Pixies will issue a new studio album in September and document the recording process with an upcoming behind-the-scenes podcast, “Past Is Prologue, Pixies.” The alt-rock band recorded their as-yet-untitled seventh LP with producer Tom Dalgety, who helmed their most recent record, 2016’s Head Carrier.
The quartet — singer-guitarist Black Francis, guitarist Joey Santiago, bassist-singer Paz Lenchantin, drummer David Lovering — wrote the album throughout 2018 and recorded it in December at Dreamland Recordings near Woodstock, New York. The record is their second with Lenchantin, who joined the lineup in 2014 (following original bassist Kim Deal and the briefly tenured Kim Shattuck).
Pixies previewed the podcast, created with Signal Co. No1, in a trailer clip that summarizes the band’s history and teases their latest recording sessions with in-studio footage. “No one wants to hear them try and retread things that they’ve done before,” says Dalgety.
Music journalist Tony Fletcher, the author of popular biographies of R.E.M. and the Who’s Keith Moon, will host and narrate the weekly, 12-episode podcast. The writer guides listeners through time spent in the studio control room, main room and a special “video booth” where band members shared their observations throughout the recording; Fletcher also interviewed the Pixies and Dalgety individually.
A new installment of the series will be available each week, beginning June 27th, building to the album’s release. The podcast will be available globally on Apple, Spotify, Acast, Stitcher, Google and other platforms.
In a statement about the podcast, Signal Co. No1 co-founder Michael Simons said they chose the title “Past Is Prologue” “as it refers to the duality of a journey, what the band has done previously and what the band Is doing now.” He added, “While the emphasis of the podcast will be on the creation of the new album and looking forward, we were very interested, from a story perspective, in the way history has shaped who the Pixies are, and how and what they are creating now, how the past creates the present.”
Ahead of the album’s September release, Pixies will launch a five-week arena tour with Weezer that includes a handful of solo headlining dates. The trek commences March 8th in Louisville, Kentucky and wraps April 12th in Las Vegas, Nevada.