Pixies have come out with their most evolved album yet, Doggerel. On this record, Joey Santiago contributes more than just his spectacular guitar playing- his talent writing lyrics and music. His exclusion from the headphone mix also allows the freedom to create his parts on the fly, adding his own special ingredient. The sprinkling of different genres that can be heard throughout the cohesive album is truly impressive and the band’s congeniality is something that should get fans electrified.
mxdwn: Hi, my name is Eve Pierpont and I am the music feature section editor for mxdwn. I’m here today with Joey Santiago from the Pixies. Hi Joey.
Joey Santiago: Hello.
mxdwn: So, this album seems to have longer songs and a new type of energy. What was different recording Doggerel versus previous records? Was there a different type of dynamic among the band?
JS: I think we were just more comfortable with all five of us. So that’s Tom and Paz, getting just more comfortable. It’s like, what is it, our third one with them? Yep. It’s our third one with them. So yeah, that’s all it is. It’s just comfortable. And I don’t know about the longer songs. I don’t know how that came about, but it just might be growth or something.
mxdwn: Awesome. So, you wrote lyrics for “Dregs of the Wine” and the song tells a story of an almost magical and epic party life. I read that this song reflects on memories of you and Black Francis back in the 90s. Were those direct references to what you guys did?
JS: He wrote those lyrics. I wrote “Pagan Man.” I wrote the music for that one.
mxdwn: Oh, okay. Gotcha. Were those actually some memories of under the Hollywood sign?
JS: Yeah.
mxdwn: Oh, that’s so awesome.
JS: We, you know, we did a lot of crazy stuff.
mxdwn: That’s awesome. That’s so cool. I saw you fell in love with a 1950s Martin guitar and you were kind of playing around with that when you wrote “Dregs of the Wine” instrumentals. Tell me a little bit about playing that guitar and how you think that contributed to the sound of Doggerel.
JS: Well, it’s an acoustic guitar that I really enjoyed playing. It just happened to be that one. It was just like the best one of the bunch. It could have been easily anything. It could have been, you know, one that’s made 2000 something, but this one just spoke to me and it’s an acoustic guitar. So acoustic guitars, I would tend to stack chords, so that’s what a big part of the songs are, chord structure. So that’s it. Just simple. I try to make it as simple as possible, but there’s a lot of parts in it, but it’s a lot simpler to play than what it sounds like.
mxdwn: Gotcha. How do you decide when to record with an acoustic guitar versus electric?
JS: I actually don’t do any acoustic guitars on the album. I wanted to, but I think Tom was just used to Charles playing it. Anyways, I could have done it. I want them to use my acoustic guitars, what I wanted them to do, but that didn’t happen.
mxdwn: What was the experience like writing “Pagan Man?” Was it different than previous experiences?
JS: Oh, geez. Yeah. I mean, it’s my first time doing lyrics. It was a fun project. “Pagan Man” became the title. That’s the first thing I had. Then a bunch of words came and then I had to make sense of it. That’s it, you know?
mxdwn: Gotcha. On It’s a Pixie Podcast Doggerel Special, I heard that you used a Marricone guitar that added to the spookiness of “Haunted House.” Did you specifically pick that guitar knowing it would kind of have that effect? Or did it just happen?
JS: I was just doing some Ennio stuff sprinkled throughout the whole album, really. I just like the way it, you know, any Marricone is classic. So, that’s my inspiration.
mxdwn: Also in the podcast, I heard that when your guitar parts were put on the song “Doggerel,” it kind of pivoted the sound due to the ‘carpet of weirdness’ that you added. Did you expect to make the song a different vibe, or can you speak to that at all?
JS: I could speak to most of them. Tom and I have this agreement that I will never be, ever be, in the headphone mix of the other band members. That way I could fool around, because when we’re doing that stuff, when we’re recording with the drums it has to be in a structure. Everyone knows what they’re doing, basically. I mean, the bass can switch around, but Paz has to stick within the core structure. Charles obviously is doing that. Dave has to go through the part. I don’t have a part yet, so I’m trying to make it up on the fly. So, I’m taking a lot of chances and if they were to hear that, they would mess up. And it gives me more comfort knowing I can do whatever the hell I want.
mxdwn: That’s awesome.
