FRANKMUSIK
Interview by Karley Sciortino
Images by Marius W. Hansen
If everyone in the world were as driven as Vincent Frank, we’d all be living in some hyper-intelligent future universe where everyone could fly and people’s houses were made out of rainbows. In describing this ardent, sexy-voiced 22-year-old, as “motivated”’ just isn’t strong enough a word.
You can tell a lot about a person by how eloquently they speak. Vincent Frank (more commonly known as Frankmusik) just happens to be one of the most articulate and enthusiastic artists I have ever met. Desperately passionate about music, Vincent is one of those people that was just born to do do do, and could happily talk to you about all of his many endeavours for hours on end. Not in a self-centred way, but more in a ‘Let’s share our creative ideas and become best friends’ kind of way. It’s all very charming. You get the feeling this is one music freak that is headed for superstardom whether people like it or not.
Heavily inspired by ’80s dance pop, Frankmusik’s lovesick songs are loaded with sweet melodies and big choruses that make for some serious synth pop perfection. Having released his debut EP, Frankisum, in mid-2007, Vince has been spending his time recently setting up his own record label, doing remixes for Chromeo, DJing around LA, and wowing audiences with his heartfelt performances. He just signed a worldwide deal with Universal / Island Records and has started work on his debut album.
At the moment, though, he’s in Shoreditch eating a roast dinner with a look in his eyes that says, “Please don’t ask me about when I used to beatbox”.


I heard that you were a beatboxing champion when you were younger. Is that true?
Oh God! How did you find out about that?
You seem embarrassed.
I’m not embarrassed. It’s just something I’ve kind of forgotten about. Beatboxing was fun, but it’s a bit of a gimmick. The UK hip-hop scene is weird. Its like you’re in it or you’re not. I was a bit of an outsider as I guess I didn’t look ‘hip-hop’ enough or talk ‘hip-hop’ enough. My private school accent was a dead give-away [laughs]. But I was never really accepted into that world.

Is that why you decided to give it up?
Kind of. I felt the whole scene was one big contradiction. I was idealistic and looked at hip-hop as a powerful and unified form of urban themed creativity. Unfortunately, as with most British sub-cultures, the people involved in the hip-hop scene are very jealous and possessive over what they think is theirs. They don’t allow people on the outside to look in, and because of that I think the whole movement kind of falls flat on its face. So because of that I just got fed up and left. But it was good because when I left I got more into producing, which led me more in the direction of where I wanted to be, and where I am now.
You seem like you were really motivated from a young age. Did you have your parents behind you pushing you to be creative?
My parents always told me I could do anything I wanted to do. My mother sent me to dance school [ballet!] when I was really young and started me off learning piano and quite a few other musical instruments too. It was kind of a case of them preparing me for the future they wanted me to have by teaching me about music and art. I’ve always had confidence in what I do creatively, and when I was young I was driven by the idea of reaching people on a huge scale. That vision has never gone.
And what about growing up in Croydon? It’s not exactly the epicentre of creativity.
I know. It’s horrific! I love it though. It gives you something to rebel against, you know? It’s weird there because it’s like a city in itself, with high-rises and it’s own city centre, so it feels very isolated. If anything I think living in Croydon growing up made me more motivated, because I knew I didn’t want to end up like the people I was surrounded by. I still live there now, and I still like it. If I lived in East London among lots of other young, creative people I think what I do would get over-saturated. Its nice to get away from everything trendy, for lack of a better word, and just be able to be by myself and write.

Your parents also sent you to boarding school, right? What was that like?
Well, you know all the stories you heard about boarding school? They’re true [laughs]. Boarding is funny as fuck. It’s survive or die really. I did really badly at boarding school, but it kind of turned around towards the end. I learned how to take something positive out of every situation – even the really bad ones. I try and use those same methods when I’m making music.

Do you think growing up in that environment had an impact on who you are today?
Definitely. It taught me a lot about relationships and respect. It taught me to be focused. But on the other hand I feel now that I have trouble letting my guard down. Growing up in boarding school you’re constantly being treated like shit, and it’s hard to get yourself out of that defensive mind-set. It’s like I’m always waiting for someone to fuck me over. Still, if I had the chance to go back and change anything, I wouldn’t. It was one of the best times in my life. It’s weird – the real world seems slightly grey after going there.
When did you start making music under the name Frankmusik?
It was about a year ago. I had been doing the producing thing but I wanted to start making some music of my own. With Frankmusik I want to make music that is nostalgic, but with a future vision. I like the idea of taking what made you who you are today, and then dragging it up to date. My mom brought me up on ’80s synth pop. I’m trying to use that but make it sound like it was created today. I want to make people revel in how much they love me, or revel in how much they hate me.

And what about your lyrics? Most of your songs seem to be about girls.
Yeah, basically all of my songs are about girls. Both fortunately and unfortunately for me I have had a lot
of fucked up relationships. You know how people have a back catalogue of records? Well I have a back catalogue of women who have fucked me over, or that I’ve fucked over, or both. We all write our hateful letters to our exes. I just make them rhyme. I probably have a good couple of albums worth of material inside me already.

Tell us about your record label.
It’s called Apparent Records. I set it up together with a producer called David Norland. It’s still young but we’re getting there. My reason for wanting to start a record label in the first place was because ultimately I want to work with new, exciting, and creative young artists. This seemed like the perfect way to do it. I release my own music on Apparent and we have a couple of new artists on our roster as well – Sisely and BBo$$. Both amazing.

You definitely have your fingers in a lot of pies.
I know! It feels good being able to be a solo artist and a producer and have the label. In the current climate of the music industry I think it gives me more clout and a longer shelf life. I want to be successful, and I think
to achieve that, it’s important to be focused and do as many different things as you can.

You’re still really young. Are you intimidated by the music industry at all?
Not really. Luckily for me I have never really been alone. I met David a couple years ago through my first manager, and he’s kind of been by my side the whole way up until this point. He was like my life mentor,
or guru, or something like that. He’s helped me through a lot of shit. I don’t think I would have gotten very far without his expertise helping me along. I just make sure that I surround myself with people that I trust and love, and I don’t really think about it too much.

And what are your goals for the future? Both musically and personally.
I want to make music that I love. I want to go into acting and directing as well. I want to read more books.
I want to meet more people. But most of all I guess I want to make people happy. I want to get people
excited about music again, ya know? Because there’s too much crap out there.

artist=Frankmusik
interviewer=Karley Sciortino