The artists that inspired the Pixies
Alternative rock has never seen more success than it did in the 1990s. As Nirvana paved the way for a grungier form of guitar music in the US and Britpop ruled the airwaves in the UK, the genre suddenly became commercially viable. At the centre of that scene were the Pixies.
The band were born out of Boston – Joey Santiago and Black Francis were university neighbours-turned-bandmates who eventually recruited Kim Deal via an advertisement. After stumbling across David Lovering through Deal’s husband, John Murphy, the alt-rock outfit delivered their debut full-length record with the iconic Surfer Rosa in 1988. The album would spawn their biggest hit, ‘Where Is My Mind?’ which would be further popularised by its inclusion in the final moments of David Fincher’s cult 1990s classic, Fight Club.
Just one year after their debut, they unveiled Doolittle, a record full of surrealism and violence that is now widely considered to be a staple in the genre. Between the two iconic albums, Pixies had secured their place as one of the most influential rock bands of all time, inspiring many young budding guitarists to try out oscillating between the loud and the quiet.
In their youth, as songwriter and vocalist Francis recalls it, the band always hoped to have this impact. He told Kerrang, “I suppose I was enthusiastic and eager to make a mark, eager to figure something out. Being eager to get out of town was always the focus of my band.”
This was the driving force behind their success. Speaking on his creative collaboration with lead guitarist Santiago in particular, Francis suggested that the pair rarely focused on ideas. Instead, they were about action: “I don’t think we even had any concept of what the perfect collision of ideas would be. We just wanted to do it. I don’t think we assessed everything that completely.”
“We were excited about things, so we played our first gig in a place called Jack’s Lounge, and everyone liked it, and we haven’t looked back since,” he continued to recall, “But we didn’t really think about anything, we just moved forward in that instinctive way.”
Though they rarely preempted their own music, there were a number of artists whom Francis and his bandmates admired and found inspiration in during their early days. “I listened to a lot of Lou Reed and Iggy Pop, and Hüsker Dü, Sonic Youth and Violent Femmes,” he noted. “We liked a lot of ‘60s stuff, too – Donovan and The Animals. We were pretty well schooled in the classics.”
Francis and Santiago were so enthusiastic about Hüsker Dü and “‘60s stuff” that an early recruitment ad had specified that they were seeking a bassist with a penchant for both the Minnesota punk-rockers and Peter, Paul and Mary. The Venn diagram of fans of both is, it seems, might be two completely separate circles, with Kim Deal as the only overlap. Though she had never played bass, she registered her interest and became an essential component of the band.
Through their combined love of the “classics” and more contemporary alternative rock peers, Pixies honed a unique alt-rock sound, which now serves to inspire others.