JS: But Tom’s listening to it. Tom is listening to it and Tom will make notes on what I did well, then he’d tell us between takes, he’d say- yeah, Joey, that was really, really good. Then I’d hear Charles say, I wanna hear it! Uh-uh. No, you can’t hear it. No, not yet. It’s still being worked on.
mxdwn: You said you do that for all songs?
JS: All of them.
mxdwn: That’s super interesting. Have you always done that with the Pixies, since the beginning?
JS: No, not really, because in the beginning of the Pixies, I already knew what I was playing because we were playing that stuff live already, so it didn’t really matter. You know, they would still have me down anyways or turn me off {laughs}. I don’t blame them, you know, it’s really annoying.
mxdwn: Tom Dalgety helped decide which of the 40 songs would make it onto the album. Do you know the process of which songs make it and which don’t? Would you have made any changes to what songs would’ve gone on there?
JS: Well, the best ones make it. Definitely. Some other great ones didn’t make it because it wouldn’t fit the overall construct of the record as a thought process, you know? We’re still in that old school way of making an album- Hey, we don’t have a ballad. Let’s go get a ballad in here, our ballad would be a slower song. We’re going to need a rocking one. It’s just, we trust Tom to pick the songs that way we’re not arguing amongst ourselves, having debates amongst ourselves.
mxdwn: Yeah, I could imagine that could happen with a band, multiple people, multiple personalities, multiple opinions. But I do feel like the order of the songs has a flow that kind of tells a story itself. Can you speak to that at all? Did you notice that?
JS: Yeah, I noticed that. Tom already had a running order in his head, I believe. He knew “Doggerel” was going to be the last one. And he knew the first one already, and now all he’s got to do was fill in the blanks. I made one just for the hell of it, and gave it to him and his was a lot better.
mxdwn: Gotcha. I read that “Human Crime” was originally a country song, but then ended up being transformed to a Pixie song. How was it to remake that song and adapt it to the band’s style?
JS: I never heard it as a country song. It was emailed to us as the basic, that vibe already. So I never heard it as that. Maybe we should do that version if that’s what he came up with.
mxdwn: Yeah. I was reading it was between making songs for you guys and then I think it was him and somebody else and that it was more of a country vibe, but then Tom wanted it for you guys, so then it was adopted to more of a Pixie style. So, I was just wondering because I just feel like that would’ve been very interesting to take a country song and make it something else. So, being a titan of the alt rock genre now coming out with a record that really showcases kind of the wide array of genres that you were able to mix in there, like there’s some pop and some folk. Are there any styles you would wanna try to incorporate in the future?
JS: Maybe reggae.
mxdwn: That would be cool.
JS: Big fat dub music.
mxdwn: I feel like reggae would be really cool to try to mix in, definitely. Have any reggae artists that you really love?
JS: I like the Ska artists. Desmond Dekker and Lee Scratch obviously is great. There’s a bunch of them, but Desmond Dekker would be one of them.
mxdwn: Gotcha. You were born in the Philippines, right? Do you ever try to incorporate Filipino music? Do you try to tap into those roots at all even if it’s just Pixies or playing when you’re by yourself?
JS: I really don’t know if they have such a genre, Filipino music, other than they would speak in Tagalog, which is the main language. Maybe we can incorporate that at some point, you know, give them the nod.
mxdwn: Did you just get done with touring?
JS: One leg.
mxdwn: Yeah. That’s what I thought.
JS: Yeah. We take breaks, but we’re planned through the summer of 2023.
mxdwn: Are you looking forward to that?
JS: Yeah. We’re going to Japan next in about a few weeks actually.
Featured Image Photo Credit: Raymond Flotat
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