For almost 20 years, Frank Black has been one of alternative rock's weirdest and most original figures. As the frontman for the Pixies in the late '80s and early '90s, he helped set the course for practically any underground band to follow in the Pixies' wake. After embarking upon a solo career mixing hard rock and post-punk, he recently turned to Nashville for inspiration. His most recent effort, the double-disc Fast Man Raider Man, is a sprawling, charming collection of roots-rock, country and Americana augmented with his trademark wit and weirdness. Before he plays the High Noon Saloon tonight, Frank Black spoke with The Daily Cardinal.
The Daily Cardinal: On your new album, you're working with a lot of famous musicians [Spooner Oldham, Levon Helm, Al Kooper] who made their mark around or before when you were born. Is that intimidating?
Frank Black: Nah, not really. They're all really nice people and everything, so it's not intimidating, it feels like a really good opportunity to work with people that are really, really good. When someone's working on your record it's all about you, it's not about other people's egos.
DC: Over the course of your career you've moved from very surreal, weird lyrics to more straightforward lyrics about your personal life. Why do you think that happened?
FB: I don't know, I suppose you get older and you want to write different types of songs. When you first start out, when you're young, it's all about breaking the rules and appearing to be real edgy and everything, but it's also a kind of pretentious stance. Although wonderful things happen when people are young, when they're starting out.
But having said that, you want to be able to say something with conviction. After a while you feel you've paid enough dues in life that you can actually approach more emotional subject matter in a more clear way that people can understand and you don't feel embarrassed about it or whatever. You're just like yeah, I don't mind singing about this, I don't mind being a little bit naked up here.
DC: With that in mind, which do you prefer singing: Pixies stuff or your more recent material?
FB: I just judge everything as whether I think its good or whether or not I'm in the mood to play a particular song that I wrote, whether it's an old one or a recent one. They're all just songs to me and I stand by all of them, even the ones that suck or whatever. I accept them for what they are and I play what I'm in the mood to play.
DC: The song ""My Terrible Ways"" on your new album is very pretty, but it's also harsh, about a troubled man down on his luck. Are you writing about yourself in a round-about sort of way or is it just fiction?
FB: The song is about a guy I heard about down in Mississippi who was affected by this hurricane that went through a couple years ago. So I was not seeking to write a song about that, I just happened to see a news story about this guy. I didn't say to myself, ""oh I'm going to write a song about this,"" my brain absorbed the information. When I sat up one night trying to write a song, I had music in mind and was playing around with it and I liked the music enough that I was ready to submit a lyric to myself. And that was the lyric that came out, about this guy.
I don't know what to say, other than that's just my writing process. I'm not trying to do anything in particular when I'm writing a song other than write a song. I don't have any agenda in mind, like ""I must get me a Katrina song, I must write a confessional song, I must write an abstract song."" I don't really know, I'm just writing music and I don't like to paint myself into too tight of a corner.
DC: Do you ever write songs to fit an album's overall feel?
FB: No, again, I don't have a lot of forethought. Sometimes when I'm writing a lot of songs, it will occupy my brain a little bit when I leave the songwriting room. My wife will find it annoying to be around me when I'm writing a lot of songs because she's sitting there trying to talk to me and I'll be kind of blank, because I've got some chord progression going around in my head. Words I don't think about. Music I might think about, but I don't really think about words. Words are something that happen when I have a blank page in front of me. That's when I'm thinking about it, not when I'm walking down the street. Very deliberate.
DC: Any plans for the next few years of your career?
FB: No, I'm in this cycle of recording albums and going on tour. That's what I do. I'm not planning on pursuing a different career at the moment. I certainly don't have it all mapped out. I suppose I could get real specific with my plans, but what does that amount to? Next year I'm going to make a record, then I'll call my agent and say book me a tour. How specific can I get?
