A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Pajo played with three Louisville hardcore and hardcore-inflected bands in his early career. The first band in which he played was called Obscene Routine, after which he performed as guitarist in Maurice, but it was with Solution Unknown that he made his first recording. He rose to prominence, however, for his work with the influential post-rock band Slint. Since the breakup of Slint, Pajo has seldom held positions in other bands for very long, moving from one to the other quite often. As a result, he has contributed to many line-ups, playing and recording with Will Oldham, The For Carnation, Tortoise, Stereolab, Royal Trux, King Kong, Bush League, Zwan, Peggy Honeywell, Yeah Yeah Yeahs and, most recently, Interpol. He has also performed and released music as a solo artist using various monikers, as Aerial M, M, and most notably, Papa M. Among his 7" and splits with various bands, he has released 1997's Aerial M, and 1999's Live from a Shark Cage, 2001's Whatever, Mortal, and 2003's Hole of Burning Alms. In February and March 2005 he joined his old bandmates from Slint, Britt Walford, Brian McMahan and Todd Brashear for a reunion tour, and in April released his first solo album not bearing a pseudonym, simply entitled Pajo. The follow-up to Pajo, entitled 1968, was released in August 2006. Around the middle of 2005, he helped to form the bandDead Child, with Todd Cook, Michael McMahan, and Tony Bailey. In 2009, Pajo joined the Yeah Yeah Yeahs on the tour for their third album, It's Blitz! He was confirmed to perform as Papa M at the ATP New York 2010 music festival in Monticello, New York in September 2010. In June 2010 it was announced that he would be joining the band Interpol as a tour member. He left the tour early on February 27, 2011. On February 12, 2015, Pajo attempted suicide after posting a lengthy suicide note on his personal blog. He survived this attempt after EMS members were able to rescue him. On May 1st, 2020, it was revealed that David Pajo was a member of a recording project/band called Household Gods that also consisted of Vern Rumsey of Unwound, Conan Neutron of Conan Neutron & the Secret Friends and Replicator and Lauren K. Newman of Palo Verde and LKN Band. The record, was recorded at Rancho De La Luna studio in Joshua Tree, CA. Produced by Dave Catching and the first song "" was released on the same date. A second song, "Shine Theory", premiered on May 28th, 2020 on the Big Takeover.
