With the first phase of its reunion nearly complete, the Pixies have begun contemplating the future. Having wrapped a North American run with a Saturday performance at the Across the Narrows festival in Coney Island, N.Y., the group will close out the year with six shows in Japan, beginning Dec. 3 in Fukuoka.
What will happen afterward is anybody’s guess, but guitarist/vocalist Frank Black tells Billboard.com the group will hopefully begin gathering potential material for its first studio album since 1991’s “Trompe le Monde.”
“I think there are some band members extremely keen to start making a record and there are others who are more cautious because they don’t want to mess with the legacy,” Black says. “They may be afraid that if we make a mediocre record that it will still come out, because the money has been spent. That’s fair enough.”
For now though, Black offers, “We’ve decided there is nothing to talk about unless there’s some actual songs on the table. In our spare time we’ll start to compile some demos, and if they start to sound good, we’ll do something.”
The Pixies did release the new song “Bam Thwok,” penned by bassist Kim Deal, as a digital download in summer 2004. There is also one unfinished Black song from those writing sessions.
“Kim reminded [guitarist] Joey [Santiago] she liked my song and maybe she’d do a lyric on top of it, which is fine, because I’ve written lyrics for it like three times and have never really been satisfied with it,” Black admits. “‘Gigantic’ part two is in the works! And it’s going to be bigger and better than the first one!”
As previously reported, the reunion is chronicled on the DVD “Pixies Sell Out,” released earlier this year via Rhino. Along with a complete show from Belfort, France, the film sports performances from a variety of other large festivals and amusing footage of the band offstage, including an impromptu Thanksgiving dinner in Canada.
“They’re not too big on Thanksgiving up there,” Black recalls with a chuckle. “Our English tour manager, not really being familiar with the feast, did a nice thing and booked a private room for us to be served an American Thanksgiving. But they were these French-sized courses. It wasn’t a bucket of mashed potatoes, the giant bird and piles of food. Instead it was like, ‘And now, we present.. the pumpkin soup! Voila!’ It was us and our crew so it was a little stiff.”
Black admits the band also felt a bit out of its element when it performed acoustic for the first time in its career at August’s Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island.
“It was not that much fun,” he laughs. “I was amused enough but it was harder for the rest of the band. Especially Joey, trying to do his thing on an acoustic guitar. We didn’t have much practice on turning the outdoor stage situation into something that could be intimate. To the folkies, I’m sure we just seemed like a rock band feeling a bit awkward with their acoustic guitars. We don’t really have a lot in our picking style repertoires!”