Four months in, Pixies fans continue to reel over Kim Deal’s departure from the group. Much has gone down since the band’s original bassist made her exit, and today, former bandmates spoke out on Deal’s walkout.

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Pixies frontman Black Francis shared how the band had been recording at a studio in Wales earlier this year, and that Deal dropped the bombshell one day at a coffee shop near their studio.

Kim walked in at some point and said, ‘I’m flying home tomorrow.’ She quit the band. It was an awkward moment. We didn’t hug or shake hands or anything. [Guitarist] Joey [Santiago] and I just stood up and said, ‘Okay.’ Then we had to get out of there, so we immediately went to a bar. I had to move from coffee to alcohol.

A couple of nights prior, Francis said the band had shared a bonding moment while going out for Indian food.

There weren’t any managers, producers, roadies or anything. I can’t remember the last time we all sat down and had a meal, just the four of us. It was wonderful. We broke bread together, shot the shit and had a nice meal. After the meal, Kim wanted to go back to her lodging, so we all walked her to a cab. Thinking back now, I realize this was her saying goodbye. Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but I think it was meant to be our last supper.

Drummer David Lovering says the band was in mourning for a few days after, but then they decided to buckle down and complete what they’d flown overseas to do.

…we didn’t have time to keep doing that because we had this studio booked and lot of overdubs to record. We just rolled up our sleeves and said, ‘We might as well finish this.’

The band erased Deal’s contribution to the new songs per her own request, and brought on PJ Harvey bassist Simon “Ding” Archer to replace them. Since then, the Pixies have hired former Muffs bassist Kim Shattuck, and are currently touring Europe in promotion of their new music. This includes “Bagboy”, their first single in nine years, which they recently performed on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon, and EP-1, a brand new, four-song collection that’s meeting mixed reviews thus far.

Says Francis, in a tone that hints at Deal’s absence:

The fans are emotionally involved in the whole thing. Even more than us. But we just got into this to make music and see whatever level of success we could reach. We didn’t want the day job. We don’t want to be managers of warehouses or whatever. We don’t want to run a restaurant. This is what to we do, and my solo career is over. I have no interest in making solo records. For me, this is it.