No less a judge of musical and cultural importance than David Bowie once drew a parallel between the Velvet Underground and this month’s cover stars, Pixies, noting that while neither “sold many records… everyone that bought a Velvet Underground album formed a band.” “I have to suggest that the same thing applied to the Pixies,” he continued. “Once you heard them, you wanted to have a band just like them.” Kurt Cobain, Courtney Love, Billy Corgan, PJ Harvey and form Yorke all concurred, crediting 4AD’s Boston four-piece with drawing up the quiet-loud blueprint that inspired them to form their own bands, and fuelled the rise of grunge at the end of the 80s. If that proves to be the legacy of Pixies and their somehow ageless debut album Surfer Rosa, which turned 30 this year, then it’s a potent one.
This month, we were privileged to sit down with Black Francis, Joey Santiago and the creative duo behind the album’s artwork, Vaughan Oliver and Simon Larbalestier, to discuss the making of one of the most in uential albums of the 80s – perhaps one of the most in uential indie-rock albums ever recorded. Starting on p38, Francis and Santiago take time out from their latest world tour to recall the scenes inside the Q Division Studios where, with Steve Albini’s hands on the controls, they carved out their dark, Lynchian masterpiece Surfer Rosa in just 10 days.