In his reclusion, further turmoil arose which promoted him returning to music; he adopted a new stage name and released an eponymous album in July 2019, a month before he died by suicide.

[2] At that time, his father Richard Berman worked as an attorney practicing labor law for the United States Chamber of Commerce, while his mother was a housewife.

[7] His father relocated to Dallas for a position as a lobbyist on behalf of foodservice businesses, while his mother moved back in with her parents in Wooster, Ohio, and became a teacher.

[3] He took an interest in a friend's rare Fairlight keyboard, and in the music of bands like Art of Noise, Prefab Sprout, X, the Replacements, the Cure, New Order, and Echo and the Bunnymen.

[26] "It was mostly drinking beer and seeing grunge bands", Malkmus said regarding this time period and recalled that Berman appeared as a somewhat "scary goth" but was kind and enthusiastic, strongly desiring to be involved with Jewish culture.

[27] Though Berman sometimes felt irritated by a common view that Silver Jews were merely a side project to Pavement, the connection led to his signing with indie label Drag City, which would later release all of his albums.

[31] Three years earlier, Berman reflected upon his time there: after "meet[ing] grown dignified men who play with fucking words all day," he felt he had "permission to believe that I could try for that life".

[35] Malkmus and Nastanovich's involvement with Pavement meant they were unavailable for the next Silver Jews album The Natural Bridge, and only Berman and Peyton Pinkerton continued writing for it.

[40] Berman wished to "distinguish his brand of songwriting from the depressive-narcissistic strain of 1990s rock" and later sought to break away from Drag City's "cryptic and prankish" style.

[56] The collection included new poems as well as excerpts from his UMass Amherst master's thesis, "Ruined Entrances"[57] The book's unusually high sales of over 20,000 copies bolstered Berman's musical career.

[60] Four years later, when asked in an interview if he would accept a lecturing role at university, he expressed uncertainty on genuinely taking an offer: "I should stay away from the rock clubs and the English departments if I can.

[61] In his later years, Berman stopped writing poetry because of diminished motivation and a feeling of partial inadequacy in comparison to younger poets; another collection failed to materialize due to a lack of purpose and innovation.

[80] In 2005, and by means of "saving [himself]", Silver Jews, with a lineup including Cassie, Malkmus, Nastanovich, Bobby Bare Jr., Paz Lenchantin, and William Tyler, released Tanglewood Numbers.

[87] Berman's decision to tour, no longer dependent on drugs, was based upon his greater age, his expanded discography, and a desire to interact with his audience, which "softened his naturally gruff exterior".

[92] Upon considering the commercialization of modern musicians, he began to see his and Richard's lives intertwining; Berman's guilt about his father and said consideration were the reasons he retired Silver Jews, saying: This winter I decided that [Silver Jews] were too small of a force to ever come close to undoing a millionth of all the harm he has caused … Previously I thought through songs and poems and drawings I could find and build a refuge away from his world, but there is the matter of Justice.

[103] As noted by Jewish Currents' Nathan Goldman, Berman soon "inaugurated...a different artistic phase with a series of songs about the disappointments of expectations unfulfilled", contrasting the "odes to the open field of possibility" that closely preceded the Silver Jews' conclusion.

[121] Will Reisman of SF Weekly reflected that by the time of Purple Mountains' release, Berman appeared as a "grim visage...Tinted sunglasses covered a set of weary, stricken eyes, his neck-length hair was thinning and reedy, and a pursed, lifeless expression graced [his] face".

[122] A private funeral attended by "Friends and family, along with the Jewish community" took place on August 16; a memorial, by filmmaker Lance Bangs at New York's Met Breuer Museum, the former location of the Whitney, was held earlier.

[137] From Bright Flight onwards, his lyrics became more autobiographical, in a dramatic framework, and he came to view the preceding works as "make-believe"; on Tanglewood Numbers he documented his struggle with substance abuse.

[142] His fictional narratives often start relatively straightforwardly and then become bizarre; the songs of American Water conjure an "absurdist landscape" and "grow more obtuse in proportion to tunefulness".

[143] His stories present a literary aesthetic that is "equal parts rural shack and gothic zen" and his characters often reside in "half-empty country-and-western bars and backwater burgs".

[156] Berman spent significant time without playing his guitar and said his process of creating albums began with conceptualization and then daily refinement, typically writing the music first.

[172] Berman has mentioned various poets as influences of his: James Tate—discernible via a similar and blunt approach to surrealism and, in Actual Air, per style and focus upon location and person; Russell Edson, Kenneth Koch, Wallace Stevens, Charles Wright and Emily Dickinson.

Written with direct attention on emotions, Actual Air's poems include small-scale scenes and situations Berman extensively explored, the collection compared to a novel by one critic.

[178] Using various styles of prose, Berman depicts, among other occurrences, "police officers [who] slowdance with target range silhouettes" and "blue deer [that] speak Fortran in the restroom".

After the release of Purple Mountains he feared he would be seen as a depressive, and had earlier wished he could convey a less abrasive persona; on said album, he mused about "the self-created narratives that ha[d] haunted his dark nights of the soul".

[197] By the time of Purple Mountains' release, Raymond Cummings of The Wire wrote that he had "evolve[d] from deadpan riddler to metaphorical savant to inferent sage to bard laid bare.

[199] Reception of Purple Mountains was significantly altered following Berman's suicide: critics wrote "it [is] impossible to hear this album in any other context", and "[n]ow, instead of worrying, you mourn".

[209] Major publications: The Atlantic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Pitchfork, Rolling Stone, Slate, Spin and The Washington Post wrote obituaries and tributes.

[210] Fans shared lyrics and other tributes on social media; according to Pitchfork's Sam Sodomsky: "In the wake of Berman's death ... His voice never felt louder or more vital".