SNAKES PASS PART 1

2008-05-19T11:27:00.000-07:00

SHEFFIELD UPDATE

2008-05-19T11:18:00.000-07:00

THE MAGICAL BLUE LOO

2008-05-19T11:12:00.000-07:00

SCHOOL RUN

2008-05-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

MY HEART IN GLASGOW FLOATS AWAY

2008-05-19T10:55:00.000-07:00

MASSIVE WONKY POP UPDATE!!!!

2008-05-19T09:51:00.000-07:00

IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER HERE IS A LOAD OF PICTURES FROM THE TOUR

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Wonky Pop Tour Photos

2008-04-17T06:11:00.000-07:00

Me and my drummer

State of the art technology

My band and TM

Food supplies

The calm before the storm

Me and Peter Pop Justice

Alphabeat

The trusty Wonky wagon

A room with a view

REMIX WORK

2008-03-12T08:25:00.000-07:00

EXPECT NEW REMIXES FROM ME SOON! I HAVE JUST FINISHED A GO:AUDIO REMIX, BARRINGTONE REMIX AND AN ALPHABEAT REMIX! THERE ARE MORE TO COME TO SO KEEP YOUR EYES PEELED!

FRANKMUSIK IN THE TIMES!!!

2008-02-24T17:09:00.001-08:00

IF YOU MISSED THE ARTICLE IN THE NEWSPAPER HERE IT IS FOR YOUR VIEWING PLEASURE : )

Pop bands shun major labels to go indie

As the music industry implodes, we introduce the rising young pop bands taking a leaf out of the indie rulebook

Peter Robinson

It's a brilliant time to be making pop music and a terrible time to be making pop music. The music industry's way forward concentrates on two mutually exclusive concepts: labels want to make money out of bands by having a stake in every aspect of their career, while artists are starting to find that they don't need labels at all. What does this mean for pop wannabes? Either they cave into their labels' money-making schemes, corporate sponsorhip and the like. Or they opt for the DIY route, get on to MySpace and attempt (embarrassingly) to copy the majors' massive marketing spends with the proceeds of four Saturday jobs.

There is a third way. Alternative (in the Snow Patrol sense) acts learnt their fan manipulation tactics from pop, but what if pop learnt some tricks from indie? The new idea is this: start off small. Robyn scored a No 1 single at the end of last year following a brilliantly executed, 12-month campaign. Don't: spend £300,000, then watch your first single flop, or have your debut album need to shift a million to break even. Do: find your fans, let your fans find you. Tour a bit. Tour a lot.

Which brings us to the Wonky Pop tour. Its line-up includes Alphabeat, who moved to East London last year. They have achieved big success in Denmark with an album of uncomplicated but studiously crafted nuggets. Joining them is Vincent Frank, aka Frankmusik, a 23-year-old electronic pop whizz. Leon Jean Marie whose current single, Bed of Nails, blends classic songwriting cityscapes with Mark Ronson production. Along for the ride are the charismatic London four-piece the Clik Clik, who sing about London's unreliable Tube network and more politically sensitive topics such as My Dunks, which is about keeping white sneakers clean.

It's an unashamedly incestuous line-up - Frankmusik and Leon Jean-Marie are labelmates, Leon shares management with the Clik Clik - but that's typical for this network of musicians who, between them, are defining a new subset of pop alongside acts such as feisty London girlgroup the Real Heat and the US solo artist Sam Sparro.

This is not a reflection of all pop, of course. The Brits launched last month with their “pop is back” mantra hinging on the odd trinity of Leona Lewis, Take That and Mika, and there'll always be pop fans who require a routine and glitter for evidence of “proper pop.” Alphabeat's drummer, Troels Hense, prefers to mix things up: “A guy at a gig asked me if we were put together by a record company and I was stunned. Some people are surprised when they learn we write our songs. It's unusual these days for a real band to be as pop as Alphabeat, and vice versa.”

This new generation, with big ideas and big songs - and who really are as accessible as the boy and girlbands of yesterday pretended to be - show that proper pop is all about reworking the underground in an accessible way. Another important factor is whether bands actually see themselves as pop. “We're not manufactured, we play instruments and there's no dance routines, but the music we make is pop,” says Maya Yianni, the Clik Clik's 18-year-old singer.

This new wave of artists certainly provides one answer to an uncomfortable question facing many of pop's remaining champions: what would happen if, tomorrow, Girls Aloud and the Sugababes both split up? To many they not only typify but actually are all that is brilliant about modern pop, but they've opened an important door. “They've pushed, in a clever way, the idea that pop can be progressive without scaring people off,” Vincent Frank says. “We've been here before - pop music as much as rock music is about rebelling against what came before. It's a new layer to the pop onion. He adds: “It's getting harder and harder to sell processed pop to people, “just as supermarkets are having trouble selling processed food. The answer is to go organic.”

