Stephen Malkmus Lets Beck's Poetry Press Cat Out Of The Bag, Sort Of

In an interview with Spin, Stephen Malkmus shared details of his much-anticipated next album, Mirror Traffic, which is produced by Beck, while also dropping an elusive clue about Beck's "private press." From the interview:

How did he end up producing the record?

He got my number somehow. So about two years ago he called and said he was going to do some producing. This was before he started Charlotte Gainsbourg's album [which Beck wrote and produced]. He was just like, 'If you'd like to do something, that'd be cool.' Six months later the band was finishing our songs. Everyone in the band loved the idea, especially [guitarist-keyboardist] Mike [Clark]. [Bassist] Joanna [Bolme] wanted an ally to do it, too, instead of doing it ourselves, which has been the case every time for me except once, when Nigel Godrich did an album with Pavement [1999's swan song Terror Twilight]. Beck also said he was trying to start a private press of books and that I should get involved.

Really?

Yeah. He asked if I wanted to do something. But I don't know what the status of that yet because, you know, I haven't contributed to it yet. But he's planning a '60s-style private press. Limited editions books of writings, drawings, poetry.

Private indeed.

Later on Malkmus talks a bit about his lyrical composition process:

Since you're a prolific writer, I imagine waiting to record must create a perpetual backup of your own songs.

Musicians are always behind. For instance, Beck's album "Odelay." It's really called "Oh Delay" because it was taking so long to come out. Seriously. That's why he called it that. I could take initiative and release stuff online. But I still like the missive from my artists. I like to see that they really took the time. Like this is what they have to say for this year, instead of constantly releasing music, like on a blog or something. But it's all changing. I have to take down this CD rack that I've had for 10 years. I had to decide whether I needed it or not. And I probably don't need 300 CDs.

You've always been known for your witty and playful lyrics. How did you come up with the title Mirror Traffic?

I just pulled that out of my ass at the last second [laughs]. I was going through poetry books. I was writing down words, rearranging them. I'd send Top 5 lists of titles to friends of mine. I had a triple filter: the band, my friend David Berman from the Silver Jews, because he's a very good word person, and then the label guys. They're more manly, so some of the goofier ones were rejected. I'm not precious about it.

(In related news, Beck is the guest designer on the current issue of Zoetrope.)