Anglo-Swedish all girl garage group The Franklys are getting ready to release their debut album next year.
The band have been generating quite a buzz online in recent times. The Franklys released the first single from their new album earlier this month which coincided with a string of high profile UK shows as support to Aussie hard rockers Airbourne. National Rock Review recently caught up with the band whilst on tour at the O2 Academy Newcastle to discuss life on the road, their recent lineup changes and their new album.
NRR: Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us here at National Rock Review today, we really appreciate it.
Lexi: Pleasure.
NRR: So you are currently out on the road with Airbourne, I believe you’ve played a couple of shows so far, you were in Leeds last night. I was just wondering how have the shows been going so far?
Lexi: Amazing, it’s so nice to play such decent venues.
Jen: It’s been going really well I think.
Fanny: Yeah, we’ve been having a lot of fun.
NRR: For those who’ve not had a chance to see you yet, how would you describe a Franklys show?
Jen: A lot of hair.
Fanny: Energetic, and lots of hair in faces (laughing).
Jen: And very loud.
NRR: I’ve seen a lot of comparisons drawn between The Franklys and The Hives, and I was just wondering how does that make you feel to be compared to other artists or would you rather be judged on your merits?
Fanny: Well I think that first of all it’s an honour to be compared to such an amazing band, we all love The Hives so the fact that somebody said that we take that as a huge compliment I think.
Lexi: I think we give off the same kind of energy as The Hives you know because they’ve got an intense live show, and I think that’s kind of what people see when they see us as well, so we just kind of go for it.
Jen: I think most bands get compared to other bands don’t they? When you are describing to your mates what The Franklys are like you would be like it’s a bit of this, it’s a bit of that. We are half Swedish as well.
Fanny: Even I have a hard time describing what we are when people ask. I just say you are going to have to come and see for yourselves.
NRR: You played at Download Festival earlier this year and on the same day as Iron Maiden I believe, what was that experience like?
Fanny: First of all we played at eleven o’ clock in the morning, the morning after Black Sabbath so we were like nobody is going to be there. Who the fuck gets up that early after Black Sabbath? But it was completely packed, so I think that’s something that is so great with Download that people who go, they really do go and make the effort to see all the bands that they want to see and they are really supportive of the music. So I was really blown away by the amount of people that actually came to see us, it was amazing.
Lexi: I think it’s a similar type of crowd that comes to these venues and these shows because they just queue out the door from the minute they open and it’s just packed in half an hour. I think it’s that kind of rock crowd that really goes for the music, so yeah Download was awesome.
NRR: I just saw your new video for “Castaway” which is being released officially on the 2nd December. I was just wondering if you could tell us a little bit about that song and the inspiration behind it?
Jen: Well Franny started by writing the music didn’t you?
Fanny: Yeah, I wanted to write something like – I was listening to the Eagles of Death Metal, so I’m like that sounds awesome, I’m going to do something along those lines, and one of those songs because I’m like oh we don’t have one of those songs, and then I could just hear it.
Then I wrote something and it just turned out to be absolutely not anything like that at all, which is good (laughing), but that was the inspiration first. So that’s one of the great things about writing together that you have an idea and then you bring that to the table, but then it could just go in a completely different direction, which it did and it turned out really good.
NRR: The single is taken from your debut album which I believe is going to be out next spring is that right?
Lexi: Hopefully, fingers crossed (laughing).
NRR: Could you give us the low down on the album?
Jen: Yeah, oh what are we going to say (laughing)?
NRR: Do you have a title for it yet?
Jen: We do.
Fanny: Do we share it?
Jen: I think not yet.
Fanny: I mean it’s pretty much 100%, but just in case – it’s not set in stone yet.
Jen: We are not sure how much we can tell either (laughing), we are not sure who is going to tell us off. But yeah, it’s coming together, it’s sounding big and energetic.
Lexi: It’s still really raw, so it really captures what The Franklys are about, it’s not polished.
Jen: Which we didn’t want, we wanted to the capture the live kind of sound basically, and we don’t want anything polished like Lexi said or overproduced, we just want it to be us and what you get from the live shows basically.
Lexi: At one point the drums were sounding too good that I was like can you just take off all of that, so it sounds like a bit dirty.
Jen: I guess that’s what we are trying to really capture, we want people to come from the live show and go home and listen to us and be like oh yeah, that’s what it was, instead of coming home and be like oh that’s not what I heard when I saw them, which is so easy to do with some bands.
Lexi: I think the record as a whole, it’s just quite a fun record don’t you?
Jen: There are lots of different elements I would say, it will be interesting. We are interested to see what it’s going to be like (laughing).
NRR: I believe Lexi you are the newest member of the band is that right?
Lexi: I am.
NRR: How do you feel you are settling into the band?
Jen: Yeah, Lexi how do you feel (laughing)?
Lexi: No it was very natural, that’s the best way isn’t it? It was just so natural, it felt like I had sort of known the girls for a really long time. I’ve played in bands for over 10 years as well and I don’t know, we are all just on the same page, so it works.
Jen: It was just like the first night we met, we kind of just clicked didn’t we? It had just felt like we had known each other for ages.
Lexi: It’s really easy, I don’t really have to make an effort with them (laughing).
NRR: Now that you’ve got a new lineup and a new album under your belt, does it feel like it’s a fresh start for the band?
Fanny: Yeah, definitely. I think we all have a different outlook on things now. We are more than ever just about having a good time and doing good music. We are serious about it, but we are not too serious if you know what I mean.
Zoe: We are not going to stress over things, we are just gonna go out and play great shows and have a good time in between and yeah stay positive.
