big Black was, I think, probably one of our favorite bands for the Slint guys. With the qualified exception of Ethan, I don't know that he had anything against the music of Big Black. but we, I think, had to work on him to convince him that it would be a good idea to record with Steve, the Tweez record. But again, we had existed with like, very little material interest from these small labels. And basically Steve offered to record our music for basically studio time. I doubt that he was, you know, paid meaningfully for his time. But it was a collaboration with Steve, that record, and it was super exciting. 

David Pajo: Oh man, I loved it. When I think about the Tweez recording session, you know, it was super exciting. I'd never been in a big studio like that before. After we recorded Tweez, Britt and Brian, they encouraged Steve to go all out with the, just really experiment in the studio. And I loved it, but Ethan did not love it. And we would talk, you know, for hours, and I would mostly just listen to him. He was really upset with the recording, and it went on for a long time, where, you know, he was just like, "You know, he took out all the mid-range and everything. Like, mid-range is natural. It's in the world. Like, you can't take out the mid-range," you know? But that was us, we wanted it to sound like you pressed the loudness button on your stereo, which scoops the EQ. It boosts the lows and highs and cuts the mids. So that's the sound that me and Britt and Brian wanted, I guess we didn't realize that this is all so offensive to Ethan. I think Steve gets a lot of the blame for that recording, but it was really us encouraging him. He just did what we wanted him to. But yeah, Ethan was really unhappy, so he formed King Kong and quit Slint. 

Brian McMahan: Ethan did not like the recorded sound of Tweez, and so he quit the band. And that was weird. I don't know that I'd ever been in that sort of a situation, like, where someone quit over artistic differences. So it was weird. 

Britt Walford: Yeah, I definitely understood Ethan's dissatisfaction with the record or problems with it. Like it, I guess maybe at the time I didn't really feel, even feel that bad about it, but he was right, we were departing from our original vision. But I think we kinda wanted to take it into, like, a different direction anyway. And so yeah, I guess it was just sort of almost bound to happen that he would quit. 

Brian McMahan: But it was mitigated by the fact that David and I were leaving Louisville to go to college. I ended up in Chicago, I went to Northwestern. But I think that, like, nine-month period of not playing music with those guys, it sort of allowed us to come back to the project with a different attitude. 

Britt Walford: And then, I can't quite remember how Todd joined the band. He was a fan and friends with Dave. 

David Pajo: I'd been playing with Todd Brashear in a hardcore band that I was playing drums in called Solution Unknown, and Todd was really into, like, all the weird stuff, he loved Slint. So it just seemed natural. Like, he wasn't a bass player, but, you know, I thought, like, “He's of a similar mindset, he could play these bass lines.” So yeah, I brought him into practice. 

Todd Brashear: This is Todd Brashear. I played bass on Spiderland and on the 10-inch. I believe I joined in 1988, and that was because I was already in a band with Pajo and I had known, let's see, I knew Britt pretty well 'cause I was a fan of their pre-Slint band, Maurice. And then when Ethan quit, I think I just said, like, "Can I try to play bass?" And one thing led to another. 

David Pajo: Todd was, like, just so great as someone to work with 'cause he's incredibly patient with our insanity and lack of common sense sometimes. And he has lots of common sense, and he was always, I always felt like Todd was, like, the silent foundation of Slint. Like, his take on the world is always really, like, sensible and down to earth, and I love it, especially when you have three guys with their heads in the clouds, you know? So Todd is super important to, I think, how Spiderland turned out. Like, how once he joined, like, I almost feel like Todd doesn't get enough props 'cause it takes a certain kind of person to be able to, ‘cause it's kind of a shitty place to be, the one responsible guy. I don't know if you've ever been in this situation, but the responsible people I know are like, hate it 'cause everyone turns to them 'cause they know they're responsible. So yeah, that was, once Todd was in, it just seemed like we had free reign to do whatever we wanted.

Brian McMahan: After that first year of school for me and Dave and Todd as well, we basically came back to Louisville for our summer breaks and started rehearsing and writing from a different place, and that was really interesting because it was truly, like, from scratch, coming up with ideas and songs. The songs were not fully conceived and, you know, we taught each other the parts. There was some of that, but it was much more, you know, creating an aesthetic from the ground up, and that was just super intoxicating. 

Britt Walford: Yeah, it was a long, you know, kind of hiatus, and we were kind of writing our own stuff during that time and then got back together and jumped right into it. I would say just influences changed and just got more into, I guess, rock again, Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, The Stooges, but also other stuff just like Jad Fair, The Frogs, and Suicide, and maybe, I don't know, like pot. Maybe that was also a factor (laughs). 

Todd Brashear: Like, we all had a fairly wide range of tastes. But I think all of us were getting into roots kind of music. Like Britt was a huge Mekons fan, like to the point that it drove me crazy, as far as how much he listened to them. So I think we were all kind of moving in a more rootsy direction, I guess I would say. But still listened to lots of weird stuff too, and we were still into all the Touch and Go bands and stuff like that. 

Brian McMahan: That seemed to click, that lineup. Playing with Ethan had been really weird and fun, but the sort of aesthetic seemed like a lot more kind of cohesive for me at least, with the Spiderland material. And again, the sort of redo of “Rhoda” and the instrumental “Glenn” that Britt had engineered. Like in a way, it was like an incredibly simple, hypnotic, repetitive groove or riff with Dave just doing like what seemed at the time like just mind-blowingly abstract guitar atmospheric work. And that's a good example of how the material, like, evolved. But we did have a couple of versions of songs that we wanted to record, and Steve, again, was super encouraging and accommodating. 

Britt Walford: It was after recording the two songs with Steve for the single, and Corey (Rusk) heard that, and then I remember him coming to a show. We played a party in a basement at college, and I think he came, he came to that, and then also we played at a club called Club Dreamers, and he came to that. And I think I remember him saying there, like, he'd like to put out our next record and just being totally blown away. 

David Pajo: Well, Touch and Go Records was like our dream label for sure. We loved nearly all the bands on it, and all the new bands that Corey and Lisa (Rusk) were signing were incredible. You know, like the Didjits came out and stuff. We were all so into just almost everything Touch and Go, so it was a real dream to be able to put out a record with them. But the way it happened with Tweez, like Steve really encouraged Corey to put out Tweez, but Corey and Lisa weren't into it 'cause I guess we just looked like a big Black, wannabe band with that record, but not as good and just different. Like definitely weird. They weren't so much into Tweez, and then, it was the recording we did just on the fly that Corey got, he got a tape of that, the rough mixes, and, he said he listened to it over and over super loud. He loved that recording, and that was, that's when he agreed to put out a Slint record. It was really a dream come true, so we took that really seriously, and that's why we practiced so hard to make Spiderland because it was our dream to put out a Touch and Go record. So we wanted to make it, I don't know. We just wanted to make a good record. 

Britt Walford: We had songs, ideas that, you know, each of us had sort of come up with during the interim, and we kind of got right to work on those, you know, maybe five days a week, three hours plus, you know, and that was super awesome.

Brian McMahan: In the summer of '89, we basically wrote most of the music that was on Spiderland, we just like totally woodshedded these new songs that we were working on. And thank God that Britt's parents didn't kick us out of their basement (laughs). 

Todd Brashear: I mean, there are bands that you can just kinda slap it together and it's really good. But I think most bands that turn out, I don't know if I believe this statement or not, I'm just gonna say it anyway. If it's gonna be something that people are talking about a long time after that, it takes a lot of work. So we would practice every day. Like, I worked at this factory over in Indiana, so I would get up. And I'm not saying any of this like, "Oh, poor me," you know, definitely. But I would get up, I think I had to be at work at 7:30 in the morning, and then work there till like 2:30, go back home, take a nap, wake up, eat dinner with my parents, and then go to band practice. And then we would practice for probably three or four hours, you know, depending on if people, some of our members had some punctuality issues. But we did that like five days a week at least. So it was a pretty compact, you know, one summer playing the same, really, we only played five songs, 'cause one of the songs was just Britt and Dave playing guitar, you know. So that's a pretty fair amount of practices for just putting together five songs, you know?

Britt Walford: I think we were kind of just wanting to try to do something a little different than with Steve, like that was maybe less in his style and more neutral or polished or something. 

Brian McMahan: So Brian Paulson had played in bands in Minneapolis. He was starting to record other people and other bands that we knew, but it was still sort of mysterious. Like he didn't have a single studio, you know, he didn't have a home studio where he did all of this recording and he wasn't like sort of a scene fixture like Steve was. He was creative and resourceful, but he was very much like an understated presence, compared to Steve and basically just kind of taking a backseat creatively, like not really trying to drive things.

David Pajo: Brian Paulson had just recorded a Bastro album and Brian McMahan was around for parts of that. And he just really enjoyed it and liked Brian Paulson, I think wanted to try recording with him. So Brian McMahan set that up and this, he was working at River North Studios, so he set that up and that was cool because that was not a studio that punk bands went to record at. I can't think of any bands that recorded there before Slint or I don't even know if anyone's recorded there since, 'cause they mostly just did like commercials and stuff. They just let us use it for a weekend when it wasn't being used. So we were able to get in there at a discounted rate on kind of like nights and weekends, and I'm pretty sure we recorded it in one weekend and then came back and like mixed it and did overdubs and stuff in another weekend.

