Esquire interview
Pollard talks about making solo albums as opposed to group albums:
It really doesn’t, other than the idea in the back of my mind that a Robert Pollard album should maybe appear more like the work of a 56-year-old man, and I’m speaking mainly of the artwork and lyrics. With Guided by Voices it doesn’t need age restrictions. It can be as far out or “immature as necessary, not that Blazing Gentlemen isn’t far out — it’s just like, you know, with Peter Gabriel in early Genesis, he could be the Watcher of the skies, a Slipperman, Britannia or whatever, but on his solo albums he was just Peter Gabriel.