Ten years ago, legendary Boston quartet Pixies reunited for a tour that almost kicked off in Winnipeg. It was something fans thought they’d never see after singer/guitarist Charles Thompson (aka Black Francis/Frank Black) ended the band in ’93. So now that Pixies have been reunited for longer than their first run, when the band (fleshed out by guitarist Joe Santiago, drummer David Lovering and bassist/vocalist Kim Deal) released five important records, toured the world and influenced a generation of kids with the trademark loud/quiet/loud formula, we’ve had to wait for a new LP.

Last year a free digital download, “Bagboy,” popped up online, followed by a series of 10” EPs, which were collected for this spring’s Indie Cindy CD. The disc is notable for its lack of Deal, who had been vocal for the last decade about not wanting to record and left Pixies last year.

“She’s dearly missed,” Santiago says over the phone from his home in Los Angeles. “At the end of the day it’s just sounds, it’s just music. It kind of makes you weary, though. What if I get replaced?”

Replacing Deal, who released a series of solo 7” singles over the last year, is just what the band did. After trying out Muffs guitarist Kim Shattuck for a bit, Pixies have found a new bassist in Paz Lenchantin (A Perfect Circle).

“Her attitude and her mannerism in the studio was right on,” Santiago says of Lenchantin, who doesn’t appear on Indie Cindy but played on the “Women of War” 7”. “She knows how to blend in and she had great ideas. If we ever make a record it’ll be with her. We’ve still got our own sound though, you know? I don’t wanna pat myself on the back (laughs) but I’d like to say that I’m a part of that sound.”

And he is. The band is just as known for Thompson’s manic howl as it is for Santiago’s six string controlled chaos.

“It’s just from listening to a bunch of records that I’m interested in, the sounds of what they come up with,” he says. “From the Yardbirds to Hendrix. It’s nothing new but I just beat the shit out of it and ram the idea down on tape. We still call it tape.”

Santiago isn’t romantic about his time recording with Steve Albini or Gil Norton (who returned to produce the 2012 Indie Cindy sessions) on tape, he simply wants to make records.

“I just capture the sounds, doesn’t matter what the medium is,” he says. “Recording is a cool process. If someone could figure out how to record with a couch, that would be exciting for me too.”

The band is known for heading into the studio and creating sounds on the spot, something the guitarist notes happened quite a bit this time around.

“It’s more spur-of-the-moment and keeps us on our toes,” he says. “It’s always bound to be a really great song because Charles is inspired to do it on the spot and we’re inspired when he brings an idea in, it’s great.”

The new songs have been discussed pretty heavily online, in that they don’t sound like classic Pixies. But what band wants to make the same record the same way, especially 20 years later? The 10” EPs were released with no promo whatsoever.

“We never have felt a need to announce when a record’s gonna come out,” Santiago says. “I actually don’t get it. ‘The record’s gonna come out four months from now, blah blah blah.’ It’s not like people are gonna start saving up their 10 dollars, you know? Just put out the fuckin’ album and we’ll see what it does.”

Published in Volume 69, Number 5 of The Uniter (October 1, 2014)