Formed in the wake of
the Pixies' breakup,
the Martinis feature
Joey Santiago and his wife Linda Mallari as the group's creative core.
Santiago
was born in Manila, Philippines, and when he was seven, moved to
Yonkers, NY with his family. However, he spent most of his childhood in
Massachusetts and went to college at U. Mass Amherst. This was where he
met
Charles Thompson (aka
Black Francis and later,
Frank Black);
during this time he also met Mallari, who was studying Communications
and Music at Emerson College. Classically trained in voice and piano
since grade school, Mallari came from a music-loving family and had been
performing in some fashion since childhood. Mallari offered to sing
backing vocals for
the Pixies (who had not performed any shows at that time), but since the band already had bassist/singer
Kim Deal, Mallari didn't join the group. However, when
the Pixies split in 1993,
Santiago and Mallari began working on their own music as
the Martinis. For a time,
Pixies' drummer
David Lovering played with the band, appearing on the group's song "Free," on the
Empire Records soundtrack, but left to become the touring drummer for
Cracker. The Martinis had a revolving rhythm section on their subsequent releases, including
that dog's
Rachel Haden on bass for the group's 1998 self-titled, self-released debut album. Around this time
Santiago's career as a composer began to take off; he wrote the score for 2000s Crime and Punishment in Suburbia, a project that
Frank Black also contributed to, and also wrote music for the cult TV show Undeclared. 2004 was a big year for both
Santiago and
the Martinis: along with the hotly-anticipated
Pixies reunion tour,
the Martinis released their second album,
Smitten, on the Artist Direct label.
