Frankmusik (Jam Sut)
In the middle of his UK mini-tour, Frankmusik chatted to us about his upcoming second album, moving to LA and producing Erasure's album.
-How's the mini-tour been going so far?
Oh, it's been wicked. Absolutely wonderful. It's just really good to get to see some old fans and show them that I'm still alive!
-Have you had a chance to play much new material?
Oh, yeah, I've been doing loads of new material. The people who look after me were worried about me doing too many songs. I want people to hear it! It's been 18 months. It's been an absolute blast, people have been into it so it's been wonderful.
-They've all been going down well, then?
Yeah. The way I've done the shows is set up like a DJ set. There's no gaps, everything is at a dancey tempo. I've remixed a lot of the old songs, so they don't just sound like they used to.
The fans that have turned up are the hardcore ones, because the venues I've been doing are pretty small and obscure. They still singalong even though it's a completely remixed song.
I've got this huge backdrop, all these lights. I really invested in the live show, to make it more of a spectacle. It's been great, you know?
-Do you prefer the live environment to being locked away in a studio?
No. I feel very privileged that I can do both sides of the job. I love to entertain on stage. I love working a crowd on stage as much as I love working at a Macbook Pro.
-Are you excited to get the single out finally?
Yeah, I'm just excited. Doing the gigs is what really gets me going. You get that immediate reaction from the fans, and that's magic.
-What stage is the new album at?
It's done. It'll be out in September.
-What can fans expect from it compared to your earlier work?
Well, I was 22 or 23 when I finished that album, so you can imagine. Most people have only just left university then. The worst grade I got at A Level was Music Technology, so that tells you a little bit. I'm much more practised in my craft.
I think I've got better at songwriting, better at production. The whole thing's just a lot more solid. It feels like a much with-it record. I love the first album, don't get me wrong, but I just feel like I knew what I was doing this time.
-Did you try anything differently this time round?
Oh, yeah. For a start, I moved to Los Angeles. I collaborated with a lot of people, which I didn't do at all on the first album. I got a bunch of Cherry Tree Record label artists - my American record label - all over the record.
It's so refreshing. I've brought other talent to the table, cos I've helped a lot of talent elsewhere, outside of my own project, like Ellie Goulding and Tinchie Stryder. I wanted to do that on my record, kinda like Mark Ronson almost.
-Did you get a free reign of who you brought in, or was there any pressure from the record label?
No pressure, actually. I wanted to solely work with the Cherry Tree artists. They're my new family, as it were.
I wanted to stay in the safety net of something that was being looked after by my record label.
Sometimes, collaborating without the safety net of your own record label, people want certain things and it just gets ugly. If it's all under one roof, the house is in order!
-How much did being in LA affect the sound of the record?
I hope it did, because that was the idea. I wanted to challenge myself. It was very scary going over there with nothing.
I didn't have a record deal in America. I didn't have any friends or anything there. I challenge myself, and the music does sound different, absolutely.
It's just more polished, but not in a contrived way. It's not like I just stuck to a formula. The style's very different. There's slower songs. I've still got my old sounds in there, but it sounds like a record that more people would get.
-Have you noticed any big differences in the music scene over there, compared to back here?
Yes, of course, massively. America is a hugely different culture to Britain. We're an island, they're a huge country. Each state is like its own country.
The music culture there is wildly different. It's like a mega-city. London feels like a town compared to the city of Los Angeles. That's just one place. You go there, and...I can't even begin to explain it.
Here, there's a formula. Get it on Radio 1, get it on regional radio, and you're good to go. In America, you have to kiss goodbye to whatever work schedule you thought was hard work.
The work schedules in America are just ridiculous, like sometimes six flights a day.
-How are you finding it trying to break America?
It was never my intention to try to break America or anywhere. Mate, three years ago I was selling jeans in a High Street shop. My intention is to make music, and I want to travel with it.
I want to be around new people, new experiences. I'm setting my life up in America with my future wife. That's just where I want to be for now, but that might all change.
-Do you hope your second album will build on the success of Complete Me?
No, I think Complete Me was a good record in its own right, but I've kind of hit the reset button. I want to embrace a lot more friends who probably would've had no idea about the first record.
I think this record stands up well on its own, without there ever having been one before it, if that makes sense.
-Would you consider another straight-up acoustic album?
I'm doing it! I'm re-doing the whole record acoustically again, which I enjoy.
-Would you ever be tempted to do an acoustic album with a separate set of songs, rather than the album again?
