Black Francis isn’t giving up on his musical career just yet after leaving his Pixies life behind to start a new group with his wife Violet Clark.
The new group will be called Grand Duchy and they plan to release a debut album, entitled Petits Fours, in April.
Francis, aka Frank Black, admits the project has been a long time coming: "Once upon a time, Violet and I went into the studio together for a day as an experiment, and we came out that night with (the track) Fort Wayne. A leaked version seemed to please others, and so we decided to continue the experiment."
But husband and wife haven't always been a dream duo in the studio. Francis adds, "Our second recording session involved a fair amount of shouting and throwing things, much to the horror, I'm sure, of our two engineers, Thaddeus Moore and Jason Carter. A band truce developed and over time we threw less objects and began to enjoy our creative tension."
The Debaser singer hopes the success of Grand Duchy will help him buy a home in Luxembourg for his family. He explains, "We decided during a drive to the studio that we would take any proceeds and make a down payment on a house in Luxembourg for some strange reason... I guess that's where the name Grand Duchy came from.
"Maybe that's where we will come from one day - the crossroads of Europe. Near to here and there, but far from (current home) Oregon. Cold, gray Oregon. We just want a little place on the river, in the ravine, in the trees, in the stars. Our pied-de-terre. A place to stop on our way to your European nite klub (sic)."