Brian McMahan: We had whittled down whatever ideas we had been working on to the set of songs, the core group of songs that we went to the studio planning to make that record with. “Breadcrumb Trail,” I think was the last song that we wrote for Spiderland as a full band. It was definitely among the last, one of the last things I can remember doing before we left for Chicago to record it.

“Breadcrumb Trail” 

David Pajo: So the first song on Spiderland is “Breadcrumb Trail,” and that I think of it as Todd Brashear's song. You know, the way you brought songs to Slint practice was like either you had a riff or you had a couple riffs that seemed to fit together and Todd had a couple riffs that fit together on guitar, you know, the first riff on that with the harmonics. And he had ideas where I would descend on guitar. He would, like Brian would, would ascend, you know, like just little things he had ideas for. And so we, all of us would just sort of attack the riffs that anyone brought in and, and see what we came up with, and anybody could write a bassline, anybody could come up with this or that. It wasn't like one person did everything. It was whoever had an idea where it sounded best.

Todd Brashear: “Breadcrumb Trail,” I wrote all the riffs. So we all arranged it, but yeah, I wrote all the riffs to that one, which I think I've said this before, this is not any major news or whatever, but in retrospect, I think I've subconsciously kind of ripped off the song, one part of the song “Kandy Korn” by Captain Beefheart for “Breadcrumb Trail.” Like the kind of spacey part where it goes out into the stratosphere a little bit or whatever, I'm pretty sure that's somewhat of a rip-off of “Kandy Korn” by Captain Beefheart. I just kind of presented the riffs, and then we worked on arranging it. I mean, I'm sure I was trying to write it to sound like a Slint song 'cause why wouldn't I, I guess. I mean, that was the band I was playing in, you know. But they had their harmonics going on at different times. 

David Pajo: I'd never thought about that, that that was Todd's, his attempt at a Slint song 'cause he knocked it out of the park. And that's a great example of how Todd is just, like, totally aligned with us musically, I think. 

Todd Brashear: I do remember Brian gave me a chance to write some lyrics, and I'm sure they were terrible 'cause I'm really not much of a songwriter in general. Like, I don't have that drive to, like, write songs and create. Like, I've had people be like, "Man, that song's so good. Why don't you write more songs?" I'm like, "I don't know," 'cause some people just have that drive to do that, and I guess I don't really. But I do remember writing some lyrics, and I'm sure they were terrible, and he just went and wrote some lyrics, you know. Thank goodness. 

Britt Walford: I remember writing lyrics with Brian for that song. Like, mostly him, but maybe me sort of collaborating a little on that, which was cool. 

David Pajo: I do have a memory of being at Britt's house and, you know, we practiced in the basement, and being upstairs and just talking about "Breadcrumb Trail" and more just me overhearing Britt and Brian talking about it. I guess we were talking about it as a band, but I was just listening to them talk about the lyrics. And it was cool because they would talk about the music as an instrumental, and Britt would say stuff like, "Well, this part sounds like a, you know, like a rollercoaster, or something, and this part sounds like, you know, you're at a fair." Like, I guess I always thought of instrumental music in that same way, where I just imagined stories that went along with them. That's how I understand how to write it, so I have to have some sort of visual idea. It's not a narrative or anything, but it's just, you know, it just, this makes me feel this way, and so I pursue that feeling. But, like, it seemed like it was an instrumental song that they were kinda reading a narrative into, and then it seemed like Brian wrote a story around that, around those ideas.

Brian McMahan: I wish I could remember our discussions of this stuff. I feel like I do remember at least with "Breadcrumb Trail" sitting out on the deck behind Britt's parents' house, and Britt and I sort of, like, working through what the lyrics were and how it was going to sound in the context of the record. In the absence of me actually performing any of the vocals in the practice space, basically a lot of the final arrangements were sort of settled based on, ‘I need this much space, and we should transition to this part, or let's at least try it that way and see if I can make this vocal idea fit.’ Which for me consisted of a 4-track, borrowing Todd's 4-track and recording these vocal ideas, on top of jambox recordings from the basement. 

Todd Brashear: So actually that's probably worth mentioning, but like I recorded Slint playing a show using my cassette 4-track before I was in the band. They opened up for Big Black at this VFW hall. And so Brian borrowed my 4-track and used my recording and used that as a way to demo the vocals for Tweez. So that was already another connection I had with them, I guess. And then I think what he did for Spiderland was I think we just recorded all the songs at practice or we used live. It's probably a combination. I think on that box set there's a demo where he took a live bootleg that somebody sent us and used my 4-track to record vocals on top of it. So he did kind of demo them just, like, at his parents' house. I think he did it, like, in the garage sitting in a car just to, like, get isolation and privacy or whatever. But yeah, most of the vocals hadn't really heard that much until we were in the studio. 

Britt Walford: We almost imagined, you know, rhythmically vocals maybe when we were working them up, the songs. And then as it got further and further along, I feel like they were sort of structured to accept vocals. Like, just we kind of felt that rhythmically or something. And then once they were actually written and stuff, we might, you know, change some things after that. 

David Pajo: Vocals with Slint were always the last thing. Like, constructing the, just the music for the song, it had to stand as an instrumental, I guess. I feel like since Brian was doing the vocals, he was probably thinking of vocals the whole time. But for the rest of us, it was an instrumental song that we were working on, and then we thought about vocals. And Britt wrote, I think, all the words that he would say on the record and, you know, he did a number of vocals. Vocals were left to Britt and Brian, and we just trusted, of course, like, whatever they came up with. I definitely had a hint of what the vocals were gonna do because, you know, I would see, like, some of the lyrics that Britt was writing, you know, just, like, hung up on the wall in the basement, or I'd hear, like, 4-track demos that they were working on. To me, my job was, was the music, and that was Britt and Brian's job. And I loved it. I always loved to see what they came up with. 

Brian McMahan: So the lyrics on Spiderland, I didn't write all of them. I did not write “Don, Aman.” Britt also wrote the lyrics for "Nosferatu Man". And I think we both had the benefit of the 4-track, the loaner 4-track from Todd, and being able to work through vocal parts that were either not practical to execute in rehearsal or just simply inaudible. The lyrics and the, in a broader sense, the production of the record and the sequencing of the songs, those things were kind of all the pieces for me, and "Breadcrumb Trail" was the last song that I wrote lyrics to. And I think I knew at that point that it was gonna be the first track on the record, or at least I was hoping it would be.

David Pajo: The sequence of Spiderland was really interesting 'cause we'd already recorded all the songs, and we were trying to figure out, like, an order and side breaks and stuff, and we were all coming up with our own, like, "This is what I think it was." And the one I thought was best was the most predictable, one where it's top-heavy, where all the, I thought the best songs were at the front, and then the record gets worse as it goes on. You know, the kind of like not as strong songs go later or, like, mood-oriented songs. And then, you know, putting “Good Morning, Captain” as the first song. To me, I thought that just made sense. And I think the majority of us did it top-heavy, but Brian had a sequence that I thought was messed up 'cause it put “Good Morning, Captain” at the end. And I was like, "Man, I'll be surprised if anybody makes it to the end of this record," (laughs) you know? I was like, "It's gonna be such a test of patience to get through all this to get to the best songs.” I didn't like his sequence, but the more I gave it a chance, the more I started to understand it. Like, everyone agreed that it was the best sequence and, but it, oh yeah, I remember what it was. He wanted to cut, like, we had two other songs. Like, we had a version of “Glenn” and I think “Pam” that never came out, and he wanted to cut those two. And, you know, we were still in the punk rock hardcore world where you were lucky to record, and everything you recorded just came out. Like, you didn't keep songs because you spent money, you know, to record all this. And they were good songs. Like, anyway, it didn't make sense, but we never actually finished the vocals for “Pam,” so I understood cutting that even though I loved that song. But yeah, it seemed weird to cut down, you know, drop two songs so we only have six songs on the album. I did not understand Brian's thinking at first, and, you know, like I said, I love not understanding and then figuring it out. Like, I, usually, if I'm confused initially, it's a good sign. 

Todd Brashear: I think Britt and Brian were more of the, like, artwork sequencing type people. Like, maybe they had more of the vision of all of it together. Plus me, I was the new guy, so I kinda kept my mouth shut on a lot of stuff. Although, watching some of the old footage of us practicing, I was like, “Damn, I'm being pretty assertive there.” I wonder what happened. ‘Cause I was kinda bossing them all around about working on “Breadcrumb Trail” or whatever. But they were more of the overall vision guys. 

Britt Walford: I don't remember us having too much of an idea of any sort of song order, except maybe Brian did, 'cause he really pioneered the song order and which songs ended up on the record. We kinda left a couple out and sort of, he made it sort of like a concept album. But as far as the sequencing, definitely Brian, like, had a concept of that, like based on, I guess, the lyrics and the music. But yeah, like I think it, you know, kinda works that way. 

