Frankie and the Heartstrings - Hunger

Frankie & The Heartstrings hail from from Sunderland in England's north east. Since being discovered by the founder of legendary indie label Witchita Recordings, the five-piece's reputation has continued to grow and tours with The Futureheads, Florence & The Machine and The Vaccines have turned them into one of Britain's most talked about bands. Subsequently, Hunger has sold like hot cakes in their homeland and the future certainly seems bright for this likeable bunch of Northerners.

If the idea of yet another new indie hope coming out of England makes you yawn (they do seem to appear every five minutes), then the news that their quiff-sporting frontman goes by the name of Frankie Francis might send an ominous whiff of style over substance up your nostrils. However, Hunger's retro-leaning, jangly guitar-ridden songs of friendship and futile romance certainly do enough to dispel such snobbish preconceptions. And if you want some full-on indie cred brought to the table, then the record was produced by Edwyn Collins.

Because of where it originated, and of who their choice of producer was, reference points to Maximo Park, The Futureheads and Orange Juice might be lazy, but they are also pretty accurate. Here, you'll find intelligent yet emotive lyricism, a penchant for some whoa-ing and simple, short, catchy-as-hell indie aplenty.

While there is nothing especially new going on, its infectious energy and believable romance makes Hunger a success. Basically, it is absolutely 100 per cent as you would imagine a guitar-based record overseen by Edwyn Collins that comes out of the North East of England to sound. And that can't be a bad thing.

Review By Bobby Townsend. It originally appeared in Drum Media

Paul Smith - Margins

When Maxïmo Park frontman Paul Smith told his bandmates that he was going to release an album of his own compositions, alarm bells must have started ringing in their heads. Should they see this as the beginning of the end and start applying for jobs in the local supermarkets? Not according to Smith. “I’m not ‘going solo,’” his press release insists. “It’s not like George Michael leaving Wham.” Rather, Margins is a way for the singer to release a collection of songs he had written that didn’t really fit in with the breakneck, rallying anthems of Maxïmo Park.

Produced by Matinee Orchestra’s Andy Hodson, and featuring occasional bass from Field Music’s David Brewis, Margins is an intimate affair. Opener North Atlantic Drift doesn’t sound a million miles from Maxïmo Park but, while there are signs of Smith’s day job scattered throughout - the intelligent lyrics, and tasty hooks - generally, the feel is far less hectic, and more melancholic and ruminative. While You’re In The Bath is a good example of this. Written in an Australian hotel room four years ago, the song is stripped back, with just Smith’s fragile voice and a single guitar.

The problem with Margins is that, while the minimalist numbers are lovely and perhaps even a better vehicle for Smith’s poetic lyrics than the relentlessly-paced Maxïmo Park songs, there just aren’t enough of them. Too often, the songs sit in the dull middle ground between being interestingly pared-back and jauntily upbeat. There are probably enough moments of delicate beauty here to make Margins an interesting experiment, it’s just a genuine shame there aren’t more of them.

Maxïmo Park Interview

My interview with Paul Smith from Maxïmo Park appeared in Drum Media to coincide with their appearance at Playground Weekender. Here is is:YOU CAN RELY ON ENGLISHMEN MAXÏMO PARK TO GIVE THEIR ALL AT THE PLAYGROUND WEEKENDER, AS FRONTMAN PAUL SMITH TELLS ROB TOWNSEND

“It’s certainly a surprise to us,” Maxïmo Park singer Paul Smith tells me when I ask how it feels to have struck such a chord in Australia that the quintet has been invited to be one of the main acts at this year’s Playground Weekender. “We still live in the North East of England and we consider ourselves quite an independent band, so to play on the other side of the world was something we never anticipated at the start of things. I think as time goes on though you realise how similar people are. It’s almost a cliché; you end up on the other side of the world and the songs still mean the same things.”

Maxïmo Park arrives at Playground with a proven festival pedigree. Last year the band played at Glastonbury and blew headliners Razorlight and Red Hot Chili Peppers off the stage at the Reading Festival. Smith, whose charismatic live performances see him pull off all manner of acrobatic jumps that would give lesser men groin strains, says his group always aims to blow people away whether they are playing to thousands or just a handful. “I don’t know anybody who puts in as much physical effort as us. I don’t think anyone could ever say that we gave a lacklustre show or that we dropped the level in any way. At festivals we’re not trying to be these introverted, tortured artists. All of the tortured bits go into the writing of the songs and then after that they’re there for everybody. We’re not going to step on some guitar pedal and get the big stadium sound; we’re actually going to play some songs that have been built to move people in their structure, in the lyrics and in the way we perform them instead of relying on stadium rock tricks.”Anyone who has witnessed Maxïmo Park’s previous gigs in Sydney will understand why their Playground Weekender show is so highly anticipated. “We’re lucky because we get to play to enthusiastic crowds wherever we go,” Smith beams. “It’s something I am extremely grateful for. It helps us put on a great performance if the crowd is going nuts. In Australia there is the same intensity that we get at our English shows. The live performance is something we’ve worked really hard at; to be as tight as we can without losing that raw feel. I think it is quite a rare mix, to have a band that is quite serious about the music but that also has fun when we play live.”

While Maxïmo Park’s indie-pop melodies and boundless verve are indeed well-suited to festivals, they take great pride in the fact that their lyrics go deeper than the usual winning festival formula of simple, chant-along choruses. Smith is a lover of literature, which naturally leads to his lyrics being particularly carefully crafted and emotive. “Sometimes I wonder whether I have over-complicated matters by making the lyrics quite ornate, but I think when people watch our band they can say ‘This guy actually cares about what he’s singing about. He has taken the time to fashion something.’ I think it is something that endears us to people.”
Considering Smith is so passionate about the written word, it must be quite a feeling for him to see crowds across the globe singing his lyrics back at him. “I do get a lot of personal satisfaction out of it,” he admits. “But not too much because you’ve got to have a hunger to keep getting better. I feel like the songs are universal enough for people to really latch onto what they’re about but they’ve also got really specific personal things that give them a bit of detail. There is also something visceral and immediate about them.” In his Geordie accent, and with focus and enthusiasm, he continues: “We’ve always loved the fact that music can cut through to the core of a person; a song can come on the radio that changes your day. We want to try to get through to people like that, but if you want to get through to people in that manner then you’ve got to have something meaningful to say that feels fresh to the listener.”

And with work on the third album well under way, is there any chance that we will hear some brand new material at Playground? “We’ve just come up with a really straightforward pop song with big riffs and a garage band chorus so, yeah, there is a good chance that we will play one or two new songs in Australia.”