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Artist News
Pixies’ Black Francis says bassist swap-ins “ain’t that big of a deal”
By Aly Barchi | Published on Wednesday 18 December 2013
Black Francis has talked all casually about Pixies’ one-in-one-out policy on bass players, which saw founding Pixie Kim Deal quit earlier this year, having her spot filled by The Muffs’ Kim Shattuck, only for Shattuck to herself be gazumped by Paz Lenchantin last week. Shattuck was in the band for less than a year, and recently said that while she didn’t bear Pixies any ill will, she felt “shocked” to find – via the band’s manager – that she’d been fired.
So, that’s the sorry story so far. But what’s Black Francis’s take on it? Well, sounding much like a man scared to commit, he says to Yahoo!: “What I would say is, just because some shows went well or a recording session went well with somebody, that doesn’t mean that now you guys are married and this is forever. It’s not really how it works when you’re a band. And it’s hard to explain to people, especially if they get emotionally attached to one person”.
Ouch, that hurts. But hold up with your intrusive questioning, because, adds Black F: “Frankly you don’t want to explain it to anybody – a lot of it’s personal, private shit. It’s like politics and sports and people’s personal lives have all been smeared together in this modern world. It’s a very presumptuous attitude about a lot of things. ‘Oh you’re shifting something in your world – we demand a statement as to why’. I’m not the mayor, this isn’t the bus service for a town. This is a rock band”.
And finally – the Kims will love this: “There’s been a shift in the line-up, big woop-dee-doo… as far as we’re concerned it ain’t that big of a deal”.
