The Pixies guitarist Joey Santiago on singer Black Francis: 'He likes to know how my brain operates'

Decades after their groundbreaking 1989 album Doolittle, American rock band The Pixies are still striving to sound unique, lead guitarist Joey Santiago tells Music 101.

The Pixies' Joey Santiago chats to Maggie Tweedie about writing lyrics for their 10th album The Night the Zombies Came, his intense phobia of crunchy sounds and the secret to a great Christmas brisket.

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Santiago first met lead singer Charles Thompson (better known as Black Francis and formerly Frank Black) at UMass Amherst College in Massachusetts in the early '80s.

When they advertised for a bass player who was into both '60s folk group Peter Paul and Mary and hardcore '80s punk band Hüsker Dü, Kim Deal was the only one who answered.

"She was great right off the bat. It would have mattered if 10 other people responded, we liked her right away."

After several potential Pixies drummers flaked out, Deal suggested a guy that her husband at the time worked with at the electronics store Radio Shack -

David Lovering.

Lovering - who'd topped his class at engineering school - was great right off the bat, Santiago says.

"He played a beat on the [1980s] LinnDrum machine as we were playing and I go 'Jesus Christ. He's got the chops already. I didn't even hear the bass'."

After forming in 1986, all four of The Pixies worked day jobs and met up almost every night in one of their apartments after work to craft their songs and practice.

As iconic songs like 'Where is My Mind?' and 'Gigantic' came together, the band's ascent seemed to happen really fast, Santiago says.

"We were practising in an apartment and we had a knock on the door. We thought that we were playing too loud but it was the superintendent of the building saying 'Wow, you guys sound really good'. That's the first time I would say that we had something going."

The Pixies released their debut album Surfer Rosa in 1988, had a 10-year hiatus from 1993 and Kim Deal left the band shortly after a 2013 reunion tour.

The following year Paz Lenchantin [https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/the-wireless/374264/i-m-here-to-be-myself-paz-lenchantin-on-fitting-in-with-the-pixies replaced Deal before leaving the band earlier in 2024.

On The Night the Zombies Came, bass player and backing vocalist Emma Richardson (formerly of Band of Skulls) joins the lineup and, for the first time, Santiago gets two songwriting credits.

He says he was surprised when Black Francis - "one of the best lyricists out there" - requested that he contribute lyrics to the songs that became 'I Hear You Mary' and 'Hypnotise'.

"I'm surprised he asked me to it, honestly. I'm baffled but it's fun. He likes to know how my brain operates. It's a mystery to me."

The initial idea for 'Hypnotise' was about Santiago's misophonia - a condition which involves extreme aversion to sounds, that Kim Deal originally suggested he had.

When chewing and crunching sounds send you into an actual rage, the restaurant experience can be tricky, Santiago says.

"I do carry air pods around. If I go out to eat and I start hearing loud noises I will put them on so I could enjoy my meal."

Hopefully, Santiago won't have to pull his pods out at the Christmas table this year when he serves his special Cuban-style beef brisket to the family.

"I put an obscene amount of garlic in there, caramelise the tomato paste to make it sweet - that's very important. A bay leaf and some broth, not much, just enough. Let it simmer over and then I cover it and then for the last half hour I put the lid aside so it kind of steams off a little bit. I do the whole schtick."

The Pixies return to New Zealand in November 2025 for four shows in Auckland and Wellington.