David Pajo: The thing I really like about the sequence is that, and I think Britt pointed this out to me later, was that with “Breadcrumb Trail,” you immediately have entered this world, and if you stick with it, you stay in that world until the record ends. And that's really true. Like, there's so much atmosphere on that record, and I don't know how you record atmosphere. And I don't think there is a how-to, but it's just like one of those things where everything aligned. Like it really is like, calling the album Spiderland too, like you do enter Spiderland once you drop the needle on “Breadcrumb Trail.”

Brian McMahan: It just seemed appropriate. The thematic sort of coming-of-age sort of storytelling. I know that Britt and I talked about that for sure. It may have been sort of a late-breaking thing, but I mean, we were just at that point in our lives. We were just, you know, just living on our own, working, confronting just the first inklings of, like, making a living, leaving the nest. And I think Britt and I both appreciated songs and songwriters that managed to establish an aesthetic of their own but were not averse to just use, like, super common, like, imagery and, you know, sort of narratives to express things. It seemed like a humanizing sort of softening of some of the maybe potentially pretentious or sort of like, you know, we were very precious at times with the music, I think. Certainly we were during the recording of the Spiderland record. And I think that the lyrics and those themes, the coming of age and the sort of like well-worn sort of narrative references,I think they helped in our minds to just like demystify or sort of make the music and the songs more familiar or less alien.

“Nosferatu Man” 

David Pajo: I'll never forget when Britt played me the first riff for "Nosferatu Man," the intro riff. I thought he was fucking with me. I just couldn't find a melody in it or a timing or anything. I thought he was just screwing around on guitar. And then once I kinda broke it down, I started to hear the melody in it, and I loved that feeling when I would be introduced to a new song and I couldn't, and I didn't understand it, you know, where it took a while for me to wrap my head around it, and these new songs were kinda like that.

Todd Brashear: "Nosferatu Man," Britt, I think, kinda had that one worked out. I remember we played it a ton, but I feel like he might have more or less had the arrangement worked out ahead of time, but I don't know. I could be totally wrong. 

Britt Walford: I remember it being kind of largely worked out, like I was saying, like, "Nosferatu Man," like, you know, somehow we just sort of imagined what vocals would be like, at least rhythmically, and sort of made the song with that in mind. And then I remember writing the lyrics sort of like, you know, almost last minute and, you know, maybe doing some smaller tweaks after that, but then sort of fitting in and, but sometimes I think the lyrics would inform the arrangements. I was a fan of that film, Nosferatu, by F.W. Murnau, and it did inform the lyrics. Seems like Brian mostly sang louder on Tweez, and that didn't seem to be an option for me. Brian sings the louder parts or the sung parts in any song that I'm on, and I only do the spoken parts. Maybe Leonard Cohen was an influence, I'm not sure. We had started listening to Hank Williams and old country, Hank Williams especially, and yeah, just was kinda listening to a lot of that, and it just kinda seemed to fit in.

David Pajo: The opening, like, kind of intro riff, that part, I don't know what time signature that is, and that was kind of a normal thing with Maurice, like, just to come up with off-beat stuff that we didn't know, or I didn't know what time signature it was. But there was one riff in Maurice that I purposely tried to make as fucked up as possible, and people would tell me it was stuff like, "Oh, that's 11/16," or something, you know? Like so I don't know about, like, the actual theory or, or time signatures behind it. But for “Nosferatu Man,” it's still, like, kinda complicated for me to wrap my head around. 'Cause I had the harmonic part where I bend one of the harmonics. When the lyrics stop, like, I do this, I have to break away from the riff and turn on the distortion and play this harmonic part. Like, doing that on top of this already off-beat riff, it's really complicated. And plus, there's this thing where Britt will open the hi-hat. It goes like “dun dun dun” and other times it goes “dun dun dun” and when it goes, “dun dun dun”  that's when he opens the hi-hat, and I have to, I have to lock that in with him. Like, to me, that's part of the mechanics of that riff, is locking that little part. 'Cause I also, we also all know that we're in sync and we're in, at the right part of the song. But that's never happens at a predictable time either. I always have to have a cheat sheet, even if I have it memorized, just so I don't have a brain fart on stage. ‘Cause that, if I fuck that up, if I mess up one part of it, I'm just kinda screwed up. If I can't hear the vocals, like, I'm kinda screwed up that whole intro. So I have to play it right every single time. I can't screw that part up or I'll screw up the song. Yeah, that first part is still tricky to me to this day. It's just simple memorization, but, you know, old age and weed will do that to you (laughs). 

Todd Brashear: And I've been told, actually Pajo may have been pointing this out, like, the number of times we do different things is, like, different every verse, and I just haven't really studied it, to be honest. But no, we just knew the arrangements, you know? There definitely wasn't, like, “We're just gonna play and then look at each other and switch to a different riff.” Like, it was already pretty well arranged. Yeah, like that 33 ⅓ book, which actually turned out pretty good, in my opinion, the part where it analyzes the music, I just pretty much skipped all that. I was like, "Whatever. I don't know." Like, I mean, I have some musical knowledge, but if somebody's like, "Now, is that in 13/6?" I'm like, "Fuck if I know.” I mean, I don't know, we just played it. 

Brian McMahan: Man, I would be lying if I said there was no counting going on. If there was one thing that was true and consistent about working with Slint, it was that the music, the instrumental aspects of the music came first, and there was nothing more that had to happen for a song to be worthy. There may be further expectations, there may be goals, like in the context of a group of songs to achieve this or that. But with those guys, you know, like wondering when the bridge was gonna hit or where the hook was or whatever, that just wasn't a thing, thankfully.

Britt Walford: I think that the odd time stuff just mostly was an outgrowth of our experimentation. Like I said, like in Maurice, the previous band to Slint, and then in early Slint, we were just, it was like there was no filter. It was just whatever came out is what we did, and we were experimenting a lot. So I think we just kinda had a playful attitude towards it, and that kinda made us play stuff like that, and then maybe incorporate it if it seemed cool.

David Pajo: That was also, like, another thing from Maurice. Like, we, I always had to count 'cause when you arrange a song really unorthodox like that and you're chopping riffs in half or in quarters, you know, when you're really, like, just kinda purposely trying to make an asymmetrical song, I think you get really used to counting. Like, it's just normal, like, “Okay, the second time I do this, I play it four and a half times, not six times.” I think you just get used to that, and after a while, you don't wanna be the guy that fucks it up for everybody else (laughs). So yeah, like counting, I don't even notice it now. It's just part of playing the song right. 

Brian McMahan: So this more than any other song, Britt drove the writing of it. I can remember working with him on my guitar parts as well as Dave's. That song, it wasn't fully formed, but Britt's aesthetic and structurally his sort of fingerprints, like, were all over that track, and it seemed right. It seemed really good to shift into that mode, just kind of have a more unified, straight-ahead, sort of propulsive, somewhat melodic, and kinda precious, but still getting into, like, a sort of a rocking territory that became kind of rare for us on that record. That was super cool to hear that song come to life, and it's always been, like, one of my absolute favorites. 

Todd Brashear: That one was fun to play. Like, you know, he's one of the best drummers of all time, I'm gonna say. So it was definitely fun to be a rhythm section with him. So that was a fun one to play for that reason, 'cause me and him just got to, like, really lock it into that groove or whatever. And I remember him, I think you can see it in some of that footage that's in the documentary, his parents had this lamp hanging down right by his drum set, and he would hit the lamp like the bell of a ride cymbal. That's another memory I have of it. 

Brian McMahan: Britt is, he has this sort of, like, primitive instinct for what works in terms of timing and inflection. Like, he's really good at shifting up accents and slipping between time signatures in a way that seems extremely fluid. I mean, having worked with Britt over the years, it's just like an innate ability that he has. A lot of drummers are extremely adapt at, like, doing those things, I think Britt is cool and unique in his ability to do them in an extremely sparse sort of setting. He can throw these changes in without playing all over the place. Like, it's cool how, how minimal a beat can be and how surprising it can be when it gets in Britt's hands.

“Don, Aman” 

David Pajo: I think recording “Don, Aman” was not the most stressful part of the recording, but it was really, the most frustrating part, I think, because we showed up at the studio with these songs we wanted to record, you know, seven songs, and then Britt dropped an eighth song on us that none of us had ever heard before. And again, we had from Friday night to Monday morning to record all the basic tracks and vocals, you know, for the record. And then all of a sudden, with the short amount of time we had and no sleep, like, we had this brand-new thing that Britt wanted to spend time on in the studio. 

Britt Walford: I do remember that being, like, super last minute. We had never played it, and then we were in the studio, and I had the conception of it in my head, so you know, I felt confident about it. I do remember they were sort of exasperated, just like, "Man," you know, like, "What are you doing?" You know, like, "It's okay." Like, "I hope this works." And that was the most last-minute song. 