Fanny: Yeah, exactly so it’s just really nice. In terms of songwriting and stuff like that, I’m just really excited to keep going after we finish this album.
Lexi: It is the start of something though isn’t it. When you release an album it’s just the start.
Fanny: It’s really nice because it feels as though it’s brought new life to it as well. So I think we all feel much happier, much more relaxed about things and just more motivated really to just go for it, next year especially.
I think that this year we’ve taken it really easy, just eased into it and not stressed about anything and just learnt all of the songs and we’ve been finishing the album and stuff. Next year is probably going to be quite bam, bam, bam. I think we will be very busy next year. Definitely a new start.
NRR: Obviously two of you are from Sweden, two of you are from England – How did you all meet?
Jen: Me and Fanny have known each other since we were seven, we went to school together and when we were fifteen years old we started learning guitar together. We moved to London when we were nineteen, we had a band back then but they moved back about a year after we moved to London. Then we reformed and met Zoe about six years ago and then we met Lexi about six months ago (laughing).
Zoe: Yeah, I was put in touch by a mutual friend, and we got brought together by fate.
Jen: Zoe moved down from Milton Keynes to London as well.
Zoe: I’m London based as well so it just works.
NRR: So with a shorter set this evening, you only get 25-30 mins?
Jen: Twenty, it’s very tight.
NRR: How do you pick a set list for a show like this?
Jen: It’s hard, there’s a lot of discussions.
Zoe: It’s just something like that’s straight to the point, no messing, punchy, catchy, fun, energetic songs.
Lexi: But then we have the element of surprise, we want to put in a slow one as well. Not necessarily slow just something different, one that sort of sticks out like it shouldn’t be there.
Jen: I think we just don’t want people to be listening to all of the songs and they can’t make out which one was which. So we kind of want to put something in the middle to be like – oh here’s the slow one, those are the fast ones.
Fanny: It’s been really great, the only thing is that you are so excited to come on this tour and it’s such a big deal for us and then you are on stage and you are like yeah it’s great and then it’s over, so you are kind of like on a high and then bummed out that you have to get off. You can’t really take it in because it goes over so fast, it’s twenty minutes but it feels like ten. It feels like you play one song basically and then you are done.
Lexi: And then you are loading out (laughing).
Fanny: You’ve got to carry your shit back.
Lexi: I keep saying every night to Jen, I keep saying when we go and watch Airbourne, we just played that stage (laughing). You don’t have time to take it in, you don’t have time to look around.
NRR: Which track has been getting the biggest reaction in your set?
Fanny: I would have to say “Don’t Kill Your Friends”, that’s like the one that I see most people, but probably because I look out most on that one.
Zoe: It’s difficult because there’s always hair in your face, so you can’t really tell (laughing).
Lexi: I actually think it’s just whatever we open with because people are like – oh ok that’s what they are like. I think whatever we play first.
NRR: In terms of your own musical taste, what’s the one album in your record collection that you couldn’t live without?
Lexi: Mine’s going to be a band that no one has heard of, not even any of these girls, or probably anyone reading. It’s an album called “Juturna” by a band called Circa Survive, and that was just one of the albums that stuck with me and just blew me away really, it’s just incredible.
Jen: You probably don’t know this band either, they are called Mando Diao, and it’s a Swedish band and their second record “Hurricane Bar” was one of my favourites for years in my teens and it was one of the records that made you want to start playing music basically. I’ve got one of their songs tattooed on my arms, yeah that really was a big album for me.
Zoe: Well they are all expecting me to say something from Green Day, because they know I love Green Day (laughing), but I’m not. I don’t know, I’m kind of torn between two.
Jen: The Corrs and Bewitched (laughing).
Zoe: All about the Irish. Probably The Enemy “We’ll Live and Die in These Towns”, I always used to listen to it when I was going up to visit my friends at uni’ up north. I don’t know, something felt really exciting, I was gutted I couldn’t go and see them at their last dates just recently. I never got to see them live, but every album they did they never got enough credit for it I feel and people always slated them in the press just because of how he looked.
Fanny: I don’t know, I don’t really have albums, I more listen to songs. More often I don’t like all of the songs on an album, I can like most of them, but often I like to do my own playlists and stuff.
But that album that Jen said that’s also one of those nostalgic moments when every time you listen to them and I still listen to all of those songs now ten years later, they are still equally good. But, if I was to say another album that I like all of the songs of I think Queens of the Stone Age “…Like Clockwork”, just because I think they are such an amazing band and the sounds – it’s all very clever. Every time you listen to it it’s so groovy, I really like it. But otherwise, it’s just individual songs that stick with me.
NRR: What else have you got in store for the rest of this year and into 2017?
Fanny: Well our management, they are being very secretive, they keep saying that they’ve got things brewing and we would love to tell you but we don’t actually know.
Jen: I think they are trying to save it until we are done with this tour because I don’t think they want us to focus on anything else. So hopefully when we come back on Monday we will find out.
Lexi: I think there’s future radio play for the single this year, and we’ve got a show on the 3rd December in Camden, and then that’s probably it, that will finish stuff for the year.
Jen: Then releasing the album next year, so we will play some festivals, we’ve got a couple booked.
Fanny: Just everything that has to do with the album really, there will be a lot of touring next year and a few appearances here and there.
Jen: We will get writing the second one.
Fanny: We’ve got loads of blocks on that calendar, but we don’t know what we are doing yet. So we are doing something but we don’t know so stay tuned.
NRR: It all sounds great. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak to us, we really appreciate it.
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