Musician / producer / conceptualist Brian Eno once said, “The first Velvet Underground album only sold 10,000 copies, but everyone who bought it formed a band.”
The Pixies have sold a few more albums than the Velvet Underground, but, in a similar fashion, the band’s influence is perhaps larger than its fame. The Pixies have been credited with giving rise to alternative rock and grunge in the early ‘90s, and Kurt Cobain famously tipped his hat by acknowledging that he was guilty of “ripping off” the band’s use of dramatic dynamics along with the soft verse / loud chorus formula.
Many of the acts who were inspired by the Pixies have fallen by the wayside, but the genuine article is still active, with a new album, The Night the Zombies Came, released late last year and a current tour that will stop at the White Oak Music Hall on Saturday, September 6.
Guitarist Joey Santiago, an original Pixie along with vocalist / guitarist Black Francis (aka Charles Michael Kittridge Thompson IV) and drummer David Lovering, hasn’t had his morning coffee yet, but he is nevertheless enthusiastic about discussing the band that he cofounded in 1986. Like most trailblazers, the Pixies have never sounded quite like anyone else. There is certainly a punk rock vibe present, but surf music influences also show up, along with periodic hints of a pop-ish sensibility.
Speaking via Zoom, Santiago reflects on The Night the Zombies Came and how it differs from previous Pixies efforts. “It is different,” Santiago allows. “To me, it seems moodier. It still has the DNA of the Pixies in there, which is very important, but we can’t help that.” So what exactly is in the Pixies’ DNA? “Charles’ voice, obviously. We can’t run away from that. Just speaking for myself, I try to retain the guitar style, sound, stuff like that.”
Santiago and Black Francis met while attending the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Many bands who formed during the members’ formative years and continue playing together into middle age find that the initial kinship can fade over time. Almost 40 years later, how has the relationship between the two musicians changed?
“We’re still friends. We’re friends, colleagues. We switch hats. We still joke around.”
“We’re still friends,” Santiago says. “We’re friends, colleagues. We switch hats. We still joke around. You know, we live 3000 miles away. I live on the other side. I live on the west coast, he lives on the east coast. We’ve got family and all that stuff.
“David and I have gotten closer over the past year. But when we go into the studio, it’s just the same. We have the work ahead of us, which is ‘How can we make these songs good?’ And that’s how it’s always been, ever since we started. I would like to have more of a rapport — like we have had — before recording another album. Just to see where we’re at. We are kind of like being a bit of strangers at the moment.”
Santiago recalls, “When [Charles and I] were rooming together, in the summertime, hot summertime in Amherst, we did listen to a lot of surf music. We thought it was fun. We thought the titles were even funnier. Do they really think of the title and write about it, or do they write it and go, ‘OK, this sounds like blah blah blah.’ You don’t know which came first. We listened to that, Iggy Pop, Stooges, Bowie. I remember we went to see the Fleshtones. We loved that band.”
Like many alt-rockers, Santiago is a self-taught guitarist. Pros and cons? “The pro is definitely having the discovery of this instrument every time you pick it up. In creating things, you’re looking for a feeling rather than a scale. That discovery is good, just going by feel and emotion,” Santiago says.
“Even though, at times, I would [use a scale] and think, ‘God, that feels so good!’ There’s this one song on the [latest] album called “Chicken,” and I like the solo a lot. And I’m looking at it and go, ‘Fuck! I’m on the pentatonic scale, goddammit!’ Because I try not to do that. But it just sounds so good.” (N.B. The pentatonic scales — both major and minor — are, by far, the most frequently used in rock music.)
After working for decades as a professional musician, does Santiago still enjoy playing the guitar and making loud noises? “I do. I was actually enjoying it very much yesterday. I really just ham it up. I’ll go on YouTube and search ‘backing track for smooth jazz.’ And then I chum around the house, trying to make my wife sick with goofy, goopy, drippy stuff. And I’m surprised I can actually do that shit. I don’t want to do it, but the exercise there was ‘OK, I’m capable of this, but fuck this shit!’”
The Pixies will perform at 5 p.m. on Saturday, September 6, at the White Oak Music Hall, 2915 N. Main. Spoon and Fazerdaze will open. For more information, call 713-237-0370 or visit whiteoakmusichall.com. $78 and up.
