GREG REESE
Arts Editor

Shuyler Jansen moved to Saskatoon a number of years ago and has been blowing away the local alt-country scene ever since.

Before that, his band Old Reliable was a mainstay of the Edmonton scene. He has toured nationally and internationally countless times with Old Reliable, The Deep Dark Woods and as a solo artist. Jansen talked with the Sheaf about the highly influential American band the Pixies — their influence during their own time and in current music trends, mainstream and underground.

The Sheaf: When did you first encounter the Pixies?
Shuyler Jansen: Probably in the early ’90s. They started in like ’83 or so — in the mid ’80s — a similar time to all the Dinosaur Jr, Husker Du and Replacements stuff, maybe a little later than that.

I had heard songs in clubs, like remixes. I think the album Doolittle was somewhat old by the time I heard it. I mean I was hearing club remixes, right?

“They established the airy girl vocal and the guy vocal just grating. Kim Deal was the good cop; Black Francis was the bad cop.”
-Shuyler Jansen
on the Pixies

We used to hang out in the stairwells listening to the tunes, because we didn’t really dance and we just wanted to hang out and talk to the girls. Doolittle was one of those classic albums that everyone had; every party played The Pixies. I think they might have come to Edmonton right before they broke up, but I didn’t see them. I was probably too young at the time.

Sheaf: What attracted you to their sound?
Jansen: I think the thing I like the best is that they are a band. In other words, every part of a song is integral; all the members have catchy, interesting contributions to each song.

Basically, Black Francis and Kim Deal wrote the songs and eventually it was more of a Black Francis thing, because Kim Deal was probably saving her songs for the Breeders. But the arrangements were a group effort. Many of the songs must have started on a riff-jam.

Sheaf: Have they influenced your sound directly or indirectly?
Jansen: Probably some sonic influence. I don’t know that any of it would show other than that. Just tonal and sonically; just my love for some form of abrasion once in a while, and delay and reverb. But I don’t think my music sounds anything like theirs.

Sheaf: Are they still a band ?
Jansen: I think they got back together to do the entirety of a record at a concert, you know how bands do that now? I think they were trying to make a new album but it was a disaster or something; I’m not sure. I think that they like each other but only to a point. Black Francis is firing out records every year still and the Breeders are doing some touring too.

Sheaf: Do you have a favourite album or song?
Jansen: I really like “This Monkey’s Gone to Heaven,” which is always a classic, and “Where is my Mind?” but I don’t have a favourite album. They have many, many great-ass songs but they also have weird jams which are album filler. So it’s better to make a Pixies mix-tape, in some ways.

Sheaf: How would you describe their aesthetic in words?
Jansen: There is a Mexican surf mentality, almost like a new genre, like Tex-Mex and the California surf thing mixed together.  But also this spazz abrasion and some super candy-ass pop songs like “Here Comes Your Man.” But they invented the loud, quiet, loud thing — distortion on, off, on. Nirvana picked up on that and now it has been done to the point that it makes people gag, like it’s done on mainstream radio all the time. That’s what the documentary about the Pixies is called, loudQUIETloud. So that is a good way to describe their aesthetic.

Sheaf: Were they college radio or mainstream radio?
Jansen: Mostly college radio. Near the end, there was a bit of mainstream FM because they opened up for U2. Then they broke up. I assume the mainstream push kind of drove them apart. But since they broke up, their reunion tour sold out in two minutes. They literally had to add a second date to every place they booked.

In the 10 years they were broken up, they probably gained in popularity tremendously.

Sheaf: What kind of bands do you associate with the Pixies then and now?
Jansen: I hear them in a lot of stuff now, both bad and good. They were peers of Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr, the Meat Puppets — ’80s underground stuff. They probably were a massive influence on Nirvana and from there all kinds of bad and good.

Probably the most obvious influence is Mother Mother. Sometimes they sound dead on to the Pixies; still, I don’t really listen to them. And the Killers definitely. But you don’t need to put that in the article; nobody needs to hear about them.

Sheaf: Why do you think they have such staying power?
Jansen: They wrote good songs and there was a nice variety on the records. They were just exciting.  They made good records. The production of their records was probably better than their peers, they had better arrangements and recording than a lot of the lo-fi blanket production that went on in the ’80s. You listen to Surfa Rosa and the drum sound is amazing. It is clearly good tapes, good mics, good pre-amp and a good room.

Plus, the girl boy thing. They established the airy girl vocal and the guy vocal just grating. Kim Deal was the good cop; Black Francis was the bad cop. They were the first with the hot girl bass player. Indie boys came to watch her and probably girls too. The Pixies are like indie rock 101; all the great clichés. They’re a good archetype or whatever. Not that I want anyone to start an indie rock band; there are enough already.

Shuyler Jansen is embarking on a west coast tour, ending at Amigos on Oct. 30.