As the hollering frontman of Pixies, Black Francis has long been one of the best and most instantly recognisable voices in rock – and as the band release an expansive new live album, he will answer your questions about his life and career.
Also known by his other stage name Frank Black, Charles Thompson IV was raised by an itinerant and religious family, insulated from the wildness of punk and other 1970s innovations – his musical diet mostly consisted of Christian music and pop oldies.
But after meeting guitarist Joey Santiago at university in Massachusetts, his purview opened up, and in 1986 the pair formed what would be one of the truly great alt-rock bands. With Kim Deal on bass, David Lovering on drums and university degree discarded, Pixies debuted with the Come on Pilgrim mini-album the following year – and Francis’s voice, sweetly cooing and angrily howling often in the space of a single verse, set them apart.
Melody was there from the start – listen to the jolly Santiago line on The Holiday Song – but the poppy quality of the songs, almost all of them written solely by Francis, kept ratcheting up. Here Comes Your Man, Debaser, Velouria, Dig for Fire, Monkey Gone to Heaven, Wave of Mutilation – these all had the sweetest of tunes even if the subject matter was phantasmagoric, and all became indie-disco classics.
Francis and Deal had an infamously irritable bandmate relationship, which prompted a hiatus after major label breakthrough Doolittle, and was a factor in the eventual breakup of the band in 1993. Francis released a more than a dozen acclaimed solo albums, including with new backing band the Catholics, before Pixies reformed in 2004 – that return is the subject of a new box set, documenting four Brixton Academy concerts across 16 sides of vinyl.
Their fanbase had stayed with them, and new ones had been added – Where Is My Mind? helped to earn them a new audience after it iconically soundtracked the bleak ending of Fight Club – allowing them to consistently tour ever since. Deal left at the outset of sessions for their recorded comeback, 2014 album Indie Cindy, but Pixies have endured – they will start touring again post-pandemic, including with a headline slot at this year’s End of the Road festival.
It’s a bumpy but consistently creative journey for Black Francis, who will answer questions right across it. Post them in the comments below before the end of 31 January, and his answers will be published in the 4 February edition of the Guardian’s Film & Music section, as well as online.