Yeah, the third album...my fiancee lives in Minnesota, where Owl City and all these people come from. I'm going there to do a stripped down, live instrument record. I'm doing it in Minnesota, because I want a whole, wordly new challenge. I think it would be a wonderful experience.
-Do you have any plans with the production side with other artists, or are you just focusing on your own career?
No, I just finished in October Erasure's new album, and I produced the whole thing.
-Do you enjoy getting to work with artists just as much as your own material?
It's probably the same as you being a journalist. If you kept on doing the same interview questions, to the same person, you'd just get bored. I think they help each other.
Working with other people keeps me wanting to do my own work. Doing my own work allows me to find new ways to experiment. That helps me practice my craft in my own material.
-Have any collaborations stood out?
I've been so lucky. Everyone I worked with has done so bloody well, they've gone onto such amazing things. I just hope that I can keep working with such super talented people, and have the privilege of getting a record down and released.
-What do you have planned for the rest of the year?
I don't really know! The record label have got plans. We're not going to go hard in England with the record.
I want to go, get a tour bus and tour the whole of America on my own. Get a little van and just drive about with a couple of bandmates, do a toilet tour across America. I want to get amongst it, do some travelling.
If we get radio attraction, then we'll go to that country. Until that happens, I'm pretty much a free agent. I've got the Erasure album to look forward to a month before mine. I can just chill out a bit actually, which is quite nice.
Female First - Alistair McGeorge
Photo: Jam Sut
In the middle of his UK mini-tour, Frankmusik chatted to us about his upcoming second album, moving to LA and producing Erasure's album.
-How's the mini-tour been going so far?
Oh, it's been wicked. Absolutely wonderful. It's just really good to get to see some old fans and show them that I'm still alive!
-Have you had a chance to play much new material?
Oh, yeah, I've been doing loads of new material. The people who look after me were worried about me doing too many songs. I want people to hear it! It's been 18 months. It's been an absolute blast, people have been into it so it's been wonderful.
-They've all been going down well, then?
Yeah. The way I've done the shows is set up like a DJ set. There's no gaps, everything is at a dancey tempo. I've remixed a lot of the old songs, so they don't just sound like they used to.
The fans that have turned up are the hardcore ones, because the venues I've been doing are pretty small and obscure. They still singalong even though it's a completely remixed song.
I've got this huge backdrop, all these lights. I really invested in the live show, to make it more of a spectacle. It's been great, you know?
-Do you prefer the live environment to being locked away in a studio?
No. I feel very privileged that I can do both sides of the job. I love to entertain on stage. I love working a crowd on stage as much as I love working at a Macbook Pro.
-Are you excited to get the single out finally?
Yeah, I'm just excited. Doing the gigs is what really gets me going. You get that immediate reaction from the fans, and that's magic.
-What stage is the new album at?
It's done. It'll be out in September.
-What can fans expect from it compared to your earlier work?
Well, I was 22 or 23 when I finished that album, so you can imagine. Most people have only just left university then. The worst grade I got at A Level was Music Technology, so that tells you a little bit. I'm much more practised in my craft.
I think I've got better at songwriting, better at production. The whole thing's just a lot more solid. It feels like a much with-it record. I love the first album, don't get me wrong, but I just feel like I knew what I was doing this time.
-Did you try anything differently this time round?
Oh, yeah. For a start, I moved to Los Angeles. I collaborated with a lot of people, which I didn't do at all on the first album. I got a bunch of Cherry Tree Record label artists - my American record label - all over the record.
It's so refreshing. I've brought other talent to the table, cos I've helped a lot of talent elsewhere, outside of my own project, like Ellie Goulding and Tinchie Stryder. I wanted to do that on my record, kinda like Mark Ronson almost.
-Did you get a free reign of who you brought in, or was there any pressure from the record label?
No pressure, actually. I wanted to solely work with the Cherry Tree artists. They're my new family, as it were.
I wanted to stay in the safety net of something that was being looked after by my record label.
Sometimes, collaborating without the safety net of your own record label, people want certain things and it just gets ugly. If it's all under one roof, the house is in order!
-How much did being in LA affect the sound of the record?
I hope it did, because that was the idea. I wanted to challenge myself. It was very scary going over there with nothing.
I didn't have a record deal in America. I didn't have any friends or anything there. I challenge myself, and the music does sound different, absolutely.
It's just more polished, but not in a contrived way. It's not like I just stuck to a formula. The style's very different. There's slower songs. I've still got my old sounds in there, but it sounds like a record that more people would get.
-Have you noticed any big differences in the music scene over there, compared to back here?
Yes, of course, massively. America is a hugely different culture to Britain. We're an island, they're a huge country. Each state is like its own country.