Featured Artist: MELODINE

"We set out to create a powerful, melodic and interesting sound with lyrical relevance," says Evan Frankfort, producer, songwriter, and lead vocalist for Los Angeles band Melodine.

• Music Clips from Out Of Your Hands
• Heaven's Coming to California
• She's the Man
• Prime O' Life Housewife
• http://www.melodine.net/
• melodine's page at atenzia records
• appreciation-era interview on indiemonkey.com
• would work entertainment - evan and lori frankfort's production co.
  
• lori's website - loridenae.com
  
• evan's discography
  

Q&A with Evan Frankfort

Can you tell me a little about the process of how you made the album Out of Your Hands? I was intrigued to read that there were times when the music genuinely was out of your hands. For instance, you gave your lead guitarist the Pro Tools files so he could really bring his own creativity to his part of the music. Were there challenges to that approach, and would you do it again?
With Pro Tools, conventional limitations don't exist. You can create as many tracks as you want, using whatever sounds you can imagine. While this makes for incredible possibilities and options, you have a much harder time keeping an eye on the ball and making decisions. I view it as a two-fold process. First you have to generate ideas, and then you assemble them. Sometimes you have an idea of what you want to hear. That idea can be just what you need; or it can be an obstacle between you and a better idea. That's why it may be preferable to just let people go with no direction. The best work comes from sources that can't be traced back to a single point of view. That's why bands like U2 and REM and The Pretenders are special. Even though there may be superior drummers or bass players or whatever out there, it's those personalities that can't be replaced. In other words, it's the chemistry between those people that makes a great record, and sometimes it's better to just document that chemistry rather than trying to control it.

As a songwriter, you always pick someone to come up with the part you would come up with if you could come up with it yourself -- just a more specifically refined version of yourself on each instrument. The guys in Melodine are able to do that. I mean, I could play everything on the record and so could they, but the music would have a very limited point of view and a homogenized sound about it. Joel and the others took many creative liberties; and I'm stoked that they did. I know what ideas I'll come up with, and frankly I'm bored with myself. It's the idea I'm not capable of coming up with that I'm most interested in.

Regarding the challenges... The only downside to giving Pro Tools files to someone is that it may end up a waste of time. Working alone can produce results that just aren't in the right direction; so those tracks may just get muted in the end.

In Joel's case - he did a bunch of approaches, which I weeded through until I found the parts that worked the best -- sort of retroactive producing. That way, his process remained pure.

I noticed that a few of the songs from Melodine's debut CD, Appreciation found a new home on Out of Your Hands. How have those songs evolved, and what made you decide to include them on the new album?
As far as the song selection, our European label (Atenzia Records), asked us to include several songs from the first record, Appreciation. They felt the songs could reach a new audience, and they really know their market. Atenzia is Melodine's first label; and they've been outstanding. As far as we're concerned, the goal is to be heard, and if they think those songs have a chance to make an impact, then we're happy to include them. I remixed the tracks to just make them sound a bit better; but they are basically the same as the first go around.

I read that when you were choosing a name for Melodine's debut CD, you chose the title "Appreciation" as a play on words to indicate growth. What does "Out of Your Hands" mean to you?
"Out of Your Hands" has several meanings. My hard drive crashed while I was mixing and was totally destroyed. I was forced to say, "This record is finished." It's probably a good thing it was out of my hands because I probably would have chased my tail for another month and only made it worse. It must have been the gods way of saying, "Enough already!" Also, it refers to the act of creating, a la "This came from your hands." And finally, it's a line from the first song, Exit Wounds which deals with the shifts of power in relationships.

It's clear from the album that you have surrounded yourself with a very talented band. Can you tell me a little bit about them?
I have an incredible band. Joel Martin is an artistic guitar player with a unique sense of approach. I share drummer Luke Adams with Pete Yorn. Luke's versatility makes him a tremendous asset to Melodine and to any band. Mike Farrell, whom we loan out to Macy Gray, is brilliant -- perfect SAT scores and two master degrees. Mike could have been president... Playing music is the only thing he wants to do. The greatest thing about these guys is that they all write songs and have a universal understanding of what it is to be in a band.

My understanding is that both Rami Jaffee and Greg Richling of The Wallflowers had a hand in this CD as well. What's your history with those guys? What prompted them to collaborate with you on the new CD, and which tracks did they work on?
Greg Richling and I grew up together. He was Greggie from the block, and he is my oldest friend. I think we were 3 when we first started hanging out together. I met Toby Miller, the original Wallflowers guitarist, through him and joined Maypole (Toby's band) playing lap steel. We all toured together for a couple years, and I used to sit in on steel with The Wallflowers. It was an amazing time.

