by Kenneth Morton

Franko is a young rock band from the UK who are making a name for themselves not only in their home country – but in Thailand, out of all places as well. Not to be confused with the notorious former dictator of Spain or the American canned spaghetti product, Franko (with a “K”) are set to take the States by storm with their inspired brand of catchy Indie pop. Singer Tommy Bastow is also an actor, recently having appeared in the British comedy Angus, Thongs and Perfect Snogging. We recently spoke with Tommy about Franko the band, their surreal trip to Thailand, and the Queen of England. Read on…

Introduce yourself, tell me what you do in Franko, and tell me how long the band has been together.
I’m Tommy Bastow; I’m the singer of the group. I also write some of the stuff on the guitar. We’ve been going for two years now.

Where are you guys from and what is your music scene like over there?
We’re from South London and it’s quite a lively music scene – everyone is going out pretty much every weekend to go and see bands and stuff. We’ve got a lot of fans that come down and see us play every time – like really committed fans. It’s really good.

How would you describe your music to someone over here in the States who hasn’t heard it yet?
It’s got pop elements but it’s quite heavy. It’s quite melodic and a bit quirky in points as well. We normally play stuff which is a bit strange to the ear the first time you hear it, and then you kind of get into it a bit more. We were told the other week we sound a bit like Rage Against The Machine – which I can’t really hear myself, but it’s a fair observation. It’s sort of an Indie rock pop kind of sound. You have to kind of listen to it to fully understand it.

Have you guys ever played out here in the States or do you plan to do so?
Yeah, we’re going to be going out to the States in the end of July to do a few showcases. We’ve never played out there before. We played in Thailand before – which is a bit of a strange one – and we’re just going to hope that we keep going around the world, playing our music to as many people as possible.

Has does a band like Franko get to play Thailand, and what were some of the highlights of that trip?
Thailand was kind of a strange one for us. We had quite a lot of interest generating over there. We’ve been played on the radio a few times. The people in Thailand are really sort of into their English music. When we went over there, they were very welcoming – they’re the kindest people you’ll ever meet – they’re so nice! We got met at the airport by loads of Thai fans, which is strange because we had no idea what the reception was going to be like in Thailand. And to see like 20 fans just waiting for us at the airport made us feel a bit like the Beatles, ya know.

What is the average age of everyone in the band?
Well, I’m 17 and so is Richard, the guitarist. Chris the bass player is 16 and Beau the drummer is 18.

How supportive are your parents of your music – you all must have started pretty young…
We were all in bands before, so we’ve been gigging and stuff since the age of 12 – but not together – we were in different bands before. Our parents have always been supportive, but never pushy – they just let us do our own kind of thing really. It’s great – my dad will give me a lift to band practice and stuff like that and they are always just trying to do the best for me.

How is your new CD coming along, and when do you think Franko music will be released here in the States?
I think the double A side single is coming out in early September. The album itself is coming along really well – we’ve nearly recorded all of it. We’re just trying to figure out which tracks we want to put on the album, and which tracks we’re going to save for the second album – and which tracks will never get heard by anyone – but will come out in 20 years on an anthology. We’re just trying to figure out what we want our sound to be like and how we want to portray it – because we want to go out like guns blazing.

Where do you get the ideas for some of the lyrics you write?
Kind of all the stuff that’s going on at the moment. I think us four live quite a strange life – it’s sort of a bit unusual – so I kind of write about that sometimes. Sort of like my mates – obviously there’s the women aspect of it as well – I don’t think there’s any songwriters that haven’t written about their girlfriends or anything like that. But also other stuff – there are a couple of relationships my brother has been in – cuz he’s been in some really wacky ones. He’s listened to a few of the songs and gone, “Hey, was that about it?” And it’s kind of like, “Yeah! I wrote it with you in mind…”

What made you decide to call your band Franko as opposed to some other name?
Well, we’re sick of bands being called The something. We wanted to step far away from that. There are a lot of bands at the moment with THE. It just kind of stuck with us, because I’m quarter Italian and I’ve got about 20 relatives called Franco and it was always bopping around in my head. It just kind of stuck with us the best. I don’t think we’d be that big in Spain, but it’s spelled with a K instead of a C – so we kind of got out of that one.

Describe a live Franko show for those of us who have yet to see you play.
It’s something quite different. There’s a lot of energy. We kind of chat a lot to the crowd. Do sort of quirky things – like we had a gig last week where someone just randomly handed Chris our bass player some blueberries. We just got them; we started having them onstage, throwing them out to the crowd. We try to make our shows as unique as possible. We don’t take ourselves too seriously – we just have fun up there.

How surprised are you that your band is able to do so much in so little time?
Very surprised! We’ve been together nearly two years and we’ve had a ridiculous amount of success. And I think that’s just because we all gel so much and we all get along with each other. Usually with bands, there’s always one person that’s sort of always in the spotlight – but with us, we’re all just cool and completely happy with each other. But yeah, very surprised it all happened so quick. I didn’t go into Franko hoping to tour America. We were just doing it for the laughs. And to see all of our hard work pay off for something as big as this is great!

So the Queen of England invites Franko over for a Royal Command Performance. You could play one song for the Queen and everyone who attends. What song would you want to play for her and why?
That’s a very good question! I think the Queen would probably be a fan of our song Nighttime. I could see her dancing around with Prince Charles and Prince Harry and having a ball to it. I’d imagine that Nighttime would be a feel good song for them to enjoy. Instead of like playing a slow downer-y song, I want to say that I played a song that made the Queen dance.

Do you have any messages for people who are reading this now who might be interested in checking your band out?
Please, please go on the MySpace, which is myspace/frankouk – just have a listen and them comment us and tell us what you think. Tell us if you’d like us to play near you in America. Give us some feedback. Get in touch!

FRANKO links

FRANKO on Myspace: The Official Myspace Page for FRANKO!
The Highwire Daze Home Page: Return to the Main Page!

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