Our first interview during our LA shoot was a big one, as I had the opportunity to sit down with Joey Santiago, lead guitarist and founding member of the Pixies. If you are reading this, then you likely need no introduction to the Pixies, one of the most influential bands of the late ’80s and early ’90s and an iconic band in the history of college radio. So many bands name-check the Pixies as an influence that it is almost a running joke at this point, but there is no doubt that the “alternative revolution” that occurred at the dawn of the ’90s would not look anything like it did were it not for this band.
Santiago met Black Francis (AKA Charles Thompson IV) at UMass while living next door to each other, and began jamming together before officially forming the band in 1986. The name “Pixies” came from Santiago taking a random stab at the dictionary and liking the definition of the word (“mischievous little elves”). They placed an ad for a bass player and found Kim Deal, who joined up despite never having played bass before. After Kim’s husband suggested hiring David Lovering as a drummer, the band line-up was set and they began recording together at Fort Apache Studios in Boston.
The rest, as they say, is history, as the Pixies recorded a string of albums that were met with critical acclaim and which became fixtures on college radio stations across the country. The band’s unique sound and “loud, quite, loud” dynamic would become the blueprint for innumerable bands of the “alternative” era, most notably Nirvana. And there were no shortage of fans who would continue to spread the word in America, even after the band’s initial breakup in 1993.
Since then, the Pixies have reunited several times for short tours, and they have recorded three new albums in the last decade, most recently Beneath the Eyrie in 2019.