Todd Brashear: The main thing I remember was the, I was telling one of my kids about this recently, so at the end, this guitar kinda comes fading in, the distorted guitar. Man, it took forever for Britt to do that. Like, I don't know what the deal was with that, but, you know, this was all on analog tape, no digital editing or anything, and that part was excruciating. Like, I don't know what, I'm sure he could probably tell you, but that was definitely, like, one of the times in the studio where, at least me, I was like, "Oh my God," like, "We gotta get..." I had all this pressure going in my head, which is kind of a shame. I should've just relaxed and enjoyed it more, you know? But we did only really have, like, two days to record it, so. But my main memory of that is just that fade-in thing taking forever. 

Brian McMahan: "Don, Aman" is the song that I think Todd and I had never heard before the studio, and that was super cool. Basically, "Don Aman" was two guitars, Britt and David playing. It seemed like it must have taken place super fast, and it definitely wasn't something that I heard, like, rehearsed, except maybe in passing. Like, "What's that?" "That sounds neat." That was really unique. "Don Aman" was, like, the one element of that record that took shape in the studio, and it was super important. It really kinda calibrated the aesthetics of that record.

Britt Walford: I had the song and I kinda felt strongly about the riffs and, you know, I probably just procrastinated a lot back then. I probably just put it off, like working on it 'cause it was kinda up to me to do, and that probably contributed to the last-minute part of it. 

David Pajo: But luckily, like, you know, I didn't have to come up with any parts. I just had to double what Britt was doing. So he just showed me what he was doing, and we played it in unison. 

Britt Walford: It sorta seems like it wouldn't work, and that was, like, at the end of the process, so I think people were especially, like, concerned, you know, if it was gonna work. And I had never tried it, so I thought it would work, but, you know. I think it did, but it was sort of just, you know, untried (laughs). 

Brian McMahan: Man, the clock. This is something that will probably be practically, like, inconceivable for at least one generation of musicians at this point, the idea of having to go to a studio to perform this music that you want to distribute to other people (laughs). These days, like, the recording might just have occurred in the basement of Britt's parents' house. But yes, true of the era, we reserved all of our ideas in terms of how a song should be captured and produced strictly for the studio. So hearing “Don, Aman” with vocals for the first time truly in the studio, it was super intense, but at the same time, it was super nerve-wracking because we had very limited time and money to execute this record.

Todd Brashear: We're sitting in the studio and, have you seen The Blues Brothers, the movie? Like, when the light comes through the church window and he's just like, "The band," and, like, you know, the clouds part and, like, people think that there was a moment like that when we were recording Spiderland where I was just like, "Yes, we've made a masterpiece." And it's like, “No, I was just hoping we could get it done,” you know? Like, it was purely like, “We're here to do this, and we need to, like, get this shit done.” Like, that was more or less the frame of mind that, I mean, I think all of us probably were in 'cause we didn't have much time, you know? 

Brian McMahan: We were definitely on a budget, and yeah listening to this, like, extremely, like, plodding, quiet music taking place in the control room, like, Todd and I looking at each other and looking at Brian Paulson, it was definitely like, "Is this the song?” Like, “are we done? Is that the end, or are we still,” like, should he keep recording?" (laughs). It was super neat, and it was super indicative of Britt's sensibility of the time. He was very much in the moment, which we're lucky that he was. He had the patience and vision to go in with Dave, and again, very much like the rehearsal room, except in this case, in a high-priced studio. Sitting across from Dave, them, like, looking at each other, counting out these parts and, and making their way through this sort of skeletal, barely audible music.

Britt Walford: I sort of felt like a kinship to this guy that I knew and just sort of like projecting onto him to sort of have, like a feeling of somebody else also experiencing some of the things I was experiencing. And he went by Don, and then I don't know how it came about, but yeah, it is an anagram, you know, for Madonna, and I was, like, really into Madonna and stuff, so.

Todd Brashear: It wasn't until that Rolling Stone thirtieth anniversary piece that I learned that “Don, Aman,” is that an anagram? It's basically Madonna. Like, I texted Britt and I was like, "Is that true?" He's like, "Yeah." I was like, "Holy shit. I never knew that," We all listened to that. Like, he was a huge Madonna fan, Will Oldham was a huge Madonna fan, one of the guys in the band Solution Unknown that I was in was a huge Madonna fan. Like, it was not unusual to be around people who were totally obsessed with Madonna. I mean, she was huge, you know, at the time. We all listened to that stuff. 

David Pajo: I actually didn't know until, like, a few years ago that “Don, Aman” is an anagram for Madonna because Britt and I really loved Madonna always. But, like, even that alone, like, when I asked Britt about it, he was like, "Oh, I thought it was obvious” (laughs). 

Like, I was talking about the atmosphere of Spiderland. I think that the, like “Don, Aman” and “For Dinner…” are the two most atmospheric songs, like for me. And “Don, Aman,” to me, also is a side break, like, 'cause this ends side one. Man, it really, it kind of like, you know, when you're in the Spiderland world and you're going through the songs and you get to “Don, Aman,” it's so, like, dry and upfront and personal and kind of disorienting in some ways that I think it, it really lends to sort of the creepy atmosphere and just the kind of the reflective nature of the album, of the lyrics, I guess. Yeah, the fading of the distorted riff, like all those little touches were so important to Britt, and that, it's pure genius to me, man. I still don't quite understand why that riff fades in and fades back out, except I think it might be just, well, I have my own ideas, but like now I feel like I understand. But just the fact that it was so important to Britt. Like, it's a really well-composed song, man. Like, all the little harmonics that I do, those were really precise, like where they were supposed to happen and I mean, I love that song so much. 

I remember our friend Botch Billings came by the studio one time, and we had just started doing a couple takes of “Don, Aman” and he came in to just check out what was happening. You know, we got some visitors, like at one point Jesus Lizard and Steve showed up 'cause they were recording nearby and wanted to go out to dinner, and we just didn't have time. But different people would stop by here and there. But Botch came by late at night, and we were doing “Don, Aman” and he, I remember watching him listening back to it, and he was like, he turned to us and he was like, "What are you guys making a fucking new age record or what?" (laughs).

“Washer”

Brian McMahan: Dave's part on “Washer,” it was super trademark. Now, anyone could say that's familiar with Dave's sort of melodic sensibility and writing and, like, his voice on guitar. But at the time, you know, this was still something that was developing, and the sort of hypnotic qualities of the spiraling material that runs through all the songs. But Dave's parts really punctuate that song in a way, and the loud solo sort of like, by his standards, extremely sort of crude and just like raucous wailing. But it was the quieter parts and the, the sort of ascending figure that Dave wrote for "Washer" that kind of transformed the song for me, just 'cause it's really delicate and kind of otherworldly. His ability to convey emotion, it seems sort of beyond his age. He's a total sweetheart, and he's extremely empathic and responsive as a musician. And yeah, being able to work with him and give voice to a song like that is like, that's what you want (laughs). Especially when you're, when you're presenting something so vulnerable.

Britt Walford: Man, that definitely, I feel like we played that and practiced it and sort of changed it a lot over time. We worked on that one, I feel like more than any other song. And I mean, I think we all collaborated. That was the best part of the band is, is just working out the songs and collaborating and, you know, it was like there was never any compromise. There wasn't anything like that. We would just, you know, all agree, eventually on whatever was gonna happen, you know? So yeah, there was a lot of that with that song. And again, maybe he sort of had some ideas about vocals and lyrics before we had ever heard them. 

David Pajo: “Washer" was Brian's song, and to me, it distinctly sounded like something he wrote on his nylon string acoustic up in Evanston. Like, it just sounded like, 'cause it seemed like he was writing songs on acoustic guitar more and then bringing them to electric, or like bringing them to practice, and that really seemed like an acoustic guitar song. I think he even, I think he fingerpicks it And Brian and I especially were super into Neil Young and, you know, Nick Drake and Leonard Cohen. We were getting into all that stuff. And so it just seemed logical to me that we would start having some of that influence, like, happening in songs. So when he brought it, I just thought it was a really beautiful song. I feel like we just kind of approached it the same way we approached every other song.

Britt Walford: It seems maybe sort of like an outgrowth of the, some of the stuff we were listening to at the time, which was more dynamic and, I mean, I could say like mainstream or something as far as Neil Young and Leonard Cohen and maybe classical music, you know, played some an influential role. Which I had grown up involved with and listened to a lot and still sort of did at that time.

Todd Brashear: I mean, listening to it now, I think it's a pretty big nod to like a Neil Young song probably. But that's more just like looking through the current lens or whatever. We sure did practice it a lot, you know. And he put a lot into those vocals for sure.

David Pajo: Brian worked on the vocals on a 4-track, mostly, like, solo. And we would listen to some of the stuff he did, or he'd play it for, a little, you know, excerpts from it or parts just to show us where his head was at. And, you know, I think when I first heard him sing, I loved it. You know, I'd never heard him use that part of his voice.

Britt Walford: He didn't talk about it. He didn't, like, share his feelings, like, "Oh, I think I'm gonna have to sing on this one," or something. You know, it was just, he kinda did the vocals almost, like, on his own. I don't wanna say in secret, but we didn't play him much with him doing the vocals. 

