Talk To Frankie

A good band writes good music but a great band writes good music and then you scratch the surface and there’s so much more to find out… Like Brother.” Perched in the corner of Sunderland boozer, The Smugglers, surrounded by pictures of local ‘celebrities’ and CDs of the rather pessimistically monikered The Pipe Dreams, it’s clear that Frankie & The Heartstrings certainly belong to the second camp of drummer, Dave Harper’s tongue-in-cheek manifesto. As well as crafting the kind of joyously infectious, lovesick pop that evokes The Smiths and the heyday of Postcard Records with glorious ease, scratch this band’s surface and you’ll find a group that reference Bukowski as much as British Sea Power, that are bringing back a bit of old-fashioned quirk to their art and that are possibly the funniest bunch we could hope to spend a windy day on the Northern coast with. “We always say every day, as a joke, that it’s the best day of our lives, but it does seem to be getting better. It’s ridiculous. I mean no-one gets to do this as an actual living…” he continues, before being corrected by guitarist, Michael McKnight. “I don’t think it’s how many people get to do it, it’s how many idiots get a chance…” Since a slightly prickly line-up change that saw old axe-man Pete Gofton replaced by Mick Ross, the five-piece (completed by bassist Dennis, and of course, Frankie Francis himself) temporarily relocated to West Heath Studios, West Hampstead to work on their album with Orange Juice frontman and all-round legend, Edwyn Collins. Recorded in four weeks over a split period during the latter half of 2010, the album stretches back to include re-workings of their earlier singles (‘I Want You Back’ in particular has grown some lush guitar production and ‘Fragile’ is the epic centrepiece it always threatened to be) whilst also throwing in a couple of new surprises (‘That Postcard’, ‘Don’t Look Surprised’). Far from being a stressful foray into the life of a professional, working band however, the fitting pairing of artist and producer seems to have been more like Carry On Round the Studio… “We got really star-struck meeting him, meeting this person you idolise and then he came in, pulled his trousers down and was in his pants,” laughs McKnight. “Him and [his wife] Grace are like the couple off Father Ted. She started shouting. ‘Edwyn! You can’t be in your fucking pants in front of the lads!’, ‘Shut up Grace, know your place woman! We’re all friends. They can see me in my pants.’” “It was delightful just going and spending time, it was more like chilling out than going to record a record. It was like band camp,” continues Francis. “We went round to Edwyn’s one night and were drinking whiskey ‘til about 7 o’clock in the morning. He hadn’t had a drink in months and he went AWOL the day after. Noone came in, it was just us wandering around the studio…” Between leading musical icons astray and slaying the summer’s festival season in style (“We fucking smashed [Reading and Leeds], man. I’m not saying that in an Oasis way, there’s no bravado, but that happened”) the band managed to record ‘Hunger’- a knowingly wry ode to love and life in a humdrum town, packed full of collective backing vocals, Mike Leigh references and more infectiously catchy riffs than we thought possible. It’s the output of a band that very much know their own identity, that have a distinct view of the world and that create an entire ethos to inhabit – in their own words, “a great band is always more than just a record”. Sharing writing duties between the whole group and pooling ideas communally, the album is clearly the product of them as an equal five-piece – not that that means they necessarily all share the same musical tastes… Their biggest influences? “Orange Juice [Mike], Led Zeppelin [Dennis], Radiohead [Mark], The Smiths [Dave] and Pepsi and Shirley over here…” Three guesses who the last one may be. Be-quiffed and clad in a relatively low-key shirt/cardi ensemble, GQ’s 39th best dressed man (“But think how many people there are in the world. About 6 billion? I’m 39th out of 6 billion. But some of them don’t have clothes I guess…”) is altogether a more unassuming, down to earth character than his flamboyant onstage antics suggest. Though famed for their high-octane live shows and his Morrissey meets Brett Anderson dandyisms, Francis is a man that’s clearly very aware of how far they’ve come and how fickle it all can be. Far from the extrovert prancing behind the mic that we normally see, Frankie is fairly quiet with a wry sense of humour and entirely gracious about the whole situation. “I think a lot of bands don’t realise that when things are going that well and all the pressure’s there, that’s only gonna last a certain amount of time, but Wichita [their label] were all about building a career” he begins. “We’re very, very proud of what we’ve done in the studio and if that’s the only stamp we leave on the music world then I’m extremely proud of it. It’s the best thing I’ve ever achieved in me life.” Alongside their musical achievements, however, the band are also making waves with their blog/label/all-in-one-franchise Pop Sex Ltd. Influenced by Factory Records’ earlier idea, Pop Sex Ltd is essentially a catalogue of everything involving the band- from 7” singles to magazine articles to, er, Michael’s children. It’s the kind of interactive, all-inclusive gesture that sets the quintet apart from a legion of increasingly faceless bands churning out a rehash of whatever happens to be on trend. Here is an open window to the things that make Frankie & The Heartstrings tick, from mixtapes to jokes; it’s probably the most refreshingly innovative thing to come out of the indie world in years. “We didn’t want a barrier between the band and fans – there shouldn’t be, but for some reason for the last ten or fifteen years there has been. It’s so easy to respond to someone on Twitter or sign a record or something. I mean, why not? You’re doing this 24/7 so to take an hour, not even that, to sign some records and put them in the post is nothing,” enthuses the singer. “It could have anything on there if someone comes up with something that we find interesting,” continues Harper. “Don’t set yourself boundaries. Pop Sex is a concept that we have; we can do whatever we find interesting.” And their next addition to the site? “Our tour manager is really into jazz funk so he’s done a jazz funk version of our single, ‘Hunger’. He’s so into Jamiroquai that he just calls him Jamiro.” Anything, indeed, does go then. With a truly brilliant album under their belt, an increasing legion of fans and the kind of stage show that’s more fun than should be allowed for the ticket price, Frankie & The Heartstrings’ impressive 2010 is surely set to turn into an incendiary 2011. Anything else that you’re aiming for boys? “We’d like to be on the cover of The Fly… Can we be on the cover of The Fly? That’s pretty much all we read… The Fly.” Oh, you guys…

‘Hunger’ is released on Pop Sex Ltd./Wichita on 21st February.