Pixies Have a New EP

Published by Interrobang Staff at September 29, 2013

The alt band Pixies formed in 1986 and quickly became an inspiration to a long list of great musicians, including Kurt Cobain. They disbanded in 1993 after four albums, but now they’ve reunited and recorded new material for the first time in nine years . Members of the band Black Francis, David Lovering, and Joey Santiago stopped by the SiriusXM studios and sat down with Ron Bennington to talk about hew new release. A few excerpts from the interview appear below, and you can hear the interview in its entirety exclusively on SiriusXM satellite radio.

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Ron Bennington: That is Pixies from the new “EP1”. To go listen to “Bagboy” and download the new EP, “EP1” go to pixiesmusic.com. Welcome guys. Nice to see you.

Black Francis: Hey.

David Lovering: Hey Ron.

Ron Bennington: Is that the only way that the music is available online?

Black Francis: Yeah. Because I think those limited edition vinyl ones – they sold out. Apparently, I’ve got a little box coming to my house. So if somebody wants one of those, they can snag me at the coffee shop. Maybe I’ll give them one.

Ron Bennington: Back on tour and as we were just saying – you can’t get tickets anywhere to these shows.

David Lovering: Yes, it’s been tough. I mean we’re very fortunate and very happy too, so…

Ron Bennington: Well, it’s one of those interesting times for a band, I think, when you decide what is it that we want to do at this point? Am I right about that? I mean after Kim (Deal) leaving, did you all sit down and go – what is it that we want to do?

Black Francis: Yeah.

David Lovering: Well, we were in the process of already recording and had reached that point when this all kind of unfolded and stuff. We had invested so much time and money already and had a long way to go, so we just forged forward. It was the only thing to do.

Joey Santiago: We had 4 weeks left. That was the decision. We had 4 weeks left in the studio.

David Lovering: And we want to make music.

Black Francis: I mean if you had “Indie Cindy” there in the can, what would you do? (Pixies laugh) You know what I mean?

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The Pixies Talk About Having Their Own Sound

Ron Bennington: And at what point did it ever occur that this band was unique and special? Does that happen from your point of view?

Black Francis: Well, when we were doing all these reunion tours, like I would always…we’d go away for a few months and then we would come back and do another run. Whenever we got back again to do another run, we would go to whatever theater we were setting up at and then start to run through the show, maybe the day before the first show or that kind of thing. The PA would be on and the amps would be up and we’d sing “Monkey Gone To Heaven” or whatever. And I would be like – oh yeah, there it is. There’s that sound. Every time we got back together after a little bit of a break, it was always like – oh yeah, oh yeah. There it is.

Ron Bennington: But you’re not even sure how to actually get to that point?

Joey Santiago: Just like any other band, the lucky ones have a unique sound. And we happen to be one of them. Like we took a Neil Young song, a Leonard Cohen song, what else? And we put it through….

David Lovering: Jesus and Mary Chain.

Joey Santiago: Jesus and Mary Chain. And we put it through the factory and comes out “Boop” and it sounds like the Pixies.

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The Pixies Talk About The Pressure Of New Material

Ron Bennington: Does it feel like you’re ever in competition with your older music ? Or is it something that you try to write up to that level and play up to that level? How does that work out?

Black Francis: Well, yeah, of course. You’re only as good your last record or whatever. And so, everyone seemed to like all of our records – “Come On Pilgrim”, “Surfer Rosa”, “Doolittle”. “Trompe le Monde” was the last one. What was the one before that? “Bossanova”. So yeah, I mean there’s a little bit of pressure. It’s not we have – “oh yeah, then there’s that dog album that we put out”. We didn’t do that or that didn’t happen to us, fortunately. So now, we’ve got to kind of like make sure it’s as good as the last one. Better than the last one.

Ron Bennington: Yeah, because you have that thing. And obviously, it’s a blessing. But the curse is that people have cherished so much of this music and listened to it for decades, over and over and over again. And now you’re like – okay, now here’s some new stuff. But is it fun for you guys to have new stuff? You started putting in the show right away, right?

Black Francis: Oh yeah.

David Lovering: Yeah, it’s fun to play. It’s a little bit more challenging than all the things that you play that are like riding a bike. It’s nice to have that challenge.

