Tag: frankie ward

It Runs in the Family (I think)

My family isn’t really known for being musical. My dad played trombone and accordion when he was younger (I don’t really know how well!) and my sister played alto sax for a while (and I don’t even know for how long!) I would say I’m probably the most ‘musical’ in my immediate family.

However, not so long ago I discovered my dad’s cousin, Graham Ward is a former child ‘drumming’ prodigy who played the drums in the movie of Bugsy Malone and owns a recording studio in LA. Nice huh?

Anyway my dad is going to LA (I think for work…this is a rather unsure blog!) and is hoping to pop by so he’s going to try and take a CD of my music along. I guess because we both record (him obviously having the upper hand of a luxury recording complex!)

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This is the tracklisting for the CD I’m sending to LA via ‘Dad mail.’ Not all of these songs are on my soundcloud yet, but the ones that are you can download for free. I’ve been recording over the past couple of days so I’ll put them on my cloud soon. I would have put them up already however the Soundcloud site won’t let me upload more than five tracks per month. I have made all of the featured songs on my myspace downloadable so you can grab and go from there! I hope that people who like my music will pass it on and possibly blog about it, however I know my recordings are scrappy. I can’t quite capture my voice as I like it – I know that vocally, I’m much better live. The effects on my desk aren’t great and the reverb is rather difficult to program. I also have coined myself the phrase that ‘I haven’t the time for a metronome’ because none of my recordings are recorded to a click track. I record to literally keep a record of what I’m writing and creating and I like to be quick. If I was recording with other people it would probably be more fun and a more precise process.

In terms of uni work I’ve got a 1,000 creative analysis of a radio play I’ve produced and designed the sound for and I’m ready for the next semester. Hurrah!

Frank x

A Brief History of Helen of Troy (or Everything Will Be Different.)

I’m writing some songs for a Mark Schufler play called A Brief History of Helen of Troy (or Everything Will Be Different.) One of these is ‘Bedspread’ which I’m playing as part of my Get Frank on sunday at the Yardbird.

You can find out more here. The gig is free!

Helen of Troy is going to be performed at the Custard Factory on the Monday 16th and Tuesday 17th March. Find out more here!

Frank x

ps

hope to see you sunday. It is free after all!

Get Frank are go…

Tonight myself and Nick play the Victoria. Here’s a video of Nature Boy that we recorded the other day during practice

I’m playing glock and Nick is on guitar tonight. I might play a little precussion, however I’m a rubbish multitasker.

Its £3 NUS or £4 without. 

Last night I played an impromptue set for visiting London based act The Rileys. According to my friend and Burn’s head of music, Fuzz, two of the guys from the band came into the Burn studio to mention the gig and asked if she knew a potential support act. Fuzz called me. I had to go it alone without Nick but It was great fun. I’ve played the Bar Academy with Pyschonaut before (on bass) but playng on a stool to people not there to see you is a different but rewarding experience….and slightly alienating when you have two of the headlining act cheering directly in front of you. As singer Joe said, “It’s like a private gig!”

Don’t forget you can download some of my demos for freeness here.

Hope you see you tonight – come and say hi…

Frank x

FREE FOR YOU!

I’ve popped some tracks in/on my Get Frank Soundcloud for you to download and enjoy at your lesiure.

If you like please come along to one of my gigs, at The Victoria on the 26th February or The Yardbird on the 8th March (both are in Birmingham.)

Also feel free to pass the link/tracks on. They aren’t the greatest recordings (just stuff I did in my room!)

I’m hopefully putting a band together for the gigs too so hopefully I’ll have a nice new and improved sound!

(Get) Frank x

Looking for my Nature Boy

This is an early incarnation of ‘Nature Boy’ which I wrote with my friend Fuzz. I was teaching her some simple chords for uke and she told me about a scenario which she wanted to turn into a song and hey presto!

When Fuzz was still at school she was ‘in love’ with a boy and wrote about him in her diary etc… One day she got him to participate in an art project for her. She took him to a park, put lots of jewellery on him and took a photo. To create her final composition she plastered diary entries over the picture. I haven’t seen it as I think Ikon gallery kept it after it was displayed (I need to check with Fuzz.) But I thought it was truly a lyric worthy tale.

Right now I am experimenting with finding a ‘video editing style’ on Youtube and currently favour a Bob Dylan style quick edit/written notes. My shtick is that my updated version is environmentally friendly as it doesn’t waste paper! I need to find a ‘nature boy’ for the video to do put jewellery on basically! He probably needs to emcompass an ‘indie’ boy style (Think Topman—cardigans and the like.) I could use more than one boy, I’m not sure yet. My audio recording is still shabby and has a maraca, keyboard and ukulele on it. There was something quite joyful about making it, I enjoy it’s raw feel. I’m not a pro so why pressure myself? Currently my recordings are so I can experiment visually. I’m hoping to make a great video for ‘Disappointed in Me‘ and another for ‘Whoops.’

Here is a music video which uses the style. This song has inspired me to start the ‘Fake Project’…but more on that another time.

This song, ‘Fake Joe Lean’ is simply about the idea of saying that someone you may be attracted to looks like someone else. For example if you’re trying to explain what someone looks like in a conversation you may say ‘he/she looks like so and so.’ I like to call these people ‘fake’ not because they are, but because they become a lookalike for someone well known often without even knowing it….

If you know anyone who may fit the bill give me a shout!

Frank x

Get Frank setlist no.1

I have decided to start doing ‘dry runs’ (um…less dodgy than it sounds I hope!) for when I do proper gigs. At the mo my voice is a bit sore so I can’t push it too much but hey…

What I plan to do is divide my songs into four song groups or ‘Get Frank setlists’. I also need to get used to my lovely new guitar!

This setlist involves one of my new songs (numero uno) followed by three ‘ole warhorses’

1. Cautionary Tale (apologies for my awful singing on this one…)

2. Disappointed in Me

3. Untitled

4. Whoops

On reflection….it is fairly obvious to myself that I should not have consumed wine before playing…therefore consume wine before watching!

Frank x

Open mic-ing

Student life, it seems, is no longer about getting drunk, staying up all night chatting or going out on a whim.

As the christmas season approaches, so do deadlines and currently no one seems to be doing much socially which I feel is a shame as my dying kidney is back to happy and I can’t properly celebrate.

So today I’m off out to open mic at The Soak in Selly Oak as I’ve got nothing better to do (except um…work) and I’m going to play and probably leave…or stay depending on who is there.

The thing about open mic in The Soak is that only a few people are there for the event itself, everyone else is boozing, snooker-ing or gathered around the large screen watching some type of sport. Some will find this offputting, others will like that not everyone is examining them. I’m in between the two as on the couple of times I’ve played there before, I’ve been unable to hear myself playing and as a nervous newbie to the bussiness of gigging etc… I can’t even hear my own mistakes. This causes me to panic and make even more errors- so I act self-deprecating and laugh it off. No one will ever take me seriously until I do myself I suppose.

Tonight I’m going to play a couple of covers and a few of my own. I usually play originals but if you open with a cover people seem to settle a bit more. Their ears prick up because they’re trying to work out ‘what is that familiar-but not so similar tune.’ The eureka moment when they realise could lose their attention or retain it for longer, depending on the listener.

Will post a ‘set list’ and some you tube videos later…