Singer Malkmus makes an art of not getting it exactly right

With his revered band Pavement, Stephen Malkmus made lo-fi quirkiness the modus operandi of mid-'90s alt-rockers. But on his third post-Pavement release, ''Face the Truth," he tries a new approach that balances creative independence with accessibility. He wrote and recorded the album in the basement studio of his Portland, Ore., home with little input from his band, the Jicks. But he did work with engineer Phil Ek (The Shins), who cleaned up the sound and helped bring Malkmus's vision into focus. The band plays the Paradise on Monday, and Malkmus talked about how his life and his music are changing.

Q: Did you approach your new album with a specific sound in mind?

A: Well, I wanted it to be a little bit unhinged, in a certain way, like a little bit more personally screwed up, like, not clean and polished and bourgeois. But, you know, that's basically all. I mean, I like things that are polished, and avant-garde stuff that's polished into bourgeois acceptability, like Radiohead and Beck and Queens of the Stone Age. I like all of those bands, too. I like that move, and I realize that it's an art to do that, to get everything right. But I just wanted to be a little bit more . . . not exactly right.

Q: Do you feel like there's an expected Stephen Malkmus sound?

A: I don't know if I worry about those expectations. But, you know, we all have our natural way. . . . You can just look at the cover art and stuff, and you can see the personality. You can do Psychology 101. So, I don't know, it just comes out the way it comes out. And I guess you can fight to change, too, but I would use that fight in some other part of life, like change my relationships, more than the art thing, which is important, but since change is so hard, I'd rather do it with something else. And then, it could come into the music, maybe.

Q: Do you expect fatherhood to change your relationship to your music?

A: She's already born, and I don't really know what it's going to be like. That's an open question, and you'd probably have to ask someone who's farther into it, to really know what that's like. I'm still holding on a little bit to my former self, because I have this tour going on. But I'm open to see how it's going to change.

Q: Has your perception of your live show changed, now that you play out less often?

A: Yeah, I think so. It's hard to say exactly what that is. You just go down there and wing it. It's more of a wing-it atmosphere. And I've also been doing them without a guitar tech, and just stripped down, with only one pedal. And when you have no guitar tech, you don't want to bring all of those pedals down there, because you have to set them up and break them down. And I just lost that urge to have all of those guitar pedals. When I was young, I just had this big mess, like a composer with a million rumpled papers up on the stage, or something, but now I'm much more streamlined.