“Honestly, I got so deep into these songs that I simply got lost within them. Not lost musically, because my hands were on auto pilot. My hands just do it and I’m not doing it. The kick and snare were playing my hands. The guitars were playing my hands. The rhythm and melody and harmony were all playing my hands, but I was not. I have an almost out of body experience from it. It’s a very cool experience, but at some point I can psych myself out within a set, especially when I’m playing “Where’s My Mind?” [laughs]. When I hear those lyrics, it makes me wonder where my mind really is.” Paz Lenchantin paces her Los Angeles home as she thinks back to the early days of the writing process for the Pixies’ latest album Doggerel. She revisits the relief she felt in rejoining her band after two years of solitude during the lockdown, and laments on the anguish she experienced in not being able to tour for their previous release, Beneath the Eyrie [2019]. But now she’s riding a wave of elation, as the ever-jovial bassist is excited to be back touring the world in support of an album that she couldn’t be happier with. The constantly changing moods and tempo shifts of Doggerel seem to match the rollercoaster of emotions experienced mutually by Paz and her bandmates—vocalist/rhythm guitarist Black Francis, lead guitarist Joey Santiago, and drummer David Lovering—over the course the album’s creation. Now eight years into her tenure as the Pixies’ bassist after filling the big shoes of founding member Kim Deal in 2014, Lenchantin feels entirely at home with her legendary outlet. Her bass serves as a driving force and even focal point on much of the new album, including her charging work on “Nomatterday,” “Dregs of the Wine,” and “There’s a Moon On.” Her sound is more dialed in than ever as she embraces the simplicity of her beloved 1965 P-Bass through an Ampeg SVT full stack. Her vocals provide a beautiful melodic contrast to those of Black Francis’ iconic and often jarring voice, and her stage presence has become a welcomed sight to their hordes of decade-long fans. The pent up emotions that were quelled and finally emoted into the frequencies of this album are all being released now, and Paz is experiencing as much relief and she is excitement. After releasing Beneath the Eyrie right as COVID hit, it must’ve felt good going back in to create this new album. To be honest, I was pretty heartbroken that we weren't able to tour the Beneath the Eyrie record. I love that album and we were literally gearing up to tour it when the lockdown started. Just like any broken heart, you want to fill it the next time with something that's even stronger. I think we accomplished that. If it were any sooner, we might not have felt that we needed to make another record. But because so much time went by it made sense. And