Black Francis 'Disappointed' by Pixies Fixation

Twenty years ago, Black Francis made landmark albums like 'Surfer Rosa' and 'Doolittle' with the Pixies before internal acrimony caused the band to split in 1993. They reunited in 2004 for several tours, and, in 2009, celebrated the 20th anniversary of 'Doolittle' by playing the album in its entirety at shows around the world.

Even though Francis has put out over a dozen solo albums and the Pixies have only recorded one new song, 'Bam Thwok,' since '93, the frontman hasn't been able to escape the legacy of the band that made him famous. He even makes light of this on Twitter, as his bio reads "that guy from the pixies." While Francis understands that he'll never be completely free of the Pixies, the fixation by fans and journalists alike does wear him out at times.

"I understand it from a commercial point of view. 'What is this guy known for? He was in the Pixies so let's work in that angle for the article. That will attract more flies to the honey,'" he says. "I understand it but I'm a little bored."

Though he's content with place in the pantheon of music, Francis would like to be recognized more for the music he wrote, in some cases, over 20 years ago. "Privately, I'm a little disappointed, like 'Does it always have to just come down to that? Is that really all we're going to talk about?' It's sour grapes, I admit," he says. "I want to be more famous so people are examining my work couplet by couplet, you know what I mean? That's the level where I want to go."

"We're talking about rock journalism, and especially now with all this online stuff, it's just like there's a lot of real short, quick-blink pieces going on," he continues, "so there's sometimes there's not a lot of room for going on and on and on about the intricacies of my precious little song. So yeah, I get a little disappointed."

Black Francis' latest solo album, 'NonStopErotik,' is available now on Cooking Vinyl.