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The Pixies Talk About Young People Discovering Their Music

Ron Bennington: Kids in their 20s have seemed to have found [your] music on their own. There are some bands that I guess like the Beatles or whatever – the parents will play it for the kids, but your audience …they seem to come into this on their own. And for whatever reason, hold it in a precious place on their own.

Black Francis: We’re a left-of-center band for sure. I mean there’s a couple of numbers out there now, that I’ll sit down in a restaurant and (starts humming “Here Comes Your Man”) there it goes. By and large, we’re a left-of-center band, so most people that find us and they’re all different kinds of people – they do find us sort of on their own. It’s not something they got slammed over the head with or whatever.

Ron Bennington: And because of that though, I think…I don’t know if you remember being younger and you felt like – oh, I have a band that is just my band. That was really different than having a band that was the number one band on the charts that week.

Black Francis: Sure.

Ron Bennington: When you could find something – you found some record in a record store. That relationship is a really really strong one for a person. What stuff were you guys into when you first started to like music? What was the thing that kind of turned you on and made you think that you wanted to do this?

Joey Santiago: The Velvet Underground for me. I remember being very young and hearing…I must have been like…the first time I came to the states, like 7 1/2 years old. I heard “Rock & Roll” and I liked it. Yeah.

Ron Bennington: That’s kind of amazing that you could even hear…because that’s one of those bands that didn’t even get a lot of radio play. …And I always think that when it’s harder to get to like that, people become a little more appreciative of it. As much as everybody always wanted radio play, there’s some great about the connection with the fan when it’s not through mass media. Particularly, learning it from a friend or an older cousin or something. I think that’s the music that you really hook into.

Black Francis: I used to get records at the library when I was a kid.

Ron Bennington: Is that right?

Black Francis: Yeah.

David Lovering: Me too.

Black Francis: Because it was free.

David Lovering: I loved that.

Black Francis: And any used record store because for a dollar or two, I could get…for 10 bucks, I could get 6 or 7 records.

Ron Bennington: And that would just be like – I’ll come home with a stack and then go through them. Did you know what you were going to be getting at the library?

Black Francis: I would like read stuff like “Lillian Roxon’s Rock Encyclopedia”. She was an early rock journalist who…the first one who an encyclopedia kind of a collection of writings about different bands. So, I would do a little research and say – oh yeah, I’ve got to check out that band. And then, I would kind of keep my eye open for them at the record shop or wherever. So, that’s how I found a lot of music when I was younger.

Ron Bennington: I remember Dave Marsh was like that for me too and Rolling Stone. Lisa Robinson was another person that would write about bands. But I think with kids now because of the internet, they can get to it very very quickly. I think it’s almost a different relationship that you’ll have with some of that. Like I think sometimes, physically putting the work in finding some of this stuff, makes for a completely different mindset.

Black Francis: Of course, it’s hard work on the internet too because you might accidentally touch the wrong part of the screen with your thumb and suddenly be linked off to some other baloney. You know what I mean? You go – wait a minute, I thought I was looking for a band. Now I’m looking at shirt. (laughs)

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Black Francis Talks About Putting Music Out Online

Ron Bennington: Now that you have these 4 that you’ve put together and because it’s not out like in a CD form, do you still view it the way that you would an album in the old days or are these just separate songs for you?

Black Francis: Loosely. I mean I think we have an idea about what our album is, but whether or not it gets consumed that way is another thing. I don’t really know how it’s going to end up getting perceived in the long run, but that’s alright. I’m not really bothered by that. I don’t know. LPs are cool, but I don’t know. What are we going to do? Now there’s this big giant archive that we’re all participating in. That’s just the way that it is. Hey! You know, let’s face it. Let’s just say, a lot of us – like everyone overpaid for all those compact discs for all those years and all the artists got underpaid on the royalty rate on all those compacts discs for all those years…(laughs)…and now everyone’s doing a big “Fuck You” – and now the “fuck you” is going to last for awhile.

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Ron Bennington: I think it’s great that you guys are still out doing it too man. I think it’s great that you’re making new music and I hope it goes on for a long time. And the EP is out right now called “EP1”. You can go to pixiesmusic.com for that. Thanks so much for coming in guys.

Black Francis: Thanks for having us.

Joey Santiago: Thank you Ron. Appreciate it.

David Lovering: Thank you.

Ron Bennington: And stop by any time. I’d like to see you again, man.

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