Legendary American group Pixies are working on a new album, with singer Black Francis revealing that they intend to collaborate with a Hollywood director.
Pixies are perhaps the most influential American group of their generation. With their irreverent blend of punk and classic rock the band helped invent the grunge template, working on the quiet / loud technique before Kurt Cobain switched on his first distortion pedal.
Early albums such as ‘Surfer Rosa’ and ‘Doolittle’ remain the band’s best known documents, containing Black Francis’ primal scream and Kim Deal’s proto Riot Grrrl outings. Deal would later leave the band, before Pixies split following their lacklustre final album ‘Trompe Le Monde’.
However the group shocked fans by reforming for a series of live dates in 2004. Performing intermittently since, Pixies are set to play at this summer’s Isle Of Wight festival. Amongst the hits, fans could be amongst the first to hear new material by the band.
In a new interview frontman Black Francis reveals that the group are working on new material. Francis is a noted solo artist, and recently produced Art Brut’s new album ‘Art Brut Versus Satan’.
Kim Deal, meanwhile, formed The Breeders and went on to enjoy success outside of Pixies. However it seems the two are willing to put aside their respective careers in order to focus on new material with the grunge godfathers.
“The band needs to work with a film director,” Black Francis revealed to the NME. “Quentin Tarantino or someone like that. It’d be like, ‘Make some music for our film, you guys (Pixies) be the sound of the film’. Spread the word about the idea ‘cos I think it’s gonna work.”
“We’d have to finally get sick of playing the old repertoire and go, ‘Alright, fuck it. Let’s play new songs in our set’,” he explained. “But the only way we’d really want to do it is if it was really great.”
“There’s a fear that if we try to commit something to tape then even if it doesn’t come out stellar, somehow those recordings will get leaked. The band is beloved by its audience, so we don’t want to fuck it up.”
Pixies recently looked back over their career with their new box set ‘Minotaur’. Containing numerous unreleased tracks and alternate versions, the lavish box set is a fine testament to a simply incredible group.
Pixies are set to headline the Isle Of Wight festival.
