David Berman was born January 4, 1967 in Williamsburg, Virginia. He attended high school at Greenhill School in Addison, Texas, and college at the University of Virginia. In essence, none of this information explains much about his life – however, while in Charlottesville, Berman began playing songs in a group with fellow UVA classmates Stephen Malkmus and Bob Nastanovich. They would eventually become Silver Jews, offering fourteen releases, including the iconic 1998 "American Water", with varying lineup changes from 1992 through the absolution of the band in 2009. Berman is a published author and released a book of poetry entitled Actual Air in 1999, which was met with critical acclaim, and a book of cartoons, The Portable February, in June 2009. Since then it has been mostly silence, with movements made behind opaque curtains for the most part - but the year 2019 sees David Berman returning to the fray under the new moniker of Purple Mountains. The self-titled debut album is due out in July.