FriXion
Boy-band FriXion are looking to stand out above the rest as they move ever-closer to their debut album.
After forming from an advert in industry newspaper The Stage, Neil Painter, Johnny Wright and David Stanton have gone from strength-to-strength.
We caught up with Neil just after the release of their new single 'Under The Influence' to talk about the the band's formation, the challenges they've had to overcome and how they're looking to the future.
-'Under The Influence' came out recently. Were you glad to get it out there?
Yeah, definitely. It's been a while. We did put out a track last year called 'Afraid'. That was our introduction track - it's been a year in the waiting since then to get this out as the first official single from us. It's been a big struggle and a lot of hard work. It's good to see it pay off now. It's on the TV, it's getting a good reaction. We'll see how it goes.
-Has it felt like a long wait between the two tracks, or have you been kept busy enough?
We've kept busy. We had a really good stretch of shows where we toured with The Wanted, D-Dubz, Chipmunk, them kind of successful UK artists.
We managed to get support slots - considering we're a group of three lads form the Midlands who started this group ourselves a few years ago, to be doing those kind of shows, it's really cool.
We had Dappy saying that watching us perform made him want to take up singing lessons. It's just really surreal that we're getting this kinda response, we just hope it continues.
We were pushing, shooting all the videos in advance, so that when we started with 'Under The Influence', we had everything lined up ready. The album is now complete, so that's really good as well.
-Ah ok, so the album's totally done now?
We've got one last studio session to touch up the tracks. We've been recording tracks over the last couple of years, we've got a ridiculous amount - we've got about 30 tracks done.
We're going to revisit a couple that we did at the start and just touch up the vocals cos, as with anything, you kinda improve over time. In general, yeah, it's all finished.
-You mentioned the support slots with artists like The Wanted. Did any particularly stand out for you?
The Wanted show was great. We turned on the Christmas lights with The Wanted. There were a lot of people on the bill that were doing really well, a lot of X Factor people.
The fact that we were there, the unknowns on the bill, but artists like The Wanted were coming up to us and said "We love what you're doing, we hope you make it".
Also, the N-Dubz one, cos it surprised us. We weren't sure what to make of N-Dubz, cos of how they're portrayed in the media. They were actually really cool to us, they had a lot of time for us. Dappy was so chilled, really took the time to hang out with us. Touring with them was really cool.
-Is there anyone you'd like to get the chance to share the stage with?
Oh, wow! For me, personally, someone like Neo. I look up to people like him, or Justin Timberlake. There's some great UK artists at the moment, which is really good. You've got people like Professor Green, Jessie J, Adele - they're really killing it. There's a lot of British acts we'd love to share the stage with.
-You formed as a band after an advert in The Stage, which has launched the careers of many pop acts over the years. Do you think that route is still a good option, despite the rise of things like The X Factor?
Yeah, it's tough to say. Me and Dave were at college, there were just two of us at the time. We decided we wanted to form a band, and we paid it from our own money that we'd earnt ourselves. We put an audition in The Stage, which Johnny came to.
From then, we've formed the group naturally. We've been friends for years, and that's a good, solid basis to work on.
I don't know, there's nothing wrong with The X Factor. The talent it's bringing out, especially this year, is so strong. You can't knock anyone for wanting to do this - whatever route works for you, works for you.
We didn't really feel like The X Factor is where we wanted to go. We wanted to do it the old-fashioned way, work from the ground level - go on the school tours, the under-18s and night club tours, the festivals and really build a fan-base.
The sad thing with The X Factor is that people do come and go, and get forgotten. That's a shame, we don't want to be like that. We hope we can build that foundation of fans that stays loyal to us.
-So, do you think how natural it has been will help your longevity in the end?
Yeah, definitely - and because it's not happened over night, we really appreciate it more. Those sweeter moments will feel so sweet. Nothing's been handed to us, we've really had to grasp. It is nice to be seeing little differences being made - even down to being the second most-requested video on Starz TV. To be in front of Jessie J and Dappy in the chart, it's crazy to know that we've built up a fan-base to get us to number 2 in that requested chart.
-It's all starting to pay off, but what were the big challenges you had to overcome towards the beginning of your career?
Mainly knock-backs from, I guess, labels and trying to get that major deal, it's been hard to come by. We had a few near-misses where we were scouted by people like Sony, Universal, had a showcase, then another, the main person coming to see us and tell us everything was fantastic and let's work together.
Then, for whatever reason, next thing you know, that guy had been fired - that kinda thing. We never really seemed to stumble on the kind of luck that we felt our hard work deserved.
Even with 'Afraid', there was a problem with the way it was registered for the charts. Even though we'd done really well and amassed a lot of pre-orders - we were the number one pre-order on Play.com, a lot of people were expecting big things from us.
But, due to a problem with the distribution it was messed up, and none of the sales we made that week counted towards the chart.
That was disheartening, so we've had a lot of bad luck and we're praying for a turnaround. In the last couple of week's we've just secured a deal with Universal in Canada. In January we'll go over there.
-You've also got the school tours. Could you tell us a bit more about that?
Yeah, we've actually just finished the last leg of it. The response was just unbelievable. The teachers were comparing it, which sounds insane, but to Beatlemania, where the whole school would run across the school legging it towards us.
