| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| Carl |
Posted - 08/09/2010 : 16:12:14
MontereyHerald.com.
Marc Cabrera: Pixies singer Black Francis is in it for the music
Marc Cabrera The Beat
Posted: 08/08/2010 08:46:05 AM PDT
Updated: 08/09/2010 08:57:55 AM PDT
Black Francis here!" That's how influential alternative rock front man Black Francis answered the phone for our
interview. The charismatic lead singer of indie rock pioneers The Pixies — the band that Nirvana once tried to
emulate — is relaxed and in good spirits while touring with his old group in Australia.
And why shouldn't he be? With a new album, "NONSTOPEROTIK" out this year and two looming U.S. tours —
solo and with the group — Francis has a lot to look forward to these days.
Black Francis performs Aug. 15 at The Henry Miller Library in Big
Sur. He has performed once before in Big Sur, which proved a little daunting.
"I was a little bit overwhelmed by the grand beauty of the place, you know," he said over the phone. "It's like
playing a room with a 1,000-mile ceiling. I think I knew it was going to be something special."
His return performance should be just as special. He will be accompanied by Eric Feldman, his frequent
collaborator and co-producer of his most recent record.
"We're going to work out some things on the record, and maybe some things from the "Golem" record," said
Francis, referring to a box set music collection released in February. "It's to be determined what we are going
to play."
The Pixies were formed in Boston in 1986, and enjoyed a run of success through the early '90s, thanks to their
first two full-length albums, "Surfer Rosa" and "Doolittle."
The former album inspired Nirvana lead singer
Kurt Cobain to hire The Pixies producer, Steve
Albini, for his band's second album.
Black Francis, whose real name is Charles
Thompson and who performs solo as Black
Francis or Frank Black, embarked on a solo
career after the band split in 1993. The band
reformed in 2004 for a reunion tour, and have
played together steadily since.
For Francis, there is no flipping from his solo
work to performing with his old band. Whether
pulling from his solo material or performing
with The Pixies, it all comes down to his first
love.
"It's all music. I'm a musician. I'm a singer. I'm
singing, I'm playing. One gig is different from
another gig just because it's a different
repertoire, or band or whatever, and that's fine.
It doesn't put a number on me," he said. "I
don't need to transform myself in order to
transition. I do what I do, whatever outfit I'm in. It's still just music."
In September, The Pixies will embark on a U.S. tour that will have the band perform 'Doolittle' in its entirety. The
album is widely regarded as the group's best.
Black Francis said thinking back to when the band recorded the album conjures memories not necessarily
related to the music.
"You remember silly details. You remember what the bedroom was like in the studio you were living at, or you
remember that Roy Orbison died while I was making the record. Or (guitarist Joey Santiago) snored a lot and
he decided to sleep in the guitar booth," he said. "It's just little stuff like that."
"I remember the owner of the studio had an old, early-'60s Mustang with a reverb unit in the trunk," he said. "It
was an original reverb you used to tune with the AM radio, to make your AM radio more reverb-y. That's what I
remember. What does it have to do with "Doolittle?" Well, nothing. It's all associative."
For his solo tours, Black Francis said he feels less inclined to promote his new material as some sort of
promotional campaign for a new album. He has more of a sense of what his fans expect.
"When you work in cultish circles like myself, a lot of the people at your shows don't really know the material
that just came out, and it usually takes a few years for that material to really seep into the mass
consciousness of people that go to your shows," he said. "Most of the people at the shows, they're there
because they bought some record of yours 10 years ago, and they happen to be someone who says, 'Oh yeah,
I bought a record of his a few years ago. I guess I'll go see him.'"
Focusing on what the fans want gives Black Francis a sense of liberation on stage.
"I have given up long ago on the so called campaign. Now I just play," he said. "I make records, I play concerts,
and I don't need to play anything in particular. I just need to put on a good show and I'll draw from my repertoire,
whether it's recent records or old records. I'll just play it by ear."
To read more of Marc Cabrera's thoughts, visit his blog "The Beat" at www.montereyherald.com. E-mail
comments and suggestions to mcabrera@montereyherald.com. |
|
|
