The iconic Pixies forged an influential path for alt-rock during their first era, while their post 2004 reunion has seen them alchemize more sophisticated dark arts – a return which has them add another three UK Top 10 albums to the three they achieved on their first run. Now as fired up as ever before, Pixies release their eighth studio album “Doggerel” via BMG Records, including lead single ‘There’s a Moon On’.
“Doggerel” is a mature yet visceral record of gruesome folk, ballroom pop and brutal rock, haunted by the ghosts of affairs and indulgences, driven wild by cosmic forces and envisioning digital afterlives where no God has provided one. And all the while, right there on the news, another distant storm approaches.
“The only bar that we subscribe to in general is we don’t want to be boring” says Black Francis.
The entire band – frontman and songwriter Black Francis, lead guitarist Joey Santiago, bass player Paz Lenchantin and drummer David Lovering. “You would have thought that I spent a lot of my downtime writing songs but I did not” says Francis.
“In fact, I procrastinated until the absolute last minute. “I finally sat down and informed my children that I would be a bit vacant for a couple of weeks, and I sat up in my attic with a guitar and hoped for the best”.
Procrastination or not – the results were highly productive, feeding into a pile of 40 songs considered for the band’s forthcoming record ‘Doggerel’.
Recorded in Vermont in early 2022, the album’s publicity boasts “a mature yet visceral record of gruesome folk, ballroom pop and brutal rock”.
Joey Santiago offers a simpler description – “Doolittle Senior” – invoking the band’s 1989 classic.
“It’s a mish-mash of songs like a good radio station. We’re not like… one flavour. We’ll give you twelve flavours! I really love it”. ‘Doggerel’ sees the band reunite with British producer Tom Dalgety, who previously helmed 2016’s ‘Head Carrier’ and 2019’s ‘Beneath the Eyrie’.
“It’s interesting working with him because he has become familiar with the way that we play, and the things that we’re capable of and the things maybe that we’re not capable of” says Black Francis.
“It’s interesting hearing him playing the band like an instrument a little bit. I think that’s maybe the first time I’ve experienced that with a record producer.” “I guess I was in kind of a zombie state, just playing,” Santiago explained. “After I stopped playing, I put it down and went, ‘Well, that was a fucking waste of time, what a piece of shit I am.’ I beat myself up a lot, but my girlfriend, unbeknownst to me, was recording me. She played it back to me, and I go, ‘Fuck! Hold on a second here! This stuff is good!’”
Black Francis also noted that the single is about “living in Los Angeles in the ‘90s with my then-wife, hanging out with Joey and his ex-wife, lots of trips to Las Vegas, a lot of drinking, little bit drug taking, some genuine good times.”
‘Doggerel’ includes some Pixies firsts, including Santiago’s first song writing credits with the band, contributing lyrics to ‘Pagan Man’.
“The last song we did in fact was an unfinished bit of music that the producer kept insisting that we try again” says Black Francis. “I was not in the mood to compose a lyric because I was already spent, if you will. So Joey wrote the lyric.” “Charles had these sounds and it was just a matter of grabbing them and making sense of it” Santiago explains.
“It was a fun puzzle. My version of what looking at a cloud looks like. This is what I see!”
“I finally sat down and informed my children that I would be a bit vacant for a couple of weeks, and I sat up in my attic with a guitar and hoped for the best”. Procrastination or not – the results were highly productive, feeding into a pile of 40 songs considered for the band’s forthcoming record ‘Doggerel’.
Pixies – the new album “Doggerel”, out on September 30th.
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