Frankie And The Heartsrtings

• Posted: Fri 9 Dec 2011
• By: Kev

We like to try and be as professional as possible (where we can) here at The Beat Surrender, but sometimes the world just conspires against you...it takes things out of your hands and leaves you in a sweaty mess.

Sweaty mess I hear you cry? Yep, having booked in an interview with north east lads Frankie And The Heartstrings before their support slot at the 02 Academy Leeds with The Vaccines I then proceed to nearly miss the interview altogether!

Buses conspire to make me late, the one I do catch drops me at the other end of town to try and make time up (yep cheers for that) and I then have to literally run the 3/4 mile up to the 02, by the time i've been ushered in by the Tour Manager and snaked our way upstairs to their dressing room i'm a bit warm....just to cap things off perfectly the green room is baking hot.

Being the affable lads that they are though they soon set me at ease with my surroundings courtesy of a beer from their fridge (cheers gents) and we proceed to talk for about 30 minutes on a whole host of topics, some i'd planned to and others that definitely weren't on the agenda!

As you would expect, they are a group that are fairly cock-a-hoop at the moment, their album Hunger dented the top 40 on it's release earlier this year and they are rounding off the year with this long run of supporting The Vaccines on their sold out tour.

Which is where the conversation conveniently starts, I want to get a more detailed insight on how they are finding these dates as its not always easy being the support band despite the potential opportunity it presents:

"It's going really well, its a big step up and we're really enjoying it" I ask them how they are finding not playing to their own crowd..."It is different, but we see it as a challenge and an opportunity, we're going out their to play in front of a crowd that if we play with all our hearts they are going to respond to us" and respond they do it would seem..."We've been going down really well so far and people have been really into it".

As far as touring goes, they aren't a group that are about to start bemoaning the whole experience of touring like you see some bands doing...."look at the end of the day when I go back home, as hard as touring can be, and it is tiring, you do miss your home comforts etc, I'm not about to start complaining to my mates who work in a factory all week that I have it tough because I don't...it's an incredibly priveledged position to be in and we appreciate that".

We're about to talk about the setlist tonight when I notice that each one is individually written out with all kinds of weird artwork adorning the page, some of it graphic, yet very well drawn  male apendages....it seems this is something they do to entertain themselves on tour.....cheaper than throwing televisions out of hotel windows I guess....the artistic influence does also stretch into their album and single artwork where they aree fiercly proud of their own input. 

Release wise the band are just about to put out what they describe as a "stop gap single between albums", they are immensly proud of  Everybody Looks Better (In The Right Light) and the accompanying b-side and they've every right to be, it's a brilliant realised piece of rock n' roll pop that gets more infectious with every listen.

"We wanted to put something out so that people don't forget about us, it's something that a lot of bands do and leave it too long between releases...that and the fact we think it's the best thing we've done so we wanted people to hear it!"

Talk then switches to the new album, "we have loads of songs in the bank, recordings been going really well and we are hoping it should be out sometime next year". 

Producer wise they've gone for a change as well, while they don't rule out working with with Edwyn Collins again who they describe as "mad as a hatter, in a good way", it's Bernard Butler that is at the helm this time..."The Duffy money must be running out if he's having to work with us" they say tongue in cheek.

So all is well in Frankie And The Heartstrings world at the moment, having met them they are a sound and funy bunch of lads who if you spend time in their company you can't help but want them to succeed.

By the time I walk out of the backstage area pre gig i've cooled down a bit thanks to the liquid refreshment and its round the front of house to catch them in equally good form onstage.