Rock legends The Pixies played the legendary Roy Wilkins auditorium this past Sunday - before the show, we were lucky enough to chat with guitarist Joey Santiago. Despite the band's busy schedule, Joey was terribly friendly from the moment he picked up the phone and full of laughs. We chatted about Canadians, cycling and AC/DC - it was a great warm up for the relaxed, yet rocking, show on Sunday night.
If you'd like to listen to the interview, check out episode 7 of the MinnesoTunes podcast.
Michelle: Thank you so much for agreeing to speak with us – we are very excited about the show.
Joey: Absolutely.
Michelle: How’s the tour going?
Joey: You know, we’ve only done two shows so far, but so far so good.
Michelle: Where are you now?
Joey: In Quebec.
Michelle: Ah, okay – that explains why she spoke French when she picked up the phone. I was not quite prepared for that.
Joey: Oh yeah, she wasn’t being pretentious.
Michelle: I assumed as much, actually. Canadians are very rarely pretentious. This is primarily a Canadian tour, correct?
Joey: Yes, and there’s three stops in the US – Milwaukee, Saint Paul, and Detroit.
Michelle: How did Saint Paul get tossed into that mix?
Joey: Well, I would just say that it’s geographical, you know? We dip down between – oh god, I don’t know between which cities, but on our way to Winnipeg – and that’s really it. And I don’t think that we played Doolittle in Minneapolis yet.
Michelle: I’ve read a lot about the band’s process for creating music in the studio, but I’ve also heard that the stage show for this tour is pretty impressive. How do you go about creating a stage show like that?
Joey: Well, we start off with the initial idea of having a screen somewhere where we would kind of fool people, that we were doing something else. But that didn’t really pan out – this panned out in the end. So we have visuals for each song that we had visual artists do one per song – some kind of theme that they thought would be appropriate.
Michelle: How did you pick which artists you would feature in the show? Was it just people you know through other ventures?
Joey: Oh, that was by our lighting design and producer – and our manager. We’re very laissez-faire with what people want to do in our tour.
Michelle: For you personally, do you have any favorite songs to play live? Particularly on this Doolittle tour?
Joey: You know, I used to say “Tame” but I’m going to change my mind. I’ve said it in so many interviews and I know that I liked it because I was only playing one chord. So the song I like to do is “Dead.” I’m constantly playing on that one.
Michelle: You mentioned that you enjoy touring because you are still searching for that perfect live show. Are you having any luck?
Joey: Not yet. There’s a few clamatos that we’ve had on these couple shows. It’s just learning stuff. I think Kim’s been playing perfectly, Dave – it’s just me. I’m the f*ck up. I don’t practice the moves on my pedals.
Michelle: Oh, I see… I’m always really impressed by the pedal board when I see shows live, because it doesn’t look like it is particularly easy to keep all those in order.
Joey: I just have to visualize it before the show. I screw up on the delay settings, so pretty much everything is manually done by me – I don’t have those presets like the Edge has.
Michelle: I can understand that. But you had a perfect show once in Belgium, right?
Joey: Oh yeah.
Michelle: How was that?
Joey: It was very good. That was one of the first times where the crowd’s noise actually hurt my ears. It was so loud and shrilly. I’ve got my lawyers suing each and every one of them in Europe.
Michelle: Oh no.
Joey: Yeah, they’re knocking on their doors right now.
Michelle: Probably – I can see that, way over in Belgium. So – outside of the Doolittle tour, what projects are keeping you busy right now?
Joey: Awhile ago I did something with David when we had some time. I dabble in a few TV spots, junk like that.
Michelle: Anything really exciting coming up?
Joey: No, the breaks I’ve had, I don’t have time to join a project for real.
Michelle: I see, that makes sense. I know you get this question a lot and I’m sure you’re busy on the road, but are you listening to or reading anything interesting recently?
Joey: I’ve just been reading about cycling.
Michelle: Oh, because you’re a big biker, right?
Joey: Yeah, I’m not that great at it but I like the challenge of it. Where I live, there’s a lot of canyons. We’re climbing constantly – we’re like mountain goats. I’m just trying to get better at that. I like the solitude of it – and the camaraderie when there’s a group ride.
Michelle: When did you pick up cycling?
Joey: Last year.
Michelle: And you started with the canyons, huh?
Joey: Hmm…yes. Right away.
Michelle: That’s really impressive. Coming from Minnesota, I think any hill larger than three or four feet has got to be difficult to mount on a bike.
Joey: Oh and these are very steep. Cars are struggling to get up there.
Michelle: Well, I’m impressed. I was curious – I’ve read a lot about your musical influences, but where do you turn outside of music for your inspiration?
Joey: It does just boil down to music. Just trying to be different – when I hear something – I don’t like to go trampling on other people’s sounds. That’s really about it – I don’t gravitate towards it, I try to move away from it. Which is another way of avoiding people. I’m kidding – it’s just avoiding people’s areas.
Michelle: Have you heard anyone recently who is really different, who really intrigued you?
Joey: You mean recent acts? Or just anything?
Michelle: Anything.
Joey: I respect Arcade Fire a lot. And that’s about it for now – I can’t think of anything else. That’s a tough question.
Michelle: It is a tough question – I didn’t even have it written down – it kind of came out of nowhere. Here in the Twin Cities, I cover the local live music scene, so I’m always curious to know about artist’s favorite live shows. What’s the best live show you’ve ever attended?
Joey: Best live show? It would probably be my first one. It was awesome. AC/DC, the Highway to Hell tour – it was mind-blowing.
Michelle: That’s a really impressive first show.
Joey: Oh yeah – I even rode my bike down to downtown from where I lived in Massachusetts and tried to meet Angus Young. They shooed me away.
Michelle: Have you had a chance to meet him since?
Joey: No – not at all. I know Charles has and I’m kind of envious of that.
Michelle: Well, I’ll make sure to include that in the interview, just in case Angus comes across it. He can give you a ring.
Joey: I probably won’t say anything to him – I probably won’t understand him. I can hardly understand the Australian accent.
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