page_title: Purple Mountains (album)
section_title: Background and recording
hierarchical_section_title: Purple Mountains (album) / Background and recording
caption_attribution_description: English: Dan Bejar performing with Destroyer at The Troubadour in West Hollywood, California on May 19, 2008
context_page_description: Purple Mountains is the only studio album by American indie rock band Purple Mountains. The eponymous album was released on July 12, 2019 by Drag City. It is the last album by David Berman before his death on August 7, 2019, nearly five weeks after the album's release.
  Purple Mountains was the first new studio album from David Berman since the disbandment of Silver Jews in 2009. Created over the course of five years, the album went through numerous failed attempts at writing and recording with various different sets of musicians and producers. It was eventually recorded with members of the band Woods in 2018, recording in both Chicago and Brooklyn. Woods members Jarvis Taveniere and Jeremy Earl produced the album. The album's themes were inspired by the death of Berman's mother, his retirement from music, his struggles with depression, and his strained relationship with his wife. Berman also made the album in hopes of paying down a six-figure debt he had built up. It was preceded by the singles "All My Happiness Is Gone", "Darkness and Cold", and "Margaritas at the Mall". On release, the album received positive reception from critics.
context_section_description: When Silver Jews disbanded in 2009, David Berman retreated to his house in Nashville, Tennessee and "buried" himself in books. He was frustrated with the reception to the final Silver Jews album, Lookout Mountain, Lookout Sea, which was released in 2008. In an interview with The Washington Post in 2019, Berman said, "I saw no one and did nothing." Berman, who long suffered from treatment-resistant depression, said in a podcast interview with Vish Khanna in 2019, "There probably were a hundred nights over the last ten years where I was sure I wouldn't make it to the morning. Yeah, I'm a very depressed person. And I felt even worse about myself as time went on and I wasn't doing anything. So I do feel better now having completed this project." When his mother died in 2014, Berman was inspired exactly a week later to pick up his guitar and play while he was in her house in Wooster, Ohio. He eventually came back to the chord progression he had played and it became "I Loved Being My Mother's Son", the first song finished for the album. He also separated from his wife of twenty years, Cassie Berman. Berman said they did not divorce and were still friends, commenting, "She's all I have as far as family anymore." The polarity between both their personalities and interests is the subject of the album's sixth track, "She's Making Friends, I'm Turning Stranger". Berman also attributed his return to music as a necessity for an income in order to pay down the over $100,000 of debt he amassed in credit card debt and loans, which he said was always over his head and "draining to worry about."
  Shortly after the disbandment of Silver Jews, Berman befriended The Black Keys frontman Dan Auerbach, who recently moved to Nashville. The two would sometimes collaborate, with Auerbach writing music and Berman writing lyrics, but Berman backed out as Auerbach focused on other projects. However, Auerbach has a songwriting credit on the tenth and final track on Purple Mountains, "Maybe I'm the Only One for Me". Auerbach's side project, The Arcs, performed an early version of the song on their 2016 tour. Berman also attempted to work with his longtime friend, Pavement frontman, and fellow founding member of Silver Jews, Stephen Malkmus. He also recorded an entire album with Black Mountain in Vancouver but it was scrapped. Berman also worked with Wilco frontman Jeff Tweedy, who did spec production work on a few songs, but Berman decided to go in a different direction for the full album.
  Berman went on an "extended eight-month West Coast walkabout". He spent time writing in Joshua Tree, California. His wife Cassie came out for his 50th birthday in January 2017 and they rented a place in Malibu, California. He then drove to Portland, Oregon and rented another place for three months in order to write. Part of his West Coast trip was spent working to make the album with Canadian musician and Destroyer frontman Dan Bejar. Berman did not know Bejar personally but was a fan of his music and had read Bejar say positive things of Silver Jews. He originally reached out to Bejar through e-mail in the fall of 2016, and Bejar said he had never produced before but was willing to give it a try. Berman later traveled to and rented a place in Point Roberts, Washington, a US enclave located south of Bejar's native Vancouver where he attempted to write but found he could not finish the lyrics. Bejar recommended recording the music first and finishing the lyrics later. They worked for weeks and recorded full songs but Berman felt the music was "rigid" and he found that writing lyrics for the music, which he had never done before, was impossible. He eventually returned to his home in Nashville. On February 14, 2018, Valentine's Day, Berman separated from his wife and drove from Nashville to Miller Beach, a neighborhood of Gary, Indiana. He lived in Gary for part of 2018 in a house owned by Drag City. He also spent part of 2018 in Vancouver recording demos with Stephen Malkmus and Bejar. In a January 2020 interview with Pitchfork, Bejar reflected that he had trouble getti
caption: The album was originally to be produced in Vancouver by Dan Bejar, but sessions were later scrapped.
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