It’s been 28 years since Pixies asked “Where Is My Mind?” The song eventually scored the iconic finale of Fight Club, while the band became one of the most influential indie collectives of all time, inspiring the likes of Nirvana, Radiohead and U2. Which makes it even more shocking that the new record, titled Head Carrier, is only the band’s sixth album. 

The new record drops on September 30 and marks the arrival of bassist Paz Lenchantin and new producer Tom Dalgety. We chatted with founding member Joey Santiago about the band’s recording process, their upcoming tour and getting a kick out of bad reviews.

What should we know about the new album? How did you decide on the title?

Well, I’m not speaking on Charles’ [Thompson IV, real name of leader Black Francis] behalf, but the original title was going to be Cephalophore, which are the saints that carried their chopped off heads.

What’s special about this record?

This is one of our better works. Hopefully people will just take it as a piece of art and judge it with their ears. I do think the record is very, very good: it’s poppy, it’s got punch, it’s got a good variety of songs.

When making an album as a band, do you think in terms of the whole album and its theme or in terms of each song?

To me, we really don’t have such a theme. Maybe lyrically we will. I’d say lyrically it goes from head carrier to all the saints, it’s a whole story about cephalophores.

Tell me about Jack Palance's cameo of sorts on the song "Talent."

All I thought about was Jack’s face. It’s very angular. That’s all I know about Jack Palance.

You have a string of shows planned for November. What kind of shows do you enjoy playing the most these days?

For now I am looking forward for the bigger shows, because they are easier to play than the intimate shows. Even though you’re playing to a big crowd, for some reason it’s more comfortable. But club or theater shows feel great, too. The difference between the big festival and the club thing is that, for me, the festivals are easier and less stressful.

Because at the festival the attention is not only on you?

Exactly. You can’t see the white of their eyes.

So when you go to the stage on your shows now, who do you see in the crowd? Is it mostly older fans or you still get new fans? Because you did have a huge hiatus as a band, which probably divided your fanbase in two.

Yes. On the festivals what I would see is young crowd, ‘cause they’re the ones who have to be in the front, getting smooshed and stuff. At our own shows we see everyone — from teenagers to moms and dads.

This is your first record with Paz Lenchantin. Did the dynamics within the band change with her arrival?

Yes, of course. Anyone new added to this stew will make it different. She is definitely a pixie in every sense of the word. She’s elven like. She’s one of us, our new sister. She fit in ‘cause she was weird and we’re a bunch of weirdos. That’s what it is. Musically she’s great and her overall aura is very positive.

You also had a new producer this time around, which is a pretty risky decision since the producer is always like an unseen extra bandmember. How did this play out?

It kept us on our toes. We wanted a different audience member really. ‘Cause when we’re in the studio, we really are a band. The producer would be like another audience member. But he’ll also direct the whole thing according to the vision of the audience. He’s got a different way of working with us.

On "Oona" you sing "I wanna be in your band." Talking about wishful thinking, which band would you actually like be in? Maybe just for a moment...

I would like to be in The Jimi Hendrix Experience. No, I wouldn’t, wait a second… Led Zeppelin.

You did get a pretty bad review on Pitchfork last time around. Are you just going to skip reviews this time?

Nah, you know what, I’ll read them for entertainment. And what I look for are the bad reviews. It’s really common in this day and age. Go to Amazon — what do you wanna read? I like to read very shitty reviews. I would just peruse it, but it’s not that important to me.

A lot of younger people know you because of the Fight Club soundtrack. What other movies (old ones or future ones) would you like to put your music into, since you also work as a composer?

The genre I like to work with is drama. Movie-wise maybe I'd like to add my music to Run Lola Run.

For a musician who's been in this industry for so long, what do you think of the current hectic state of that industry? I'm talking streaming, clickbait music journalism, phone apps, etc, etc. What's your take on that over commercialized industry? Or you just go to the studio and make music?

Yeah, we just go to the studio and make music. As far as people trying to complain about Spotify and things like that — the cat is out of the bag. You’re gonna have to live with it. You’re gonna have to find a way to make it work for you. It’s more exposure to people. I look at the positive side of it. It’s immediate and you do get more listeners. And that’s what artist wants anyway: to be heard and play more shows.

Do you use any phone apps like Garage Band?

This is the other thing I wanted to say about current music thing: the CDs will sound superior to what you’re streaming. It’s just a better, better, better quality. But people just don’t know that. It doesn’t have the contingence of streaming but it does sound a lot better. And that’s the way we prefer people to listen to our music — that’s why we’re in the studio in the first place.

Are there any new artists who excite you?

God, I really can’t think of anybody. Not yet… They’re still at the garage.

Probably listening to Pixies and getting their homework done, huh?

Yeah, haha. Or whatever.