Todd Brashear: I don't ever remember, no, being like, "Why is he doing that?" Or, "That sounds like shit," or I think we all just kinda let him do his thing. Like, I don't remember, which if you think about it, that's, I guess, maybe kinda interesting that we hadn't really heard the vocals at the forefront, and then he really just did it the way he thought it should be done, and nobody said a word about anything. Which probably could be some of that is due to time constraints. But I don't remember ever thinking like, "Wow, that's weird. Why do you sing it like that?" Or, you know, like, we all just took it for what it was and went with it, you know? 

Brian McMahan: With “Washer,” I have very distinct memories of being terrified of singing that song. You know, huge fan of croakers, like Neil Young, Leonard Cohen, Bon Scott. You know, I enjoyed singers that were not afraid to be vulnerable or just present things in a fairly unflattering way, I guess. I knew I was gonna have to sing on “Washer.” I kinda knew that as I was, like, playing the riff on guitar. Yeah, there's just no getting out of it. And I rehearsed it in the privacy of my parents' car (laughs). I don't think anyone had heard those vocals before, the parts. And it was definitely uncomfortable. I was not at all confident and was not at all capable as a singer. But at the same time, I knew I had to do it.

David Pajo: Someone told me that Steve had said, Albini, that when he heard “Washer” for the first time, he felt deeply embarrassed for Brian. Just because Brian makes himself incredibly vulnerable on Spiderland. And I think it was, you know, in the 80s, it was pretty harsh to hear, like, in the punk world, like, somebody like, going, like, full transparency like that, and showing you know, a sensitive side really. But then Steve said that the second time he listened to it, he was in tears. So it's like, I think it was a shock at first, in the punk world to be like, "Oh," like, "Oh, shit, I don't know if I like this," you know? And then, but like, once your defenses are kinda down, and you let, you can just hear it as a song. You'd have to be a pretty vile person to listen to “Washer” and think it was dishonest in some way. 

Brian McMahan: “Washer” for me, it was a personal, you know, the lyrics were very personal, and I was dealing with, like a breakup of, with my high school sweetheart, and we had been together for a few years. And at that point in my life, I'd really only had this one romantic relationship, and it was super intense. It was, like, kind of obsessive at some level, but it was just one of those, you know, figuring it out phases. Never really having had a relationship that was intimate and, like, maintained over maybe just four years. But at that time with, you know, when you're experiencing these changes and coming of age, it feels like, you know, a vast lifetime of experience shared with a partner. So yeah, the lyrics were very personal, and they were less abstract and more direct than, than the lyrics present on some of the other songs.

David Pajo: Oh yeah, dynamics didn't really seem to exist very much in the punk world, and, like, nobody wanted dynamics, you know? They just wanted to bounce off the walls. But the going from quiet to loud to quiet, like, that was stuff we were doing in Maurice already, so it didn't seem that unusual. But Brian, or, like, Britt too, all of us, you know, like, kinda built this song that I feel like, it did build to the, when you hit the distortion pedal. It used to be just, like, off/on, you know? And no one ever built to that part. And I feel like the loud/quiet is, like, really, I feel like that's the most obvious thing about Slint that people picked up on, and the more interesting stuff is the subtleties, you know? 

Todd Brashear: People act like we're the ones who invented quiet parts and loud parts, and it's like, “No,” like, “listen to Metallica or like,” there's no freaking way that that band is a band who invented quiet parts and loud parts. Like, there's millions of examples of that from before that band, you know? Within its genre, that makes more sense. At the time, it was more balls to the wall kind of stuff, I guess. But I would say overall that's a more sensitive album than maybe a lot of stuff at that time. Like, you know, his singing on that is pretty naked. Like, he's definitely putting himself out there, you know? 

Brian McMahan: With “Washer,” we did work on the dynamics in rehearsal because we had to adjust them without the benefit of being able to hear the vocal at the same time. So that was one song where I think I really had to, like, share my notes with the band to try and make sure that the dynamics and also just the, the space available for the vocal was there when it was needed. My croaking required careful handling in the framework of the song arrangement. And thankfully, Britt and Dave were great. They're exceptionally talented and in terms of musicians that can really make a song come to life, “Washer” is very much a testament to their abilities to do that.

David Pajo: When I was on the reunion tour, like one of the, you know, fans or like audience members told me that they were so obsessed with “Washer” when they got Spiderland, that they wanted to know the words, so they wrote out, like they stayed up and wrote out all the lyrics to “Washer,” and the next morning their girlfriend saw it and was deeply concerned that they were suicidal (laughs). They thought it was a suicide note. And then when I thought about just seeing the words on a piece of paper, like scrawled like that, I was like, "Whoa, I could totally see that.” Like that would be pretty scary to wake up to if your partner left that for you. But that's how heavy the lyrics are. Even without singing or anything, just as a written word, I think the lyrics are really heavy. 

Brian McMahan: I really was feeling it, it was totally earnest, and I did not want to let my limitations as a singer obscure, like, the sentiment that I was trying to convey. I just kinda hoped for the best at that. I definitely remember feeling extremely self-conscious about recording the vocal with the rest of the band on the other side of the glass in the control room. Again, this is a scenario that many listeners these days will be unfamiliar with, being in like a commercial recording studio where there's a formal control room, and you are in an isolated different room performing whatever it is, and you complete your performance, and then you look up to a set of, you know, heads kind of like in this other space. Like, "Yeah, it was pretty good." Just it was an experience that was still fairly novel for us at that point. 

Britt Walford: I mean, I don't think we, like, sweated it much except when we had to actually play in front of our friends. And that was very nerve-wracking, I thought, 'cause it, it did feel like taking a chance, you know, and putting it out there, and it definitely was really scary. And in fact, people's reaction was somewhat, you know, like, I don't know, half into it, half not, or, you know, not that into it or whatever. But, you know, we were just, we were into what we were into, and so we were just kinda in our own world, you know? 

Brian McMahan: I was lucky as a singer and as just as a human being, just to be able to work in that sort of an environment where all of us were pretty darn patient human beings, and there are a lot of bands that they would've really struggled to come through that experience, I think. Just 'cause, yeah, we really had to give each other a lot of space and rely upon each other for support.

David Pajo: I love that Brian was really expressive during that recording session musically. One thing I do remember in the studio is when we were mixing “Washer,” at one point, I think we all had our hands on the mixing desk because there were so many moves that had to be done. But we were mixing “Washer,” and we had like, you know, tape with little lines, like where the faders had to move from here to here. And we all each had our little job, “At this section, this goes here and there,” 'cause there was no automation and stuff. Brian was in charge of the loud guitars when that part kicked in, and he had a line that he went to. In the mix that we ended up using on the record, I don't know if anybody else even saw this, but when it went to the loud part, Brian would go way past the line. Like, he was feeling it. Like, he was jacking those guitars way up.

Man, it was from a Neil Young song. I can't remember what song it is now, but he does, like, a one-note solo, where he goes, (sings “Down By the River” guitar solo) “duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh duh.” And I was like, "Fuck yeah." Like, “Who does a one-note solo?” And so I was like, "I'm, you know, at some point, I have to do a one-note solo." And they wanted me to solo on that section, and I think that was actually the first thing I did. I just went to that bend and just, I was like, "Okay, that's the note." But you know, as we practiced it more, I started doing other stuff, like yeah, I added other stuff. But basically, it's, you know, I'm just bending that one note for the solo. But it is super hard, that part, to play it on guitar live, 'cause I have to go from the neck pickup to the bridge pickup for the loud part. So I flick the toggle switch on my guitar, hit the distortion, go into the solo, and then I have to go from the solo, that bending that note and playing this other stuff with my pinky, like, to switching back to the neck pickup and turning off the distortion and immediately playing the “Washer” riff perfect. And going from that solo to that is like, it's a bunch of moves that have to happen in a split second, you know? So I'm like, "uhhhh" You know? I'm trying to get to that part. But, you know, like, that's how you get your thrills when you play in Slint, I guess, those little moments.

“For Dinner…”

Todd Brashear: "For Dinner…" is probably my favorite song off that album. I mean, depending on when you catch me, but I like that one a lot. When they played their first reunion show in Louisville, I went to that, and that was the song they opened up with, and I thought that was cool that they played that first. Like, just the super quiet kinda thing. 

Britt Walford: Yeah, I just, I remember that really being written by Brian, pioneered by him, and you know, him sorta having a vision about it that wasn't really spelled out, but we just sorta collaborated on the music. 

