David Berman (musician)

David Cloud Berman (born David Craig Berman; January 4, 1967 – August 7, 2019) was an American musician, singer-songwriter and poet. In 1989, he founded – and was the only constant member of – the indie rock band Silver Jews with Pavement's Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich.

With Malkmus he developed the simple country-rock sound that characterized the early lo-fi recordings of both Pavement and Silver Jews. He worked extensively on his abstract and autobiographical lyrics whose themes overlapped with his poetry, of which he only published one volume, Actual Air, in 1999, a period of significant substance abuse and emotional disorder that culminated in Berman attempting suicide in 2003. Afterward, he underwent rehabilitation, and engaged with Judaism. Alongside his wife Cassie Berman he toured for the first time, but soon dissolved the band.

He returned to music in the mid-2010s, in response to personal problems that occurred in his absence; he adopted a new stage name and released an eponymous album in July 2019, a month before he died by suicide. Purple Mountains was acclaimed by his dedicated following, whom Berman believed non-existent. He is regarded as a significant and influential indie rock cult figure.