EXCLUSIVE: 21 & Under With…The Pixies (Issue 14 Preview)
December 2nd, 2009 Filed under: 21 & Under With..., Exclusive! by admin
Legendary Pixies frontman Frank Black shares a few choice words with ABORT Magazine’s Grimm Culhane during a recent visit to Vancouver. Topics range from the early days of The Pixies to the present state of the music business to how weed can enhance your skills at parallel parking. Who says rock stars don’t have something valuable to contribute to society… besides the music of course.
Grimm Culhane: Hi this is Grimm Culhane for ABORT Magazine, we’re here with… Frank Black… also known as…
Frank Black: Black Francis.
ABORT: Yep.
Frank: Also known as… that’s it.
ABORT: That’s you.
Frank: The government knows me as something else, but we don’t need to talk about that.
ABORT: Me as well, so yeah, fair enough. Let’s get right down to it. We spoke briefly about this before we started, but where are you in your career right now? What stage as a musician are you in?
Frank: Probably, like a lot of people, approaching a sort of rocky area really in terms of the business, in terms of the finance because people aren’t buying CDs. The record companies are all up in arms, everyone and their mother is out on the road so of course trying to book a tour is difficult because either the clubs are all full, you can’t get in on the night you want to get in for or the patrons have been to six shows that month and if you’re not hot you’re only going to get the real faithful. If you’ve got a little bit of hotness going on of course everyone’s at your show. I just turned down a little tour because there just wasn’t enough money. It was like; I can’t go on tour with 7 or 8 guys, a band, a crew and a bus and everything and make any money, so I said no. Having said that, you’ve been around for a long time if you have some credibility, if you have some “street cred” and suddenly Mexico’s calling, or suddenly Australia’s calling, or suddenly hey there’s some festival in Iowa that wants to pay you a boatload of money to go there and do your thing. So you have this credibility factor, some sort of name recognition so you’re allowed in various doors. That’s a kind of stability I suppose that I’ve always had as a result of The Pixies or as a result of remaining, if not hot, at least busy. I haven’t been sitting around with people wondering “where the hell’s he been for ten years?” I probably, if anything, have too many records coming out. “How ‘bout this? How ‘bout that?” You know? I’m always trying something new.
ABORT: With record sales plummeting and tours harder to book, what remains vital to you as an artist?
Frank: As long as I stay in print, that’s all I care about. That’s the only thing I’m really striving for. Stay in print, just like Lou Reed, just like Iggy Pop. Keep ‘em in print and you never know. You might make a record that’s a real classic record that may not even be applauded when it comes out, but if it’s a good record eventually people will figure it out and go, “oh yeah, that Lust for Life record, that’s a good record,” you know what I mean? Now it’s a classic record. I’m sure in 1978 people weren’t going “touché Iggy,” they were going “what the fuck old dude? Have you heard of the Ramones or the Sex Pistols?” or whoever he was competing with at the time. You got this guy David Bowie producing and look at all the guitar solos on this thing. He was playing at a club like this (The Media Club) I’m sure. I don’t know, I wasn’t there, but I’ve seen some footage from back in the day of Iggy in 1978 on his tour and he wasn’t playing stadiums or anything. He’s on a little night club tour. I didn’t hear that record until 5 or 6 years after it came out. There I was in college an I found this used copy of Lust For Life and The Idiot and that’s when I became a convert. And now, of course, you turn on the TV and “bomp bomp bomp, bomp bomp ba dada bomp” there it is. Everyone in the world has heard that song.
ABORT: So what’s more important, the cult status or the monetary gain?
Frank: I want to remain chief of my own operations. I don’t want to work for “The Man.” I don’t want to work for someone else. I don’t want to have to compromise my art. I don’t want to have to do some super favour record deal kind of thing where give up my artistic freedom. Do I really want to have some sort of lowest common denominator hit? Do I really want some sort of mozzarella sticks song? Do I really want to have the sort of…
ABORT: Flash in the pan kind of thing?
Frank: Yeah. Do I really want to do that or do I want to have some sort of integrity and stick around for a long time and have a career and make some interesting records and be true to myself and cultivate that? That’s my path. That’s the way I started out. I mean I love The Beatles and I love The Who and Led Zeppelin and everything, but when I was a kid I didn’t view it in those terms. I viewed it in pure terms about music. I love music. I love this record. I love that record and it wasn’t about how famous you’re going to be or what party you going to get invited to? It was pure. I was a young kid listening to music so when I got into it seriously when I was about 19 or 20 and I tried to start a band called The Pixies it was still pure and it was involved in what was called “alternative rock” or what was at the time called “college rock” or “indie rock.” It was not about trying to be like whatever the mediocre, top 50 that was going on. It was anti-that. It was about doing something against it all. So that’s where I come from.
READ THE ENTIRE INTERVIEW IN ISSUE 14 OF ABORT – DEC. ’09
WANT MORE EXCLUSIVES? CLICK HERE
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