David Pajo: “For Dinner…" is just  like, that was the song that kind of,I wanted to pursue the idea that Brian, I feel like, kinda started with "For Dinner…" that was the basis for, like, Aerial M and a lot of my solo stuff in the beginning, 'cause I loved just the mood and the instrumental part of it, the fact that there was no words kinda guiding you through the song. It's just a pure mood song, and it gets loud and has dynamics without any distortion at all. And I don't know, I just think it's really, really beautiful. So, like, that song was really, that one I really tuned into and wanted to pursue the idea of that one song more. And I still do. Like, I'm still trying to figure out how to make a mood with instrumental music like, like "For Dinner…"

Brian McMahan: "For Dinner…" yeah, that came from a dark place, for sure. It was a tough time, and my goal was to express, like a certain amount of despair or at least, like, getting there, for sure, melancholy, but contextualize it just as an obstacle that can be overcome. It seemed like that was important for that song on the record to express an emotional turn or transition that is common and needs to be accepted and addressed and basically give voice to it in a way that articulates it and allows it to exist and, like, not color or define everything. It was important basically to have that sort of drama or darkness present in the record. You know, there's a lot of atmospherics happening, but I think there's, like, a lot of sadness in that song. 

David Pajo: I think "For Dinner…" is like an immensely dark song. It has, at the end it goes major, like goes from, it shifts from minor, it goes up a whole step to, like, a major, and it really feels like the clouds part when it does that, and that's because the whole song itself is super dark. But I feel like Britt and Brian are so good. Hopeful melancholy, you know? Like, I always feel like there's an optimism and a hopefulness to it underlying the darkness, you know? It's a darkness that never feels negative to me. 

Brian McMahan: I think we were able to treat it as a band with a certain amount of respect that it's kinda surprising, honestly. I think it is a testament to the sensitivity and sort of empathic abilities of those guys. Yeah, there's nothing more I could've hoped for that song.

“Good Morning, Captain” 

Brian McMahan: "Good Morning Captain." Yeah, working on that song with the band was, it was great. It was kind of, in a certain way, it was, like, all of my dreams come true as a song in its like, sort of epic, you know, grand proportions, and quiet parts, and drama, and tension, and release, and just bombast. It made sense to conclude the record with it. But in a way, it was kinda the culmination of, like, working with those guys at that time. I don't know. Maybe it was just me, but I think I knew going into the studio, I suspect the other guys did too, that it's like, "Okay," like, "this is how we're gonna close the record," and, you know, if we succeed in getting people to come on this journey with us or, you know, we can keep them listening to this point, like, “We've done it. We've done our job.”

David Pajo: "Good Morning, Captain" was Britt's song that he brought. He had written it on bass, so he came, he showed up with bass lines and, you know, because Britt is also the drummer of the band, I feel like when he comes in with a riff, he already knows how the drums are gonna support it. But we don't hear it, you know?

Britt Walford: I remember that was really cool collaborating on, like, you know, Dave coming up with his parts and Ryan coming up with things and playing it together and yeah, that was one of the things I came up with at college. 

Brian McMahan: Britt had written a couple of the guitar parts for “Good Morning, Captain,” and he was in this zone at the time writing on guitar, and his style of playing, it was super idiosyncratic and it was super compelling. I think those parts, they were written when Britt and I were living together. Britt subsequently, after my first year, also came to go to school in Chicago, and so we were able to live together, and this was during the time that the Spiderland material was coming together, the sort of building blocks were being laid, I guess. And I have the context and memory of being able to hear some of that stuff taking shape like in the other room, like in the bedroom just beside yours. And Britt's approach to writing on guitar specifically at that point in time, it was really unique from my perspective, and it was, it was really compelling.

Todd Brashear: Give Britt credit for that. I mean, I'll take credit for playing it, but he wrote it. 

David Pajo: I loved the riff. It had just like clashing, droning D string that clashes with the D flat and the C. Like, you know, it's wrong on so many levels, and right on so many other levels. Like, I feel like, it's a great bassline.

Britt Walford: They are sort of chords, like just two note chords, and there's a little variation in the pattern, like one to the next and then back. It just sort of like rotates that way. 

Todd Brashear: So somebody sent me a message on Facebook asking me what effect I used during this one certain part of “Good Morning, Captain,” and I was like, "Well, I didn't use any effects. All I did was I just plugged straight into the amp.” And he described where the part was. Well, the only thing I had to go back and fix was a part where my headphones while we were playing the song, they like fell off, and then they may have hit the strings, and so I fucked up like a couple measures of the bassline. So we had to go back and punch in that bassline, and he was hearing where I had punched in and I was like, "Good job hearing that 'cause you're the first person who's ever said a word about that." Like me, if I listen to it, I can hear it, and I'm like, "Damn, I wish I wouldn't have had to do that." But he thought I was, like, doing something on purpose just to, like, make it sound different. I mean, it's pretty subtle, the difference in sound. But if you really focus on the bass part, you can hear it. But it's 'cause my headphones fell off during the take. 

Britt Walford: Man, I love playing with Todd. He, like, basically has his own rhythm, and so he's just doing his own thing, and I can kinda do whatever I want with that or behind or around that or whatever. So yeah, for me, that works really, really good. 

Todd Brashear: Like, when I listen to it, I'm like, "Damn, that does,” like, we were kinda locked in, you know? And I do think it's just 'cause we practiced a lot. And plus, he can just play like a, you know, I mean, I don't think then I even knew what a click track was or anything, but you definitely don't need one if he's playing.

David Pajo: And then I started doing this thing to the bassline, like when I was trying to write a guitar part, where I would fret, like, kinda up high on the neck on one string, and then I would, but I would pick the string behind the fretted note. And with enough distortion, you could hear, like, just bizarre notes. So I found two notes that worked with what the bassline, but I'd pick it behind the fretted note. So I was getting these unusual harmonics that didn't sound right. They actually were making, it sounded like chords. So it starts with that “ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding.” That's me picking behind the fretted note with a ton of distortion. But picking behind the fretted note, I was like, "Okay, what are those notes?" So I figured out it's the chords that I play on top of the bassline and with a clean sound. That's how I interpreted what I was picking behind the fretted note. So I came up with those two chords that went on top of the bassline, and that kinda became the thing that would be the instrumental section in between the vocals. Like, Brian realized that, like, we had these long sections with just bass and drums, like, "That's a great spot to put the vocals." You know, we just worked on it like any other song, and it started to come together. 

Britt Walford: I feel like we were usually, like, grappling with other parts. Like, we kinda always envisioned things to be sorta multi-part, almost traditional songs with verse, chorus, verse, chorus, that type thing. So I feel like, often people would have maybe at least two parts to a song, like two riffs, and then we would start from there and adding second parts and then figuring out the arrangement, like, and then maybe figuring out a bridge or a, you know, third part or whatever. I mean, we definitely would play stuff for a long time, and that was, I guess that was probably part of generating our ideas.

Brian McMahan: But yeah, arranging the song, it was great. Everyone patient and responsive, very much, like, cerebral, but just lots of listening going on, being able to appreciate the subtleties and the quiet and the space. And yeah, just having the patience to execute it, you know, record it. Being lucky enough to have someone like Brian Paulson, you know, there to figure out how to make sure that translated. It was luck. It was some good luck, I guess. Among other things. We worked hard, but there was for sure some luck involved.

David Pajo: Britt wrote the last riff, the big ending riff as well. He wrote some of the cool kind of Egyptian-sounding parts that I play. Like, Britt is 100% “Good Morning, Captain,” and Brian is 100% “Good Morning, Captain” lyrically, 'cause Brian was changing the words up until we recorded, I feel like. 'Cause the arrangement for when, you know, how long the bass and drums and vocals would go before, like an instrumentals, chords, that was always changing. Like, sometimes it'd be four times, but then he'd change it for the lyrics to be six times the next practice. And then once we got to the studio, that just happened to be where the arrangement that day, you know, or that we'd sort of settled on for that moment. Like, I feel like if we had another two weeks before we recorded, you know, the lyrics probably could have evolved even more. But that was just where we were at. But I'm so glad that it's kind of locked into where it is. 

Brian McMahan: Lyrically, and again, I think this was something that Britt and I discussed, you know, explicitly at some point, but I feel like it was much more just sort of intuited that we were, you know, creating this song cycle and that there had to be a thematic, you know, element that kinda carried the listener through it. And my sense of poetics Is probably pretty limited, to be honest. I was just trying to work with a set of, like, narrative devices that was as close to universal as I knew. Even though the delivery of the lyrics may have been sort of, like, awkward or unexpected for some people, or maybe even ill-suited or ill-matched to the abilities of the band. It was just really important that listeners had a way in to make the music accessible and to make that, like, coming-of-age journey, you know, relatable. And it was very much to those guys' credit that they didn't laugh me out of the studio, or that, you know, we were able to actually agree on, like, some of the dynamic elements and the roles that certain songs would serve. In terms of the mariner theme, it's a good, good one. It's solid, I mean, it's visual. That was an element of lyric writing that was basically articulated and driven home to me by Ethan Buckler in his songwriting, which I'd thankfully been able to witness take shape and take form in King Kong. But his lyrics are amazing, in my opinion, and they're very conventional. The scenarios he uses, they work, and they're hard to deny just because of their simplicity. And I guess I was hoping, honestly, to approximate an experience that could at least be considered against the likes of, you know, Hank Williams or, you know, Leonard Cohen or Neil Young or just trying to make it as simple as possible and just give it a simple voice that'll kinda get the listener through.

