Frankie & The Heartstrings: One to Watch for 2010

16 December 2009, 09:00

(Frankie And The Heartstrings) (Ones To Watch)

There’s something pure and untainted about Frankie and The Heartstrings. Having only just released their debut single, on their own Pop Sex label, 2010 is going to be the year when they can finally cast off their shitty day jobs.

There’s an air of The Smiths in their pomp and swagger, whilst their tunes seem to distil all that’s been great about British pop music in the last 20 years – acres of guitar hooks, sing-along choruses and a eye for something a little different.

The band answered our emailed questions last week, and shared with us their favourite albums of the year as well as the best description of their band yet…

For people out there that have never heard of you. Give us threereasons why they should…
Amazing songs
Good looks
You just know you want to

Can you recall the moment when you first decided you wanted to become a musician?
When Michael J. Fox played the opening lick to “Johnny B. Goode”.

Where do your songs come from? What’s your inspiration?
See www.popsexltd.com for a comprehensive list of our musical and non musical inspirations

Name your Top 5 records.
Top 5 of 2009, in no order;
Girls, “Girls”
The Cribs, “Ignore the Ignorant”
Slow Club, “Yeah, So?”
Memory Tapes, “Memory Tapes”
Cymbals Eat Guitars, “Why Are There Mountains”

What was the first gig you ever played and was it a success?
The first gig we all played was supporting the Futureheads. Feb. 2009. I’m barely doing it justice when i say that the Sex Pistols at the Free Trade Hall in ’76 was a tea party by comparison.

What one piece of criticism has stuck in your mind and was it justified?
We were once described as “Cliff Richard bumming My Bloody Valentine”. We’ve tried to live up to the magnificence of that description ever since.

What one thing has caused you to waste your free time in the past 6 months?
Well, we’re generally either playing or working, but “Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job”- speciifically, “SPAGETT!”- has been a good distraction

If you weren’t making music, what do you think you’d be doing?
what we do the other 23 and a half hours a day. Work. Family. Friends etc.

What’s the worst job you’ve ever had?
The ones we’re doing right now, for money.

We’d like you to make us a mix-tape. Pick five tracks with a theme of your choice.
“Stuff we love at 4:26 PM, December 8th, 2009″
Girls, “Hellhole Ratrace”
Trailer Trash Tracys “Candy Girl”
Les Cox (Sportifs) “The Hand And The Heed”
Champagne Socialists “Blue Genes”
The Cribs “We Were Aborted”