Black Humour

All things considered, these aren't the ideal circumstances under which to be interviewing the redoubtable Mr. Frank Black. His pre-gig sound-check at Vicar St. is running almost an hour late, showtime is fast approaching and no less than five interviews are lined up. They include two local film crews, a couple of regular hacks and a guy from BBC Radio Ulster, all waiting impatiently in the wings. And just to complicate things, yours truly is parked in a nearby multi-story, which is due to close in twenty minutes. Don't panic.

He finally arrives out, all charming and apologetic and, as I would soon discover, in a peculiarly mischievous mood. Straight down to business then: Well Frank, your fantastic new album Dog In The Sand seems to have a wider stylistic reach than much of your previous work to date, encompassing as it does rock, soul and even doo-wop-is that a fair comment?

"I just want to let you know that this water I'm drinking tastes slightly soapy," he begins, completely ignoring my carefully rehearsed opening salvo. "I mean, don't get me wrong, I know the Ballygowan name very well and I respect it but there's something wrong here. Gee, maybe it's because I've brushed my teeth and didn't rinse out my mouth properly. Maybe I've still got toothpaste going on in my mouth. Hey, do you know that free toothpaste they give you on Virgin Atlantic? It's the tiniest toothpaste tube I've ever seen but I just can't get into it. [Grins] Does that answer your question?"

Er, about the album Frank?

"Oh, you want to talk about the album? OK, let me see [holds up copy of CD]. Well there it is folks! It's called Dog In The Sand. It came out a couple of weeks ago and it's great. There's me on the cover, there's the piano player Eric Feldman - he's not with me on this tour, he's with PJ Harvey's band. I'm hoping he'll get in a big fight with her and she'll kick him out and we'll have him back. Oh, and there's Dave McCaffrey the bass player and there's little Scotty Boutier, you can just make him out at the back. He hates to be photographed, he thinks the camera might steal his soul."

OK, so let's try this one more time. The songs on the new album, Frank... 'Stupid Me' for example sounds like something Del Shannon could have recorded in the mid-sixties and 'I'll Be Blue' has Neil Young's influence writ large all over it, while the title track recalls classic Pixies in their heyday. Do they reflect your current influences?

"Oh yeah sure. The Young, the Lennon, the Shannon, The Pixies they're all the big ones aren't they? And they're all there on my album, the top fifty artists of all time.

"No seriously I don't really think about it too much," he continues, finally beginning to play it straight. "Some people sit down and write songs and they work on the melody and go na, na na, na na [sings]. I just write songs, sometimes the melody is strong, sometimes it isn't. It's not a problem and if it is, hopefully that song doesn't make it onto the album. Some of the songs - the title track for example is from the Pixies days, it was written at the time we were doing Doolittle but it didn't matriculate into anything. But most of them have a very short history."

To be fair to Black he has good reason to be pleased with himself these days. With its intoxicating blend of hardcore textures and glorious pop melodies all pinned down by his increasingly commanding vocals, Dog In The Sand is indeed a sparkling return to form for the former Pixies frontman.

Apart from the evident high quality of the songwriting, the album was recorded live in the studio, direct to two-track without edits of any kind. Presumably this accounts for the fresh, immediate, organic sound that characterises the record?

"Yep it was recorded just like we're doing right now, straight into a tape machine. It's a great way to work. We find it immensely satisfying. You just walk into the studio and you play and that's all you do and then you go home. It's not like the usual thing of, 'hey we'll just play ping-pong for a few hours while you fix the bass line.

"Then there's the performance aspect of it. We just keep playing until we think it doesn't suck any more. Sometimes the perfect sound balance is not the perfect performance and we end up picking the lesser quality recording because the performance is better and that's' more important than the tones or whatever. The only downside is you have to be more prepared . In the past we might come up with a riff and try it out and say, 'OK we like that one, let's go book a studio for next August'."

Time to introduce the P word again. Ah... the Pixies. In many ways the quintessential 1980's American band, purveyors of a trio of classic albums Surfer Rosa, Doolittle and Bossanova and gems like 'Here Comes Your Man' (these days heard on the opening credits of Tom Dunne's Pet Sounds show). With a new B-sides album just out the band's currency is still riding high. Many have never forgiven Black for disbanding the band when they were arguably at their peak. What are his feelings about it now?

"I don't regret leaving the band at all," he states bluntly. "Obviously it wasn't the best thing to do from the point of view of you guys. Back then all you wanted to do was to talk about the Pixies. Unfortunately, it's all you're still interested in talking about today. No, I'm just kidding [laughs]. It was fun with the Pixies. We made five records, we did lot's of gigs and plenty of tours. It was enough. I appreciate very much the patronage the band receives today and I hope it'll be the same eventually with my solo stuff. But if not, then hey, that's the cards you're dealt with."

Returning to his current status as the grand old man of grunge, who does he see as his contemporaries?

"I suppose someone like J. Mascis would be one but people like Neil Young are more my contemporaries these days. When I go to see a band in my local venue the House of Blues in Hollywood I see a lot of classic acts playing there and I think, 'Hey I play here too' and there's this distant camaraderie between me and whoever it is I'm watching."

Dog in the Sand is released on Cooking Vinyl