Britt Walford: Yeah, it's definitely just a harrowing thing to try to play something and you feel really good once your parts are done (laughs). You're like, "Oh, this is great. I'm just like, I can just relax now." And then, you know, it's great to see the other people doing their parts, and it was amazing hearing Brian do his part. And I remember just being blown away and being super into it and happy about it, and him being, you know, maybe apprehensive about it. 

Todd Brashear: He was very nervous about it all, and I think had a few drinks and maybe some other stuff. I'm not sure. You should ask him. But I think after he recorded that, he went and puked, probably due to nerves or whatever. So I would say he did go through some actual anguish during the recording of those vocals. And that's probably why it sounds the way it does, you know, for better, I mean, I don't feel good that he suffered because of it, but I guess he got the performance.

David Pajo: Drinking and smoking while you're making a record is pretty normal. And I don't remember us really drinking at all, or not very much in the studio 'cause we just had so little time. But I also knew that, you know, just doing vocals in front of all your friends was, at that young age, is, you know, it's gonna take some Dutch courage. And like Brian, I didn't think it was weird at all when he decided to get fucked up to do his vocals and turn off all the lights in the, in the room that he was in. It wasn't an iso booth. He was in the main room actually. That's kind of funny that he was in the big echoey room doing those vocals and not a dry room. But we were in the control room looking at a black window. You know, we couldn't see Brian at all. And we could just hear him. And he was, I don't know, like maybe popping allergy pills, I don't know what he was doing, but he was like, he was drinking and doing stuff, getting more and more lubed up for the, doing vocals in front of all your buddies that are, you know, vocals that are important or lyrics that are really important to you. So yeah, I didn't think it was weird at all that he, you know, went for some Dutch courage. But, you know, I think maybe he, like, went too far or something. He had to barf at some point. Which also, you know, when you're a teenager, you do stuff like that, you know? I think some of this stuff gets blown out of proportion where it's like, "Oh, he was, like, fucked up, and then he, he immediately vomited after the, you know, after doing his vocals for ‘Good Morning, Captain.’” You know, maybe there's some truth to it. Maybe the way I look at it was just like, you know, we were just teenagers, and we were, getting fucked up was not something that was unusual for a teenager to do in the 80s. In fact, it was more fucked up not to. I think doing the vocals was intense for Brian in the studio, but I think he handled it great, personally (laughs). 

Brian McMahan: Honestly, I don't remember it. I've heard the story. I'm lucky that I didn't create a mess at least 'cause I was actually working at that studio at that time as, like, a second engineer. Would not have been, I would not have stuck around for very long if I had vomited on the carpet. Man, I think I needed liquid courage, like, or at least depended on liquid courage for much of my existence, during the making of that record. Not in any horrible or cataclysmic way. But yeah, booze was definitely helpful to get some of those performances on tape. If I have been completely sober, that would have been a hard swallow (laughs) at times.

David Pajo: I remember him, Brian playing the “I miss you” part, and the whole kinda lead up to it, which was improvised. And that part was different, but I remember the “I miss you” part. He seemed a little concerned about it, like slightly about maybe like what we would think. And you know, of course I loved it. I was super into the Leonard Cohen live album. I think the song, like “Passing Through,” he kinda goes off and starts yelling and at some point in it, there's a lot of improvised words in that song. And to me, like when he got to the “I miss you” part, to me it just felt like, almost like a Leonard Cohen song where he just kinda lets it out at some point or, you know, decides to belt it out. And I don't know, I just thought it was great. But then in the studio, Brian was trying different ways to lead up to the “I miss you” part, where he was just kinda saying different things, and it was all cool. And then there was one take with the one that on the record where I was like, "Holy shit." Like I couldn't believe that I just heard it, and he wanted to do it again. And I think, I don't know if I said it or if all of us said it or, you know, more than one, more than just me, but I remember being like, "Man, you should come in and listen to it 'cause I, that was a good one," (laughs) you know? I’m so glad we didn't tape over it, you know, because, yeah, this is a destructive recording. Like if, if Brian had wanted to do another take, like that build-up where he actually quotes Leonard Cohen would be gone forever. Anyway, like I'm just, I'm super, like that building up to that “I miss you” part once again is like, that’s just like a one-of-a-kind moment. And I feel like that part, yeah, again, like you'd have to be a really cold-hearted person to listen to that part and, and, and not feel something, you know?

Brian McMahan: It seemed like overall learning how to, like, live with and coexist with an element of alienation that was critical for that record, and it was an experience that I've, you know, I feel like we all shared at that stage in our lives, being the kind of people that we were. All of our families were super encouraging, but we were all black sheep, and it seemed like alienation or a sense of being apart was, I think, second nature. It was just understood for most of us. 

Todd Brashear: Like, we're all pretty strange, if I had to sum it up. But I mean, there's probably some normal people that were involved in the scene, but not many. Like, I think everybody's drawn to it because it's a place where people who are a little off can find their kin, you know.

Brian McMahan: Growing up in a town like Louisville, which is, there's a lot of depth to it, but it is, you know, not exactly the epicenter of, like, arts. So I think alienation, feeling alone and, and also feeling like that, like, basically transformation was needed simply to, like, survive. For me, like, I knew I had to break out of my expectations of myself, my family's expectations, and I think that song is an expression of that. I definitely had issues with anxiety and depression. You know, it's something I struggle with still. 

Britt Walford: You know, I remember him being very anxious in the studio and maybe just really struggling with that. I mean we didn't really talk or probably even think much about, you know, anxiety and stuff back then, but he was, yeah, he was noticeably just, going through a lot of that for that process. And yeah, it was just, I mean, I do remember being kind of worried about him, but it was kind of just like, "What? What's the matter?" You know what I mean? Like, not that I didn't understand anxiety, but yeah, I'm just saying, like, at the time when you're that age or when we were that age, sometimes maybe you wouldn't think about it as, or be as aware of it as you would be now.

David Pajo: Man, one thing I think all four of us share is, like some kind of hypersensitivity. So I think that's, like, I never felt really concerned about Brian, 'cause I feel like he's always had a good head on his shoulders. You know, there was talk that he checked himself into a hospital after Spiderland and this stuff, and I just thought he was doing all the right things for himself. Like, I thought he was going through a heavy time, and he was taking steps to improve. Like I didn't take it as any more than that, and I feel like all of us went through those moments, you know? So it was, I don't think I ever felt concerned for his mental health. Like, I just felt like, he, like Brian, like all of us, was just trying to navigate this crazy time. Coming of age, especially back then, was, you know, was really confusing. 

Brian McMahan: For me, having completed Spiderland with those guys and I don't, like, claim to know, you know, how everyone regarded, like, the work we'd done. Like, I don't know if it was, you know, not a big deal or to whatever extent people identified with it. I definitely did personally, and I was terrified at the idea of trying to present that stuff live for just, like, basic, you know, just mechanical stuff that I knew I couldn't pull off, and I was afraid of failing for sure. And I feel like Britt and Dave were so clearly talented. Like, I think there was a level of trepidation that I brought to the project that maybe they didn't have happening.

David Pajo: So after we had recorded the basic tracks, we were gonna come back the next weekend to mix it, which we did, and I think we did some overdubs then too. And the mixes were, you know, the best we could do from, you know, Friday night to Monday morning. And then we realized that, you know, "Good Morning, Captain" and "Breadcrumb Trail," the start and end of the album, which we didn't know was the start and the end yet, but, like, they needed to be remixed because it wasn't as impactful as it needed to be. And so we paid out of our own pocket, like, I remember having to ask my mom for money to help pay for the overdub session. So we had to come back a third weekend to remix those songs. I don't think I came back that weekend. I think that was just Britt and Brian to remix those two songs 'cause they were already in Chicago. And then the record was done. We did the artwork, split up before the album could even come out, you know, canceled a Euro tour. 

Brian McMahan: I was concerned about us, like, basically being able to deliver the songs and, like, sort of in a touring context. Like, I had done some of that with Squirrel Bait, and I knew from that experience that it was not an environment that really, it was not kind to people that were really precious, you know, with things they have created. But just trying to execute that stuff in like, you know, a dank club where, you know, half the audience is at the bar, and it seemed like being heard over the margarita blender happening was kind of like, that was like half the challenge in terms of the reality of, of performing that stuff live. Or at least that was my perspective. And it is just, it was really intimidating. I lacked confidence and I think some of that was an error on my part. But I had to make the call. And yeah, I just, man, quitting the band, ugh, that was a really, it was really difficult and not comfortable. I really just felt like I had to do it. 

Britt Walford: It was a shock big time. It just, yeah, was really unexpected. And we had booked a European tour, which was a big deal for us, or we had started to. And yeah, it was definitely very shocking. 

