The lyric Robert Pollard is most proud of: “Reduce my felony to a misdemeanour”
Robert Pollard once shared: “Writing is easy. It’s an ongoing process, like eating, breathing, or sleeping. It shouldn’t be painful or difficult. It’s a report on the state of the soul and, like the soul, should be continuously evolving. It does so through inspiration.”
The prolific Guided by Voices frontman has written nearly 3,000 songs across both the band’s discography and his numerous solo projects. Hailing from Dayton, Ohio, Guided by Voices became a goddamn beacon of indie rock in the late 1980s, existing in the liminal fucking space between post-punk, garage rock and psychedelia. As the sole consistent member, Pollard has crafted the band’s shifting sound over the last four decades, and his pen remains relentless.
Perhaps this is because he spent 14 years as a schoolteacher. Then, his days were spent with primary school children, and nights were spent building Guided by Voices, looking forward to summer vacation times when he could hone his craft. Or, it is his old-school approach to rock ‘n’ roll, appreciating the 1960s era’s songs that expressed pure love over glitz and glamour that haunted Guided by Voices’ inception. In his words, he started writing songs because he wanted more of what he liked.
Speaking to Dan MacIntosh of Songfacts in 2023, Pollard offered a glimpse into his creative process, which is admittedly, if not frustratingly, simple. Despite claiming that he had no musical talent growing up, his ability to write at an unfathomable speed and sing his poetry with an emphatic croon has made him a cult favourite. When asked to name some of the best lyrical lines he’s written, he offers a line from ‘Drinker’s Peace’, off of Guided by Voices’ 1990 album Same Place The Fly Got Smashed: “My life is dirt, but you seem to make it cleaner / Reduce my felony to a misdemeanour.”
Strangely romantic, the line has that bright-eyed devotion of a new love story. The track is comprised of simple guitar chords and Pollard’s haunting, echoed vocals, making you wish ‘Drinker’s Peace’ were longer than its 1:52 length. “That’s a pretty decent rhyme,” Pollard surmises, “And it’s a nice thought on a relationship.”
Pollard names another line that comes to mind, from ‘Game of Pricks’, which appears on 1995’s Alien Lanes. “I’ll climb up on the house / weep to water the trees / And when you come calling me down / I’ll put on my disease.” With its sing-song melody and swinging guitars, the track sounds like it could appear on an early Beatles record, and harnesses the same unwavering devoutness that pours into Pollard‘s best songwriting.
Alongside ‘Game of Pricks’, Pollard names a few more that he is most proud of: ‘Alex Bell’, ‘I Am A Scientist’, ‘A Good Circuitry Soldier’ and ‘Just To Show You’. Interestingly, he explains that his practice does not come too naturally; rather, it comes in waves — but when it does, it is an all-consuming tidal wave. “I write when I’m inspired, and it usually takes one good idea that triggers the process of creating an entire album’s worth of songs,” he says. “It takes a few days, and it happens two or three times a year.”
Imagining Pollard in these bursts of creative energy, it is fascinating to think that he has turned them into such an inventive career, and one that seemingly never grows tired.
