KURT COBAIN was never shy about how much of an influence Pixies had on him and his music.
“I have to admit, when I heard the Pixies for the first time, I connected with that band so heavily that I should have been in that band — or at least a Pixies cover band. We used their sense of dynamics, being soft and quiet, and then loud and hard,” he told Rolling Stone in 1994.
Aside from Pixies frontman Black Francis having expressed respect for Cobain in the past, he hasn’t spoken much about his feelings towards Nirvana or how they utilized Pixies’ loud-quiet-loud dynamic in their own music.
Now, in an interview with Ultimate Guitar’s Justin Beckner, the band’s guitarist Joey Santiago has given a bit more insight into what he really thought about Cobain and co.
“They were great,” Santiago said when asked what he thinks of Nirvana. “When they came out, I didn’t really listen to the record [‘Nevermind’] when it came out. It just wasn’t the type of music I was listening to at the time. But I have listened to it in its entirety, and it’s a great record.
“They’re just a great band. It turns out I didn’t really have to listen to the record because all their songs were on the f*cking radio already. It was like, ‘Why even listen to the record?’ because the music was everywhere. I’ve heard it at malls. I’ve heard it at cafes. I’ve heard it everywhere.”
When asked if there are certain Nirvana songs he’s listened to where he can clearly recognize Pixies’ influence or that he thinks sounds like a Pixies song, Santiago replied:
“Yeah, I can hear it. But I can also hear a lot of the stuff that I lifted from other artists. So it’s just the way music is. You hand your influences over to the next band.”