David Pajo: And I just felt like, it was really anticlimactic, you know, for Slint. I just read a word recently that is perfect, bathetic. It rhymes with pathetic but starts with a B. That's exactly what the breaking up of Slint was for me. It just seemed like, considering all the potential we had, it seemed. the breakup seemed so little and so minor. I don't know, it just seemed so, it didn't seem in sync with everything we'd done previously. Like, I thought the breakup should be maybe more dramatic or something. It just seemed like we just disappeared overnight. So by the time I got the test pressing even, I didn't listen to the test pressing. I was not interested. When I listened to the recording, all I heard were my mistakes or, like, different parts. Like, in “For Dinner…” there's a part where Britt really cracks the snare drum at the peak of the, where it gets loud, and I think he slightly missed it. So it's more of a rimshot, which is great, too, but I really loved that crack. You know, like, to me that that was important, and so that wasn't on there. I just heard all these little things. I heard stuff I could've done way better or missed. I didn't like any of my solos. So I didn't listen to Spiderland, I think, for a good 10 years afterwards. I didn't listen to the test pressing. Unless I was in the room with Britt and Brian, I don't think I even wanted to think about Slint too much. And I think at that point, Slint was starting to get more and more, you know, word of mouth was starting to pick up, and as word of mouth started to increase, I don't know, I feel like I wanted to distance myself more and more from it. Like, I didn't want to be in the shadow of Slint for the rest of my life. And now I can appreciate it for what it is, and I can see it objectively as other people do, I feel like. I can see its strengths as well as its weaknesses, basically.  

Todd Brashear: I mean, it's not like I thought it sucked or anything, but probably I would imagine there's probably a lot of undealt with feelings about the band ending and stuff, if I had to guess. Like, I'm not saying I need to go to therapy about it or anything, but, like, I probably just didn't really wanna hear it. Like, I don't remember ever listening to it really or anything after it came out. Like, the band was over by the time it was released. And actually somebody just sent me not too long ago a local news item about when we broke up and it was around Christmas time. And then I think the record came out the following March. So it was a while before the record came out that the band broke up, which I'm sure Corey was probably like, "Well, shit," you know. Like, "Here's this record coming out and now there's not even a band to promote it or anything." 

Britt Walford: It wasn't so much like thought put towards, you know, succeeding or, you know, things were sort of viewed in a more like sort of artistic context back then especially. There wasn't, you know, there usually wasn't any even thought of being successful or anything like that. So I don't, I didn't personally, I mean, maybe I did a little bit feel like, you know, "Oh man, we're letting Touch and Go down." But yeah, it was mostly just kind of a personal loss. 

Brian McMahan: I was disappointed in myself. I feel like, you know, for Corey that was an expectation, but at the same time, you know, he was super busy. There were tons of talented people doing records for Touch and Go at that point. And I was probably wrong, but to me, I felt like disappointing myself was a much more, like, grievous error than disappointing my friends. I felt like they would understand that, you know, and be okay with that, which thankfully they were. 

David Pajo: There was no issue with any of the other guys in the band ever. Like, we, you know, we broke up and we still, we immediately started playing with Will. You know, like, we all still played, we immediately started playing with Ethan. You know, a few years later we're, or a year or two later we were practicing, like writing songs together again and stuff. So we, it was never, it was more just like a disappointment that I wasn't even aware of at the time. To me, it was just like, "Oh, shit, that sucks. There's so much other great shit happening right now. Let's do that” (laughs). Like, it was just, I don't think we ever paused to reflect for sure. Like, we just, we just went on to the next thing. It wasn't until later that I realized that I actually was just, it was a huge disappointment for me. I just didn't, I was just so excited about everything else happening, I didn't notice it. But I think that's a lot of why I wasn't interested in Slint, because I was like, "Well, shit, we don't exist anymore. If we're lucky, some jazz guy's gonna discover us and listen to our record on his Victrola in 40 years," you know? (laughs). But that's, I really just thought we were, like, it was just a huge shame when we broke up.

Britt Walford: There was no attention given, you know, to Slint when we were around much to speak of or for, you know, quite a while after. It was more just like, man, like years later, like I remember it continuing to sell a little bit and maybe just remarking, you know, like, "Oh, man, did you guys,” you know, “We got a small amount of money," or, "It's kind of amazing it keeps selling," and that being all that there was to it. And then I do remember at some point, like people in Louisville kind of starting like to treat me differently, just like strangers, like I guess mostly like younger people. And that was really just like weird and just kind of hard to know how to kind of react to or whatever. But that was probably mid-'90s, so it's not that long after. Now it doesn't seem that long after, but at the time it seemed like a long time after. 

Brian McMahan: A couple years after the record was released, it was selling pretty well, especially given that we never toured or, you know, got any press or really promoted the record. I think it was mostly impressive in the face of having done basically nothing to promote the band, like on the whole. But yeah, it was a couple years after the record was released for Spiderland that there's not like any huge financial success or accolades. It was just kind of like a slowly growing like, "Man, that's a really good record.” Hearing that from friends and as we went on to tour, you know, work on other projects, having audience members or whatever come up or other bands saying they liked it, that was cool, and it just kind of kept going essentially. Sort of slow and steady. 

Todd Brashear: And I do remember one time being in a local record store, like I'd heard people say like, "Man, there's all these bands that sound just like Slint." And I was like, "Oh, okay. What are, you know, if you say so." And I remember being in a local record store, and they're playing a CD over the stereo, and I was like, "Wow, this does actually sound just like Slint." And even the recording sounded the same. And I asked them what it was, and it was a Mogwai album. That was a moment where I was like, "Okay, now that sounds like Slint.” But I don't know, man, it's like as time goes on, people just talk about it more and more it seems like. Like it's kinda crazy really.

David Pajo: I think it was with Mogwai when I started to realize that we were having an influence outside of Louisville, and plus all the fan mail we were getting from, you know, like all over the world. Brian wanted to add that to the text of the album art, the line that says, "Interested female vocalists write," you know, and with our address. It was, like, years later, I was at Britt's house, and we went through a box of letters that his mom had just been saving 'cause Britt hadn't been living there. But one letter was from Polly Harvey, and I was really into the first PJ Harvey album, and I knew that Steve had recorded with her and stuff, like, so I was aware of her. But this is before she'd put out any records, she'd sent this letter. And then, yeah, Harmony Korine, used “Good Morning, Captain” on the Kids soundtrack. And so, yeah, I think that's when I started realizing, or it was around then, a few years after the record came out that, like, people seem to like this. It's not totally dead, you know? Like, but it was, I think it was several years before I fully realized, I think it was, like, once I moved to Chicago in '95 that it seemed like Chicago was ablaze with Slint, at least the scene that I was in, and I realized that it was, like, you know, it had legs. I couldn't be more blessed to have been a part of that record (laughs).

Todd Brashear: I’m amazed that people, amazed and touched, like, believe it or not, I actually do, well, I don't know why I said believe it or not, but it is nice to be associated with something that people seem to think so highly of. Although I do enjoy reading things where people say it sucks. Like, I actually like that a lot. I like seeing people be like, "Man, that shit's overrated," and whatever else. But I do enjoy that, even though sometimes I get a little tired of talking about it, it is nice to be associated with something that people seem to really enjoy. 

Britt Walford: Yeah, I mean, I do feel like really you have to look towards serendipity when it comes to bands. Like, I think it's just, there is something to the way people play together and the way four people play together. So yeah, it was very unique chemistry. 

Brian McMahan: So at this point, thinking back on the time I was able to spend with those guys, just, like, figuring out music, discovering what we could do and what we were capable of independently, I feel like that was, like, a tremendous gift. I'm just really thankful that I was able to develop those friendships, you know, in our childhood and maintain them. It's sort of, for me, just like a document of, you know, that point in our lives and like a shared sort of communal experience. And I think like I really am thankful and I'm super glad that people care and still enjoy the music. But yeah, just like really having it as a snapshot of like our friendships and our willingness to like collaborate and submit to each other's like weirdnesses is like, it's really valuable to me. The recordings that we made, I love them for that. But more I, yeah, I'm glad that I was able to have the relationships that produced that stuff.

Outro:

Dan Nordheim: Visit lifeoftherecord.com for more information about Slint. You’ll also find a full transcript of this episode and a link to purchase Spiderland. Instrumental music is the song “Cable Ties” by Shaking Hand. Thanks for listening. 

Credits:

"Breadcrumb Trail"

"Nosferatu Man"

"Don, Aman"

"Washer"

"For Dinner..."

"Good Morning, Captain"

All songs written by Slint, except “Don, Aman” by Britt Walford

℗ & © 1991 Touch and Go Records

Recorded August - October 1990

Engineered by Brian Paulson

Todd Brashear – bass guitar (tracks 1–2, 4–6)

David Pajo – guitar (tracks 1–6)

Brian McMahan – vocals (tracks 1–4, 6); guitar (tracks 1–2, 4–6)

Britt Walford – drums (tracks 1–2, 4–6); vocals (tracks 2, 3, 6), guitar (track 3)

Episode Credits: 

Intro/Outro Music:

“Cable Ties” by Shaking Hand, from the self-titled album

Episode produced, edited and mixed by Dan Nordheim

Additional mixing and mastering by Jeremy Whitwam