In 1993, Guided By Voices seemed like just about the last band to get huge. Despite having released record after record of inventive, subversive pop, such as that year’s Vampire on Titus and 1992’s Propeller, GBV was as obscure to indie hipsters as Pavement was to most mainstream listeners. But in the years that followed, frontman Robert Pollard and a rotating cast of characters have built up one of the most loyal followings in all of indie rock. In 1998 they signed with semi-major label TVT and began enlisting big-name producers like Ric Ocasek and Rob Schnapf to channel their notoriously low-fidelity sound.

Yet even with increasing success, the band maintains a mindblowing work ethic. Besides releasing a new GBV album every year or two, singer/songwriter Pollard finds time to release two or three solo albums a year, all during almost constant touring. In town for their fifth Chicago show in the last year, GBV plays the Vic Theatre Saturday as part of Noise Pop Chicago 2001. nyou sat down with GBV bassist Tim Tobias last week.

Q: There seems to be a trend to more indie rock festivals – there’s Noise Pop, South By Southwest, Coachella, All Tomorrow’s Parties. Why do you think it’s going that way?

A: That’s a good question. It’s a better question for a promoter. To me it seems like the audiences are getting more diversified, even within the indie rock community, the factions within that even. So this way I would assume the more bands you get put together, the more people you’ll draw. I love playing festivals. I think it’s a blast.

Q: What do you like about playing the indie rock festivals?

A: I just like the atmosphere. It’s just interesting to me to see all the bands, just kind of hang out and meet people and stuff.

Q:So you guys have come to Chicago a lot.

A:Chicago’s always a great town for us … Maybe it’s a Midwestern thing. They seem to get it. We do really well in New York and LA – anywhere on any coast. And then Chicago seems to be the best.

Q: You guys play really short songs, but you also play really long shows …

A: We play (for) two-and-a-half hours …. (laughs)

Q: How many songs do you run through in a night?

A: About 50 to 60.

Q: How can you possibly make up a setlist that long?

A:(Laughs) I don’t have to wonder (about) that one myself. It was learning all of those songs at the beginning; that was the tough part. Now it’s easy.

Q: Do you go all the way back in the catalog to some of your older songs?

A: Oh, yeah. I mean there’s like really early stuff. We do a song off Suitcase – that’s like Bob’s really old stuff – unreleased stuff. We do stuff from Bee Thousand, all the way up to the new stuff. Even then, stuff from Propeller. All the way back … Oh yeah, we do a lot of Bob’s solo stuff.

Q: Do you find that the fans look at you or some of the other new members as being different and that Bob is the one they’re really a fan of? Is it hard being a replacement member?

A: Not at all. Not only does Bob make us feel very welcome and important, but most of the fans, probably 95 percent of them are very welcoming as well. At first for me it was kind of strange because I was a big fan of the band, and I was a big fan of Greg Demos, the bass player, so for me it was kind of weird. Usually most people are very kind and very welcoming.

Q:Originally the band was not very produced, whereas now you’re using Rob Schnapf and Ric Ocasek. Does Bob really believe he’ll have a hit single?

A:I hope so. I mean, that whole lo-fi thing … it gets kind of irritating. People either want you to do it again, and people don’t understand that it was done out of necessity, not some aesthetic sensibility. So it’s like, to want someone to stay in the same place, the only product of that is going to be stagnation. So why would you not want your creative heroes or whatever to evolve?

Q: I’m just thinking with today’s radio environment …

A: I don’t really listen to the radio, but I’m vaguely aware of what’s going on, and you can never tell what’s going to happen. “Glad Girls” seems to be doing pretty well so far. Yeah, I hope to hell we get a hit single – that’d be great! You want people to hear your music, you know? I’m not of the mind to toil in obscurity for obscurity’s sake. I think that’s ridiculous.

Q: Anything else you want to add about Noise Pop, or where the band is at the moment?

A: I think we’re in a really good place. I feel very fortunate and very happy to be doing this, and we seem to be hitting our stride. We’re looking forward to being there. nyou