How Link Wray inspired the Pixies: “A confirmation of what we already were”
Alternative rock masters Pixies have indelibly impacted popular culture. Directly, through the trailblazing nature of their music and indirectly through their effect on other prominent artists such as Nirvana, Pixies’ legacy is foolproof. Yet, whilst the band are often bogged down with questions about the ubiquitous loud-quiet-loud dynamics that Kurt Cobain took to the masses, they have asserted that they also cherrypicked from their favourite artists.
Frontman Charles Thompson IV, more commonly known as Frank Black, is the member who is most often asked about his band’s impact on Nirvana, given his position as their chief songwriter. Although he is on record as agreeing with the assertion that Kurt Cobain did ‘rip off’ his storied approach to dynamics, Back has clarified over his career that the Boston group were not the first to employ loud-quiet-loud and that acts such as Sisters of Mercy had done so before them.
Whilst Pixies are often credited as one of their generation’s most original and distinctive bands, they have always been open about other artists’ impact on them. One man Frank Black and co-founding member Joey Santiago have cited as a defining influence of their group is Link Wray, the rock ‘n’ roll pioneer who gifted the world the indomitable 1958 instrumental ‘Rumble’. A master of his day’s rockabilly and surf sound, the guitar tones and overall attitude of Pixies have been attributed by Black and Santiago to the late musician.
When speaking to The Guardian in 2014, Black named “The record that chimed with the Pixies” as 1971’s Link Wray. Offering an intriguing, almost abstract account, he called discovering the leather jacket-wearing rocker “pretty important” and a confirmation of what his group had already shaped up to be.
He explained: “When the Pixies were going, Joey and I got really into surf music. We would buy a lot of different tapes at truck stops. At some point, we discovered Link Wray – that was pretty important. He wasn’t an influence on us so much as a confirmation of what we already were: rough and loud and minimalist. With Link Wray, it was like, Oh yeah, I totally get this. I am cut from the same cloth.”
Following this, when listing the ten albums that changed his life for Goldmine, in 2023, Joey Santiago chose the compilation Link Wray At His Best as a formative influence. Again, Wray’s approach to his craft was something that Santiago pinpointed as vital to Pixies’ work. He said: “Charles and I shared an apartment when we were taking summer courses at UMass. We did get high a lot and had a laugh listening to this album. We were taking apart an amp with a butter knife, thinking we could fix it. We put it back together and had leftover parts. If you really think about it, that’s how we approached music. Take it apart and discard some parts whether it’s needed or not.”
Listen to Link Wray below.
