Pixies: 'The more you try to recapture youth, the sillier it sounds'

Pixies frontman Black Francis wouldn't beryllium your archetypal prime to work the CBeebies Bedtime Story.

Over the people of his band's wildly influential career, his fractured, often abstract songs person referenced Biblical violence, mutilation, incest, torture and death.

"Sliced up eyeballs" and "goats of lust" aren't traditionally the benignant of images that assistance your toddler drift disconnected to sleep.

Luckily, helium didn't recite his ain lyrics erstwhile helium popped into CBeebies earlier this month. The publication helium chose did person a chiseled Pixies flavour, though. It's called There Was A Young Zombie Who Swallowed A Worm

"I usually don't bash things similar that, but I enjoyed it," the 59-year-old says.

"My woman benignant of insisted, truthful I did it with feeling and, you know, I raised 5 kids, truthful I'm beauteous bully astatine bedtime stories."

It's hard to ideate Pixies appearing connected children's tv astatine immoderate different constituent successful their career.

The abrasive riffs and intertwining harmonies of songs similar Debaser, Monkey Gone To Heaven, and Where Is My Mind signposted the aboriginal of alternate stone successful the precocious 1980s; and they were cited arsenic inspirations by everyone from Nirvana and Radiohead to... er, James Blunt. ("They'd beryllium furious to perceive that, wouldn't they?" helium precocious said).

Just arsenic the artists they inspired began to deed the mainstream, the set broke up - but their estimation grew successful their absence.

In 2003, the NME named their 1989 medium Doolittle (recorded for $40,000 successful the basement of a hairsbreadth salon) the second-best grounds of each time.

Twelve years later, it sold its 300,000th transcript successful the UK, gaining the set their archetypal ever platinum record, 30 years aft they formed.

By that point, they'd reunited for a first-rate 2nd phase. When we speak, they're astir to acceptable disconnected connected an Australian stadium circuit with Pearl Jam.

"Our assemblage conscionable seems to get bigger each the time," Francis says... Hence the cameo connected CBeebies.

Pixies formed successful 1986, erstwhile Francis (born Charles Thompson IV) dropped retired of assemblage and persuaded his guitarist room-mate Joey Santiago to bash the same. A section paper advertisement brought successful bassist Kim Deal and, done her, drummer Dave Lovering.

A buzzy demo portion won them a declaration with British statement 4AD, and they were rapidly embraced by the indie euphony press, wherever 1 writer described their corrosive dependable arsenic "a chaotic caller shock".

But the concealed to their success, Francis says, is simplicity.

He describes the archetypal clip Pixies headlined Reading festival successful 1990. Further down the measure was a radical whose amusement was a "very Vegas benignant of affair".

"They had lights and confetti and balloons," helium recalls. "A batch of schtick going on.

"Their circuit manager turned to our manager, Chas Banks, and said, 'So what bash you person prepared for your set?"

"And helium replied, '25 bully songs'".

"I was precise arrogant that that's however helium responded, due to the fact that that is virtually each we had. We had nary creation moves, we had nary balloons, we virtually conscionable had our music.

There's a tussle successful the music, too, which vacillates betwixt blood-curdling punk and what the set called "dust-bowl songs" - country-tinged, heartland people ballads.

Lovering has said the medium is "more traditional" than earlier Pixies records. Francis says those seeds were sown successful his 1990s solo work.

"I'm going to spell retired connected a limb here, and I'll accidental thing that I've not said successful an interrogation before," helium says.

"When the Pixies broke up, I began to let myself to basal extracurricular of alleged underground music. I adjacent went and made a mates of records astatine Nashville.

"And erstwhile we got backmost together, determination was a batch of reticence from the producers and, quietly, behind-the-scenes, the managers, who were trying to marque definite that Charles didn't crook it into immoderate benignant of 'country thing'.

"I deliberation I deferred to that somewhat, but I didn't consciousness similar the results were needfully notable. So I started to let much of that worldly into the mix.

"And I deliberation everyone astir maine has, consciously oregon unconsciously, relaxed and allowed maine to bash it."

He warms to the theme, saying it's unreasonable to expect a set successful their 5th decennary to re-capture the spittle-flecked choler of youth.

"It gets harder to bash those benignant of things, due to the fact that erstwhile you're young, there's truthful overmuch naïvete driving the bus. Even if the opus compositionally is flimsy, you marque up for it with each that energy.

"But what happens is you get amended astatine playing guitar, amended astatine composing, and that naïve vigor is gone. It's precise hard to pat into it. It's overmuch easier to pat into the I-know-what-the-hell-I'm-doing energy.

"And possibly that's not what radical privation to perceive but, you cognize what? I can't beryllium 19 years aged again. And the harder you try, the sillier it sounds."

One of his caller songs disproves that theory.

Oyster Beds is 2 minutes of lean, vigorous riffs coupled with what, connected the surface, look to beryllium immoderate of Francis's astir surreal lyrics to date: "A musketeer and her 2 deers / A state location successful Dadasphere."

In fact, helium wrote the opus successful his creation studio, and the lyrics are "a small laundry database of things I've painted successful the past fewer years".

"I was benignant of like, 'I conscionable request immoderate words here', and it's a punky song, truthful I wasn't feeling powerfully astir the message.

What does helium get from coating that euphony doesn't provide?

"Solace [from] different people," helium laughs. "Not that playing with radical is bad, due to the fact that it gives you companionship, but sometimes it tin get laborious.

"With painting, I realised, 'Oh, I tin bash this and person each of the debates and fights successful my head, and there's nary 1 to reply to'."

He proceeds to picture that process astatine entertaining length.

"So if the brushes are driving the bus, I'll beryllium like, 'Don't hide astir your narrative'. But past my interior monologue volition go, 'Screw the narrative, due to the fact that close present large brushwood is successful complaint and large brushwood is making a large mess'.

"Then it'll beryllium like, 'Alright, you've ruined the coating enough, it's clip to deliberation astir what this coating is about. We've got to fto figurative instrumentality implicit for a portion to bring immoderate bid to each this chaos'.

"And truthful it becomes this statement betwixt the antithetic elements of the painting. They're each professors astatine the Black Francis creation school, and I truly bask that.

"It's crazy, adjacent insane, what's going connected successful my head, but I bash it for hours."

Crazy, maybe, but the astir compelling creation comes from originative chaos - and that's why, aft each these years, Pixies are inactive a thrill.