a chat with frankie valet on astrology, beginnings, and their new album, 'waterfowl'
Interview and photos by Amy Tang
Having just released their new album, Waterfowl, on February 7th after spending the past few weeks touring the Midwest and preparing to depart for another month of touring in March, Frankie valet is making their way around this year. In celebration of their recent release, the band performed a set at Vintage Vinyl in St. Louis, and Ease Up Magazine had the chance to sit down with Frankie valet and chat about their latest record.
EU: First off, congrats on the new album! Your performance was amazing earlier. So what did the process look like when making Waterfowl?
Felix: I think it kinda came together over the course of like a year, more or less and like––
Alison: More like less than a year.
Felix: Yeah, this would’ve been 2018, we’ve been sitting on the record for awhile. We’ve re-recorded it once or twice, and the way the songs come together is usually with the three of us, we all have a song idea, or a fully fleshed one. It kinda depends on the situation and we’ll all just play together in the basement and get it to where it sounds pretty good. You know? Everything just comes together, little workshopping here and there.
Alison: Yeah, there’s definitely been some weird situations where a song will just arise out of hanging out or whatever, but usually someone has to come in with something.
Gram: For actually writing the songs and parts, a lot of the times we will loop just one section of it, over and over and over and over again until we will get something that will stick repetitively, and then we’ll just put it in, shorten it, and then move onto the next section, and loop and loop and loop and loop. At least, that’s what seems to work a lot of the time. It’s never very – I feel like we don’t go in with a structure in mind, it’s just kind of whatever you know. We start with what we got, then go to the next, and then go to the next, and bam you’ve got a song with three parts.
EU: What led to the beginnings of Frankie valet? And what does this album mean to you all as a band?
Jack: I guess Frankie valet has arisen originally from Felix and Gram playing music together for about a decade now.
F: Yeah, we’re going on a decade.
G: Yeah, ten years!
J: It started as their project called Sleepeasies with their friend Dan, and over the last I guess two years it’s taken this form where Alison and I came on. So it’s been a gradual process, a couple of personnel shifts and such and here we are! It’s been this way for a couple of years now.
F: I think the album is an album of love songs, like the more I think about it––
A: Any kind of love!
F: Yeah there’s a lot of different kinds of love, there’s a lot of different kinds of feelings, stuff like that, and the world needs love songs still so.
A: I feel like I didn’t at all associate any of the songs though, like to me it’s a very random mix. But I think it works out okay.
EU: Are there any artists/bands that inspired the overall sound for the band?
A: I think it’s different for every person, like I don’t know if there’s an overall inspiration.
F: If we were to go around and name one, that might help. There’s a lot going into it.
EU: I mean, go ahead!
F: As far as my guitar playing goes, I like My Bloody Valentine a lot.
A: My go-to is Florist probably.
J: Also in terms of guitar playing, it’s not always super apparent but I’m always influenced by J Mascis.
G: For drums….Moses Archuleta? I think that’s his name. Deerhunter, that early stuff is so good.
Do you guys have a favorite song off of Waterfowl?
F: "Softskin."
J: "Water Foul," the song.
G: "Nakid."
A: Probably "Softskin" or "Theo."
EU: How was touring this past month? How did that go? Is there anything you miss/don’t miss?
F: Well, we’re about to leave again in like a week for a longer one, so no, we don’t miss anything –– well I miss it but I don’t really miss it ‘cause it’s about to happen again.
A: Yeah, I think we’re just enjoying being home, for now.
F: I’m not gonna miss the weather in Minneapolis, or Chicago. Those climates are very bad in the winter, very cold. But I do miss like –– it is kind of cool and freeing to be around people who you don’t know every night, but then you’re also with some of your closest friends playing with you. So you can kind of scurve that line of kind of meeting new people? But also at low stakes, but also whenever we go back to that city, we can hang out with them again. Or if they come here to St. Louis for any reason, it’s cool to connect that way.
A: It’s cool to meet so many people that you can pretty easily relate to, but you don’t actually know them. I don’t know, it’s a really interesting setting.
EU: So, what were some songs you guys had listened to while on the road? There must’ve been a playlist or something with all that traveling?
A: Yeah, we have a playlist.
J: It’s on our Spotify.
F: It’s called ‘2 Cancers and a Virgo 2020’.
A: We cycle through genres trying to make the song we pick play to the next song, so it goes in a ton of waves of different genres. It’s pretty funny.
J: We’ve been touring without Gram because he hasn’t been able to so, it’s just two Cancers and a Virgo.
F: Gram’s a Saggittarius. Get that on the record.
EU: Do we each want to go around and say our zodiac signs?
J: I’m the Virgo.
A: I’m a double Cancer.
F: I’m Cancer, with a Pisces rising, and a Taurus moon, for all you listening at home.
J: You’re a Taurus man, really.
F: It comes out a lot.
EU: How would you guys describe the music scene in St. Louis? Compared to all the other cities you’ve all been to?
A: I think it’s very homey, but also very hard to break into.
F: St. Louis as a scene? Yeah, I would say the St. Louis scene is a little bit fragmented, but because I’m only in every city once, you know, ever, it’s hard to say.
J: I feel like a lot of the Midwest has similar vibes, especially like –– I feel like the biggest difference isn’t so much between cities as it is the type of venue you’re playing. House shows are house shows everywhere, venue shows are venue shows everywhere.
F: What makes the places special is the people we meet along the way.
A: Oh….don’t put that in (laughs).
F: I mean, it’s true though.
G: It is true, but did you have it say it that way?
F: Yes.
A: It’s not the destination, it’s the journey.
G: I think St. Louis is super fragmented, and I’m sure most cities are, but also each fragment is very tight and supportive of each other.
EU: Alright, I think I’ve got one more. Is there anything else you guys got anything else planned that people should be on the lookout for?
G: Well uh, for sure.
F: Maybe….an EP?
G: Maybe a little EP.
J: Maybe another tour? We’ll see how we’re feeling.
F: We wanna make a feature film.
J: We have a music video coming out in two days.
EU: And let’s wrap up with a fun fact as a closer!
A: My fun fact is literally just that I was born in Malaysia.
F: Alison and I are building a model car, a 1977 Ford Pinto in sparkle red paint.
J: Ooh! I love that. My fun fact is that my thumbs are different sizes in shapes, and it’s a genetic thing. My mom has it and my great-grandfather had it, and it looks kinda fucked up but it’s whatever.
G: My fun fact is that I get more compliments when I wear peoples’ clothes that aren’t mine.
Catch Frankie valet on tour this month:
3/2 – Cincinnati, OH @ 3117 Warsaw
3/3 – Columbus, OH @ Your First Rodeo
3/4 – Cleveland, OH @ Mahall’s Locker Room
3/6 – Ithaca, NY @ the Drive In
3/7 – Somerville, MA @ the Crane Room
3/10 – NYC @ Jones Beach Bar
3/11 – Philadelphia, PA @ the Meadow
3/14 – Atlanta, GA @ Mojo Pizza
3/16 - 3/20 – Austin, TX @ SXSW