The Martinis and Composing
After the breakup of the Pixies, Santiago went into a depression for the first couple of years but remained on good terms with bandmate Black Francis (who soon adopted the name Frank Black). Black, who was recording his 1993 debut album, Frank Black, contacted Santiago to ask whether he would contribute lead guitar. Santiago agreed, and he and Mallari drove from their home in Florida to Los Angeles. The couple ended up moving into Black's old apartment in L.A. on a whim. Santiago played lead guitar on a number of Frank Black's solo albums, including 1994's Teenager of the Year, and contributed lead guitar to Steve Westfield's 1994 album Mangled. He also formed The Martinis a year later with Mallari. Their recorded output by the end of the 1990s comprised a single song, the self-recorded "Free" (1995), which appeared on the film soundtrack of Empire Records. The band played live only occasionally until 2001.
In the mid-1990s, Santiago began to explore audio editing software. After composing for several independent films, including Crime and Punishment in Suburbia in 2000 (where he collaborated again with Black), Santiago co-scored the Fox Network TV series Undeclared with Michael Andrews. He continued to contribute lead guitar to albums, collaborating with Charles Douglas on his 2004 album Statecraft. He scored the 2003 film The Low Budget Time Machine and wrote two songs, "Birthday Video" and "Fake Purse," for the Showtime television series Weeds in 2005.
Mallari and Santiago continued to write new material as part of the Martinis, but no longer played live. Their debut album, Smitten, took two years to write and was released in 2004; the pair collaborated with a number of musicians, including drummer Josh Freese, during the recording. Santiago described the album as "a lot poppier and quirkier" than the band's previous material. The band simultaneously released The Smitten Sessions, a limited edition EP.
Read more about this topic: Joey Santiago
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