Last week in a performance a girl lost a tooth cos they were going that crazy and jumping up and down, getting involved. There were girls chasing after the car as we were leaving.
It's kinda like a backwards horror movie, all these zombies banging on the windows outside, yelling Frixion and trying to get in, but obviously they didn't wanna kill us! It was really surreal.
The good thing was it wasn't just the girls, even the boys relate to us, the way we dressed and acted on stage. That was really cool, to see the young teenage lads of today not hating on us, and actually supporting us.
We are just three normal lads, fairly down to earth and in touch with everything that's going on.
-Looking into the future, you've got a couple of singles planned for next year. What can you tell us about those?
After 'Under The Influence' comes out, within a couple of weeks we've got the next video, 'Falling In Love'. That'll be released around the first or second of December - it's just a huge, big vocal ballad.
People are hearing it, and weren't expecting it from three guys from the Midlands. 'Under The Influence' is that kind of commercial, up-beat, toe-tapping track. The tracks that we've got are really powerful, more mature.
After that, around January or February, we have the third one, which is more of an R n' B club track.
-Looking past those and the Canadian tour, what else can we expect from FriXion?
We have the album to drop. We're really excited about that. With the amount of tracks we've recorded over the years, our first album will almost feel like the Greatest Hits album.
We're going to be really proud of every track, we've carefully selected and recorded every track so that they really bring something to the album.
I think people will hear it, and know soon enough, that they can say "that's FriXion", and recognise the sound of it. It will be different, people will realise the differences between us and other groups.
Female First - Alistair McGeorge
Boy-band FriXion are looking to stand out above the rest as they move ever-closer to their debut album.
After forming from an advert in industry newspaper The Stage, Neil Painter, Johnny Wright and David Stanton have gone from strength-to-strength.
We caught up with Neil just after the release of their new single 'Under The Influence' to talk about the the band's formation, the challenges they've had to overcome and how they're looking to the future.
-'Under The Influence' came out recently. Were you glad to get it out there?
Yeah, definitely. It's been a while. We did put out a track last year called 'Afraid'. That was our introduction track - it's been a year in the waiting since then to get this out as the first official single from us. It's been a big struggle and a lot of hard work. It's good to see it pay off now. It's on the TV, it's getting a good reaction. We'll see how it goes.
-Has it felt like a long wait between the two tracks, or have you been kept busy enough?
We've kept busy. We had a really good stretch of shows where we toured with The Wanted, D-Dubz, Chipmunk, them kind of successful UK artists.
We managed to get support slots - considering we're a group of three lads form the Midlands who started this group ourselves a few years ago, to be doing those kind of shows, it's really cool.
We had Dappy saying that watching us perform made him want to take up singing lessons. It's just really surreal that we're getting this kinda response, we just hope it continues.
We were pushing, shooting all the videos in advance, so that when we started with 'Under The Influence', we had everything lined up ready. The album is now complete, so that's really good as well.
-Ah ok, so the album's totally done now?
We've got one last studio session to touch up the tracks. We've been recording tracks over the last couple of years, we've got a ridiculous amount - we've got about 30 tracks done.
We're going to revisit a couple that we did at the start and just touch up the vocals cos, as with anything, you kinda improve over time. In general, yeah, it's all finished.
-You mentioned the support slots with artists like The Wanted. Did any particularly stand out for you?
The Wanted show was great. We turned on the Christmas lights with The Wanted. There were a lot of people on the bill that were doing really well, a lot of X Factor people.
The fact that we were there, the unknowns on the bill, but artists like The Wanted were coming up to us and said "We love what you're doing, we hope you make it".
Also, the N-Dubz one, cos it surprised us. We weren't sure what to make of N-Dubz, cos of how they're portrayed in the media. They were actually really cool to us, they had a lot of time for us. Dappy was so chilled, really took the time to hang out with us. Touring with them was really cool.
-Is there anyone you'd like to get the chance to share the stage with?
Oh, wow! For me, personally, someone like Neo. I look up to people like him, or Justin Timberlake. There's some great UK artists at the moment, which is really good. You've got people like Professor Green, Jessie J, Adele - they're really killing it. There's a lot of British acts we'd love to share the stage with.
-You formed as a band after an advert in The Stage, which has launched the careers of many pop acts over the years. Do you think that route is still a good option, despite the rise of things like The X Factor?
Yeah, it's tough to say. Me and Dave were at college, there were just two of us at the time. We decided we wanted to form a band, and we paid it from our own money that we'd earnt ourselves. We put an audition in The Stage, which Johnny came to.
From then, we've formed the group naturally. We've been friends for years, and that's a good, solid basis to work on.
I don't know, there's nothing wrong with The X Factor. The talent it's bringing out, especially this year, is so strong. You can't knock anyone for wanting to do this - whatever route works for you, works for you.
We didn't really feel like The X Factor is where we wanted to go. We wanted to do it the old-fashioned way, work from the ground level - go on the school tours, the under-18s and night club tours, the festivals and really build a fan-base.
The sad thing with The X Factor is that people do come and go, and get forgotten. That's a shame, we don't want to be like that. We hope we can build that foundation of fans that stays loyal to us.