He is a man of many names; Black Francis when fronting alt-rock heroes Pixies; Frank Black when releasing solo material - something he hasn't done in years; and Charles Thompson, his given name, and the one he uses in his day-to-day life and when taking phone calls from journalists.

Thompson may have a forthcoming Pixies album to talk about but he doesn't seem keen to kick into promotional mode. It's a stance that shouldn't come as a surprise when one considers the uncompromising nature of Pixies' very best music, but it's still disconcerting to have questions answered briskly, without elaboration and - truth be told - a tad charmlessly. Maybe he's not a morning person.

The new album - Pixies' seventh - is called Beneath the Eyrie. The name was inspired by the old church in Woodstock, New York, where it was recorded.

"There was an eagle's nest outside," Thompson says. "David [Lovering] the drummer noticed it. The producer suggested the title. I thought it was a stupid title. Then, he brought it up a month later and I thought it wasn't so stupid, so I just went ahead with it."

It's the first time a Pixies album has not borrowed a song name or lyric in its title. "It was feeling restrictive to just follow the old rule."

Beneath the Eyrie is the second album the band have released since the departure of bassist Kim Deal - she left to focus on The Breeders, the group she founded with her twin sister, Kelley in the early 1990s. The album features the same personnel that made the spirited 2016 record, Head Carrier.

"We didn't book as much studio time as before," he points out, "because we knew we would work together well having done it before."

The 54-year-old Bostonian is an old hand at the art of songwriting, having released a fabled 18-track demo cassette, The Purple Tape, in 1987. It led to an album deal with the revered English label, 4AD. And yet, he says, it remains as difficult as ever to write something special.

"It's not easier now to just arrive at a good song," he says. "The goal is to come up with a good song, but sometimes you don't know [if that has been achieved that] when it's finished. Sometimes it's obvious, many times not. There's an ambiguity to it.

"I'm not better at spotting the difference [between what's good or not]," he adds. "Maybe it's easier to write a song now than it was, but it's no easier to write a good song."

He brought 30-odd songs and fragmentary compositions to the recording session and they were whittled down to the 12 that appear on the album. "Songs never feel like they're in my brain. Once an idea has been executed on an instrument, it's out of your head and in the room."

How does he begin a new song? He seems bored by the question. "You write on the guitar or sometimes on keyboard. I can write on anything. You do things sort of the same. There are always exceptions to the rule. I could write a song on a kazoo, but it's not going to feel dramatic, because the concept is still the same.

"The concept is still guitar, bass and drums with a vocal - that's the formula we're working with."

It may be the most basic format in rock, but Pixies mastered it. They have influenced everyone from Nirvana to Radiohead and The Frames, although Thompson has little interest talking about any of those bands.

He's more interested in discussing Tom Dalgety, the producer who helmed their latest album and its predecessor. "He's smart, he's younger than us, he's a good time manager, he's a nice guy, he's a man of few words. He has a lot of vision and he doesn't sit around talking about it. He probably knows that it's a waste of his time and a waste of the process."

Last year, Pixies played a residency at London's Roundhouse in support of their debut album, Surfer Rosa. The reviews were largely ecstatic. Thompson took it all in his stride. "It was interesting," he says, "because it was so formatted - so scripted, if you will. It didn't feel so different because we play so many songs from that album anyway. I can't say that it was a stroll down memory lane or something like that."

This year marks the 30th anniversary of Pixies' magnum opus, Doolittle, but Thompson has no plans on this occasion to perform the album in its entirety live. Might the band play more tracks from it on their forthcoming European tour, which includes an Olympia, Dublin date? Thompson doesn't hesitate. "No."

Did he realise they had made something special when they first went to the studio? "For which album?" Doolittle. "Joey [Santiago, the guitarisr] and I knew we had something special when we made the demos. You make some demos, you work hard on them, you have a cassette of them. Then you sit around the floor of your apartment and you play it back and it's like 'Woah!, that's good - it sounds like music'."

Thompson has been in prolific form since rekindling Pixies at the early part of this decade. 2014's Indie Cindy marked their first album in 23 years - and the last with Deal. He says he would release more music if the industry was structured in such a way that would allow new material any time he wished.

"The pace has been set by the market," he says, "otherwise, I'd be putting out a record a year or more."

Unlike other artists, he is not bothered by the pitiful royalties paid by the streaming giants. "Streaming is very convenient," he says. But not for the artist surely? "Yeah, whatever - it's show business, man. What am I going to do about that?

"Artists are making more money at the concerts. The artists complaining about the royalty rates on streaming don't tend to mention that there's a lot more demand for them to play in concert and people are willing to pay a lot more money for that experience than they are for the streaming experience.

"You could make the argument that artists were overpaid for a long time - I'm not making that argument, but I am saying that maybe people were overcharged when it came to buying albums."

The band, with former Zwan and Queens of the Stone Age bassist Paz Lenchantin replacing Deal, remain a formidable live proposition and Thompson says he's looking forward to taking the new songs on the road in Europe.

"Touring has not changed much and that's good," he says. "The tech aspects are obviously better and the venues have improved, but that feeling of walking on stage and looking out at a crowd has not changed one bit."

He's happy to be playing the Olympia. "A wonderful building and a wonderful neighbourhood." Having played big outdoor shows here in support of the likes of Red Hot Chilli Peppers (in front of more than 100,000 people at the Phoenix Park) and Arcade Fire at Marlay Park, Pixies aficionados will be pleased to see Thompson and friends kick up a racket at a more intimate environment.

"It's good to see the whites of their eyes," he says. "It's easier to make that connection."

'Beneath the Eyrie' is released on September 13. Pixies play the Olympia, Dublin on September 26

Indo Review