POP ACTS GOING INDIE

THE CLIK CLIK

Lineup: Stefan, Maya, Drew, Henry. Stefan and Maya formed the band two years ago and have become a big draw on the London live circuit.

Key songs: Fizzy electro ditty Did You Wrong is “my best way to say sorry, so I'm sorry”; My Dunks is about polishing trainers.

Sounds like: Lily Allen and Jamie T having a discussion about something important.

Most likely to: Be so amazing that it is necessary for the BBC to regenerate Top of the Pops solely for the Clik Clik's benefit.

www.myspace.com/theclikclik

ALPHABEAT

Lineup: Anders, Anders, Anders, Troels, Stine, Rasmus, who moved to East London late last year after signing to the EMI imprint

Charisma for the purposes of UK chart success. The band's name is inspired by Prince's wobbly, multi-coloured video for Alphabet Street.

Key songs: Fascination is an irresistible retropop wonder; the punchy get-your-hands-off-my-fella anthem Boyfriend showcases the band's classic pop songwriting.

File alongside: CSS, High School Musical, Now That's What I Call Music Volumes 2 through 8.

Most likely to: Need a minibus.

www.myspace.com/thisisalphabeat

LEON JEAN MARIE

Lineup: Leon Jean Marie; 24 years old with a fair few “personal ups and downs” under his belt.

Key songs: Mark Ronson-produced current single Bed of Nails; jaunty ode East End Blues.

File alongside: The Kinks, Beck

Most likely to: Enjoy reasonable success with his debut album in the UK, then large amount of success in the US, and subsequently enjoy a huge amount of success all over the place with his second album.

www.myspace.com/leonjeanmarie

FRANKMUSIK

Lineup: Southeast London boy Vincent Frank writes, performs and produces his own music, also running his own label, Apparent.

Key songs: 3 Little Words and Confusion Girl are speedy, brash and bewilderingly beautiful moments.

File alongside: Vincent's music sounds less like any music you've ever heard before, and more like a punch-up in a games arcade.

Most likely to: Become the Simon Cowell it's “all right to like”.

www.myspace.com/frankmusik

LYKKE LI

Lineup: 21-year-old Lykke Zahrisson is the protegee of Peter, Bjorn and John. Her debut album is enigmatic and eccentric, but heavy on the tunes, a bit like Bjork with Kylie's pop sensibility.

Key songs: Spooky triumph Little

Bit is out this week; Everybody But Me is an under-the-radar pop smash in waiting.

File alongside: Annie, Robyn, the Knife, Paula Abdul.

Most likely to: Get bloggers slightly excited.

www.myspace.com/lykkeli

THE REAL HEAT

Lineup: Shaki, Zaza and Suki - three sisters from Brixton immersed in a world of crunchy synths, home-made electro backbeats and fluorescent GIF animations.

Key songs: Hearts Not Innit, with its radio friendly chant of “you wanna f*** but your heart's not innit”; ice-cold Richard X collaboration Come We Go.

File alongside: Prodigy and Sugababes.

Most likely to: Start a fight with Girls Aloud at next year's Brits.

www.myspace.com/therealheat

SAM SPARRO

Lineup: Sam Sparro - a charismatic 24-year-old from LA who signed to Island last year and releases his first UK single in March, having released a limited edition EP in the States last summer. Chaka Khan likes him.

Key song: Black & Gold is an undulating, timelessly modern electrosoul masterpiece.

File alongside: Prince, Scissor Sisters, Hot Chip.

Most likely to: Be Elton John's new favourite pop star.

www.myspace.com/samsparro

PIN ME DOWN

Lineup: Russell (out of Bloc Party) and a lady called Milena

Key song: Cryptic, as featured on teh current Kitsune compilation

File alongside: Kim Wilde, Bloc Party, Girls Aloud.

Most likely to: Force russell to have a serious think about where his priorities lie.

www.myspace.com/pinmedown

This Is Just A Little Bit Good

2008-02-20T23:58:00.000-08:00

First proper blog!!!

2008-02-20T17:13:00.000-08:00

This is my first serious blog.....

I really wasn't up for making a blog after the whole "Lily Allen" blog phenomenon and there was the whole not wanting to loose my "mystique" but then I thought what the hell!

OK so here is my latest info in the FrankMusik camp. My album was supposed be called "Complete Me" but I had a complete change of heart the other night. I wanted to go for something a little more personal to say the least. So me and all my label and management mates have decided to go for "Songs By Olivia". Mildly random but there you go : /

On a different note, I am listening to "Breakdown" feat Jack Johnson by Handsome Boy Modeling school. Its amazing. The album has hilarious interludes and it has a few other gems on it too. Go get it if you have iTunes credit or something! The little picture in the corner by the way is some potential album artwork that I put together. Thoughts?

Speak soon!

Frankmusik

2008-02-20T03:24:00.000-08:00

talks musik here....

franktalksmusik