More than ten years ago, Pixies mastermind Frank Black came up with an idea to record an album called Black on Blonde. As Bob Dylan did for Blonde on Blonde, his 1966 classic, Black planned to travel to Nashville with a batch of fresh songs and lay them down at breakneck speed, backed by some of the greatest session musicians in town. Finally, in April 2004, just days before the Pixies mounted their monumental reunion tour, Black, 40, met in Music City with legends like Stax guitarist Steve Cropper, Muscle Shoals bassist David Hood and keyboardist Spooner Oldham. The result is Honeycomb (the Black on Blonde title was deemed too cheeseball), a mind-blowing collection of tasty, laid-back tunes. It's out on July 19th, smack in the middle of the Pixies' summer tour, which kicked off on May 26th. "Some of those guys played with Elvis," says Black about the Honeycomb band. "It was the only time that it's ever happened to me in a recording studio, but it felt spiritual."

What is your first musical memory?

Watching my brother Errol dancing along to a 45 of "Brand New Key," by Melanie. [Sings] "I got a brand-new pair of roller skates/You got a brand-new key." My mom would put it on at our apartment in Marblehead, Massachusetts.

You moved around a lot as a kid. What records did you drag along with you?

I had a lot of Beatles records, but they got sold at a yard sale without my knowledge.

Oh, no. Did you lose your shit?

No. I was like, "Oh, I see. All right. Whatever." My mother and stepfather feel extraordinarily guilty about it to this day. Maybe it goes back to the time where my little record collection was disrespected, but ever since then I've disrespected my own record collection. I don't treat records and CDs as a precious commodity. I lose them, I scratch them -- I have piles of CDs with no cases.

What albums have you repurchased the most?

Iggy Pop's Lust for Life. And in the last ten years, I've purchased a lot of copies of I'm Your Man, by Leonard Cohen. If I'm on a drive and there's a record store, I'm going in and buying it. I don't give a shit if I have five copies of it already. It's good for the economy, for the record store and for the artist.

What's your favorite song on Blonde on Blonde?

That record's unbelievable. It's triumphant and defiant and thrilling from beginning to end. I'd say "Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again." The drums, man. It's Kenny Buttrey. I actually get choked up sometimes listening to those snare fills. I can't believe how beautiful it is.

Why do so many of your songs have to do with the ocean?

I suppose the water is attached to a lot of lore -- to the mythological. It's the water, it's the salt, it's where we come from. There's a lot of heavy shit going on between humans and the ocean. It could be the tsunami, El Nino, the cod, pirates, Poseidon, whatever.

So you like riding in boats?

Not particularly. I'm a little scared.

Where and when do you write a song?

I write after I book a recording session. I'll book something a month or so in advance. Then I have a target date that I'm shooting for to contact my muse.

How do you contact the muse?

Telepathy or something. I'm not sure exactly how it happens, but it's a lot of sitting around and thinking. Ask my ex-wife or my fiancee, but when I go into that mode I'm not very good at conversation. I say, "What?" a lot when people are trying to talk to me.

What band would you like to see reunite?

Angst. I'm sure there are other bands called Angst, but this is an obscure one from SST [Southern California indie label] in the mid-Eighties. They used to play at the Rathskeller in Boston -- that's where I first heard them. Then I bought all their records. They were a San Francisco trio -- high energy but not punk -- and they were very influential on the Pixies and on me. Lite Life is their best album -- good luck finding it.

Has anyone in the Pixies ever thrown a punch at another band member?

Sort of. Years ago I kicked a guitar at Kim [Deal]. I remember why, but it's not important. The guitar was on a stand, and I picked it up with my foot and flung it across the stage. I feel terrible about it. It was a very asshole-y thing to do. It didn't hit her. It was all in slow motion. She kind of stepped to the side in shock.

Are there any classic Pixies songs that you wrote drunk, fucked up, baked or on pills?

I can't think of any. I don't put a lot of stock in doing creative things under the influence -- it certainly doesn't work for me. I used to be a marijuana smoker, and the only thing I ever did creatively while smoking marijuana is parallel-park.

The Pixies brought a film crew to document the last tour. What footage do you hope they won't show?

They were following us around for, like, nine months. After a while it was like, "Fuck it. Get out of my way. I'm going to take a shower." So, anything with myself semi-nude.