The Frank and Walters
THE FRANK and Walters have just released their fifth studio album, A Renewed Interest In Happiness, and play Dolans on Friday December 1.
Currently on the road the lads have forgotten how tiring life on the road can be. “The gigs are great but getting to them is tough. I drove from Malin Head to Cork yesterday which was no fun, at the end of it I was driving for 15 minutes and stopping for five”. They have picked up the odd trick here and there when on tour, with Ashley adding, “We don't go partying as much as we did, I suppose we're maturing a small bit alright”. The Cork three piece don't have the entourage that might be imagined. “Years ago we would tour with sound man and lighting man, and roadie man and merchandisers and all that. There's no need we're a very stripped down unit at the moment.”
Ashley saw Pavement a band he had always admired play in the UK. “They finished their gig and then they stripped down their gear themselves, and why not like. We're in this for making albums and where you make the money to make albums is on the road, so if you can save money by stripping down your own drum kit then great”. After 15 years in the music industry the band are a lot more clever when it comes to touring, “We're not as wasteful, we're making records to tour to make the next record, that's our philosophy at the moment. Once we can do that we're happy, we're not after world domination”.
Renewed Interest
A Renewed Interest in Happiness is the band's first studio album in six years, with Glass being the last studio album in 2000, which was followed by the Best Of in 2002. “After the Best of Tour which was a world tour but not quite a world tour, we were just wrecked from music and wrecked from being in each others company”, explains Ashley. “We'd been living in each others pockets in the back of a transit van for nearly nine years”. They went off in other directions with Ashley working in an office, Paul Linehan (vocalist) doing carpentry and Niall the original guitarist opening a restaurant.
“I think he preferred the restaurant to the music so he just stayed at that. We had no guitarist for a while and then we eventually found Kevin and that took a while to get used to playing with a new member. We didn't plan to be away for six years, it just happened, one year ran into the next”.
The Frank and Walters are delighted to be back. “When we started out, we used to write positive indie pop music and we went off and made one dark experimental album (Glass) which was focusing on the sadder things in life, break-ups and people dying. I think looking back with the break that we had, we actually realised what we're best at is writing positive indie pop music. I mean I listen to music to cheer myself up, I don't listen to music to get depressed. I know there is a need for people like My Chemical Romance and Damien Rice to bring people down.” The new album is testament to their return to form. “We're not that good at writing morose, downbeat music so why bother, let's just concentrate on what we're good at and that's writing positive indie pop music. We have kind of gone full circle, you have to go down different avenues in your career to realise that. We're almost back to square one, a very organic three piece guitar driven sound and that's what we started off as”.
Locations
The album was recorded in very different locations in Ireland and was produced by Dave Couse (A House). They recorded in locations which suited the mood of the songs they had written. Fight and Country Boy were recorded in Wheatfield Prison with Ashley saying, “They needed a kind of a gritty feel. Fight is specifically about a guy getting out of prison and trying to come to terms with the way the world has changed. We thought it would be good to record in prison so we chanced our arm in asking. Both of those songs are intense songs, I would describe the atmosphere of those songs as being oppressive and angry. Whether it comes across on the record or not I'm not sure but it definitely helped us to capture what we hoped to capture in those songs.”
Some of the songs were recorded in a holiday home in Inchadoney in West Cork overlooking the beach. “It was a really inspiring location, if you're trying to get across positivity, its very hard to get it across when you're locked in a basement in the middle of Dublin City Centre or London City Centre which is where studios tend to be. It's a very closeted off world. Everything is soundproofed and there is no natural light, but when you're making a record on a hilltop overlooking a beautiful beach and the sun is splitting the stones, it's a lot easier to get into character to perform”. Moving around to different locations keeps it all fresh for The Franks. “We found before that you get bogged down if you're recording in the one place, everyday is the same. When you're picking specific locations for specific songs its keeps it all interesting”.
Keep the Faith
Keep The Faith was recorded in a church, a song about keeping your faith in fellow man. “On another level we are all small insignificant things. I definitely think there is something else out there whether it be God or Allah or Buddha, whoever. Keeping the faith in the man above to get you through. I think we have been very lucky over the years with our careers and with our lives and it's just a nod to whatever is up there. It was our first stab at a song that could be considered religious even though it exists on many levels we just thought going into a church to record it might help. The acoustics in the church were amazing, really inspiring, an old disused church, big high ceilings and the song just really came together really quick”. The band also tried recording other songs in the church, which had nothing to do with keeping the faith, or keeping a handle on oneself but they just didn't work. “We thought ‘time to move on’”. Semi-religious or otherwise there is a magic to the album. “I couldn't begin to tell you how it went right. Albums are a law onto themselves, so many things can be thrown in your way.
“When we were making the Grand Parade it took us nearly two years. But with this album everything that could have gone right did go right and I think it had a bit to do with switching locations, we never got bored or we never got too comfortable in our surroundings”.
A Renewed Interest in Happiness is an antidote to the trials and tribulations we all face, delivered in a way that is expected and admired. Catch the Frank and Walters at Dolans on Friday December 1.
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