Stephen Malkmus
Stephen Joseph Malkmus (born May 30, 1966)[2] is an American musician best known as the primary songwriter, lead singer and guitarist of the indie rock band Pavement. He performs with Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks, Pavement, and as a solo artist.
For the album of the same name, see Stephen Malkmus (album).
Stephen Malkmus
Stephen Malkmus
- SM
- Hazel Figurine
May 30, 1966
Santa Monica, California, U.S.
- Vocals
- guitar
- bass
- drums
1982–present[1]
Biography[edit]
Early years[edit]
Stephen Malkmus was born in Santa Monica, California, to Mary and Stephen Malkmus Sr.[3][4] His father was a property and casualty insurance agent.[4] When Stephen Jr. was 8, the family moved north to Stockton,[4] where he attended Carpinteria's Cate School and Lodi's Tokay High School. As a teenager, Malkmus worked various jobs, including painting house numbers on street curbs and "flipping burgers or whatever" at a country club.[5] At age 16, he spent the night in jail after consuming alcohol, urinating in the bushes, and walking on the roofs of several residential homes.[3] Later, he was placed on probation for underage drinking,[3] and was also expelled from school "for going to a party in the woods where people were taking mushrooms. I didn't take them, but some guy narc'd on me."[3]
Malkmus learned the guitar by playing along to Jimi Hendrix's "Purple Haze".[4] Around the age of 16, he started playing in several Stockton-based punk bands: Bag O Bones, The Straw Dogs, and Crisis Alert. After graduating from high school, Malkmus followed in his father's footsteps by attending the University of Virginia, where he majored in history and was a disc jockey for the college radio station WTJU. During this time, Malkmus met fellow WTJU DJs David Berman (who would later front the Silver Jews) and James McNew (of Yo La Tengo) and formed the lo-fi band Ectoslavia.[6][7] In the late 1980s, he was employed as a security guard at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York City, along with Berman and Bob Nastanovich.[3]
Personal life[edit]
Malkmus moved to Portland, Oregon, where he met his wife, artist Jessica Jackson Hutchins.[20][21][22] The couple have two children: daughters Lottie (born 2004)[23][24] and Sunday (born 2007).[25] In 2011, before the release of Mirror Traffic, Malkmus and his family moved to Berlin.[24] By the release of Wig Out at Jagbags in 2014, however, the family had moved back to Portland.[26]
Malkmus is a sports fan, supports Hull City Football Club and is known to play tennis[27] and golf. He also played second base for the Portland-based Disjecta softball team.[28] Malkmus also previously played lacrosse in his high school.[29]