Frank Black Makes It a Family Affair With Grand Duchy

Posted on Apr 15th 2009 3:00PM by Jason Cohen
Comments

Frank Black, the artist legally known as Charles Thompson, has lived in Eugene, Oregon for half a dozen years, during which time he's led the reunited Pixies, put out records as both Black Francis and Frank Black, worked with the late cult Christian rocker Larry Norman and produced the newest Art Brut record. He's also been a husband, and a father to five kids.

Now his home life and his music life have merged: Black Francis and wife Violet Clark have formed Grand Duchy, with a nine-track album, 'Petit Fours,' released this week on Cooking Vinyl.

Mixing rock 'n' roll with romance has been known to cause its share of drama (Fleetwood Mac), but can also be a real source of longevity (Sonic Youth, Yo La Tengo). So far, Black Francis finds it's really not an issue.

"In the band, we're not married," Black tells Spinner. "There's sort of personal time mode, and then there's rock 'n' roll mode. And the rock 'n' roll mode is very much about the record. With five children, we don't even really get a lot of time in the studio. A lot of times we don't even get time together -- one of us is with the children and one of us is in the studio. So when we do get into the studio at the same time, it's kind of precious to us.

"That's not to say we don't fight," he continues. "But we fight about the bass sound. We fight about a lyric. We fight about a chord progression. We fight about reverb. People talk about a band having conflict and creative tensions. That can be a good thing if you can get a cool balance and everyone's secure."

And in that sense, well, it's probably fair to say Grand Duchy is more stable than the Pixies.

"Being in a band with just people can be really juvenile," he says. "When you're in a band with people and you fight, there's always that chance that those types of conflicts endanger the relationship: Like, 'Oh man, we're fighting, we're not getting along, therefore we must go our separate ways.' Being married to someone can be really juvenile, too, but when you bring it into that other context and you're family with the person, there's more security. It's not like we're going to fight about some stupid record and then go home and not want to make out."

Download Grand Duchy Songs