THE MAKING OF SURFER ROSA by Pixies - featuring joey santiago, david lovering and steve albini

For the 35th anniversary of Pixies’ landmark debut album, Surfer Rosa, we take a detailed look at how it was made. After Charles Thompson and Joey Santiago bonded as suitemates at the University of Massachusettes Amherst, they decided to form a band. By putting an ad in the Boston Phoenix for “a female vocalist into Hüsker Dü and Peter, Paul and Mary,” they connected with Kim Deal, who was the only one to answer their ad. Deal’s husband, John Murphy, introduced them to drummer David Lovering and the Pixies lineup was solidified. As they began playing around Boston, producer Gary Smith offered to record a demo for them at Fort Apache Studios. After Ivo Watts-Russell of the label 4AD heard the tapes, he signed them to a contract and they released some of the demo recordings as an EP called Come On Pilgrim. They turned their attention to recording a full-length album and Watts-Russell suggested a young engineer named Steve Albini. Albini traveled to Boston to meet the band and they began recording the next day at a studio called Q Division.

In this episode, guitarist Joey Santiago describes the early connection he shared with Charles Thompson and how Surfer Rosa solidified the band’s sound and was an honest depiction of who they were. David Lovering talks about his approach to simplifying his drumming and why Surfer Rosa remains his personal favorite Pixies album. Engineer, Steve Albini reflects on how this record marked the first time he worked with a band he didn’t know and how he set out to prove his value by making unique suggestions and how that impacted the finished product. From Charles and Kim’s contrasting vocal styles to their trademark loud quiet loud dynamics to the benefits of metal picks and recording in a tiled bathroom to the uniquely dark subject matter of the lyrics to the recorded sounds of the session underway, we’ll hear the stories of how the record came together.

Notes and transcript

Purchase Surfer Rosa

Episode Credits:

Intro/Outro Music:

“Bunny Love” by Charlie Don’t Shake from the album, 1.800.Charliedontshake

Episode produced, edited and mixed by Dan Nordheim

Additional mixing and mastering by Jeremy Whitwam