When we got back home, Greg and Rami and I sat down one day to write a song for consideration for The Wallflowers record, Breach. When we found out all the songs were in place, we heard Phil Cody might want to use it. It probably wasn't right for him, but I was happy to put it on my record. It was called "Nothing New" and was later included in the Trampoline Greatest Hits compilation. Greg also played bass on several songs on the album including She's The Man.

You mention Trampoline Records. My understanding is that you have numerous ties to the Tramp family. Can we play six degrees of Trampoline?
My connection to Trampoline started about 10 years ago when Steve Tagliere and I started a band called Gingersol. Steve's songs are some of the best I've ever heard, and being in Gingersol was the most fun I ever had in a band. That experience made me want to produce and mix records. Next, I met Chris Joyner (Mavis) while working together on a Kathleen Wilhoite record. We worked on several things together including Only In My Dreams, his song on the Tramp compilation. We recorded that song by the seat of our pants -- with lots of exchanging ideas and interplay. Then came Rami through Greg Richling. I always watched Rami play from his side of the stage because it's like a magic show watching him work the drawbars on the B3. I'd never seen anyone work that instrument so well. Next was Marc Dauer. Doc was playing with Blair Sinta, a mutual drummer friend, and we had kept hearing about each other. Finally we met at Luke Adams' birthday party, where we had a great time talking about records and bands and instantly became friends. Luke was the glue between me and that side of the camp, and as I mentioned earlier, Pete Yorn and I share Luke as our drummer.

Do you have any on-going involvement with Trampoline?
I just finished mixing the House of Blues shows which will be released as a DVD, and I can't tell you how exciting it was to hear all those incredible artists and performances. As a fan of everyone involved, it's such an honor to be included.

I noticed that your new CD is on Atenzia, a Swedish label. Are there big differences in the way the music industry operates outside the US from what you've experienced within the US? Is the indie market outside the country better than it is here?
European fans seem more willing to put themselves on the line for the music they like. They're less afraid to say they like something and commit to it. In our culture, the need for acceptance makes for a uniform soundtrack for our lives. Many people don't want to hear new music. Different is bad; and that's unfortunate. Everyone wants an audience, and I don't know if anyone cares where that audience lives.

In addition to your career as a recording artist, you have a substantial career as a producer.
I do produce about 5 records each year. Mostly independent bands and singer/songwriters. Everything from country to punk rock. Some recent artists I'm proud of include Anna Montgomery, Brad Byrd, Brent Pierce, a band from Phoenix called Star Fisher, Matt Jones and my brother, Dana Niles. I also do a bunch of mixing, which is probably my favorite part of the process. It's like putting a puzzle together where not all the pieces fit, so you get out your scissors and start cutting and blending. Some stuff I've mixed lately includes Redd Kross, The Muffs, Ofer Moses, Rusty Anderson (Paul McCartney's guitar player) and coming up, the new Warren Zevon single featuring Bruce Springsteen.

How do you manage to still have a recording career when you work on so many projects for other bands.
Lots of people jones for one part of the process when they get too much of another -- like when you're in the studio for a while and can't wait to hit the road, or vice versa. I have the same experience with working on my own songs vs. working with someone else's. I like to hear what everyone else is thinking.

How did you get involved in the production side of the business?
Usually someone adopts that role out of necessity. Someone becomes the spokesman. Someone becomes the business person, and someone learns to turn knobs until the band has its own sound. When we were kids in the studio, the minimum wage engineer usually wasn't a musician and was more about just running gear. So without knowing anything technical, it was pretty easy to turn knobs until it sounded better than what the engineer was getting. That's the first awakening -- when you realize you have a creative perspective, i.e. you know how you like to hear things. Then it's just training your ears to hear frequencies and rooms and compression until that perspective is refined. That's the most exciting thing about making records -- that you never really figure it all out. You could do it your whole life and never do it all. It's all down to how adventurous you want to be.

Soon I was working with bands I wasn't a member of, either trying to improve mixes, or doing the tracking and producing. Everything would start to weave together. You would record all the basic tracks; and then you'd have ideas for other guitars, keys, background vocals, percussion, etc... When all the ideas were out, you would then start the process of sifting and deciding what gets to make the final cut. Mixing can be challenging -- especially when you produced and recorded the record -- because you've become married to the process, and making decisions isn't a completely independent stage at that point. Fresh ears are priceless.

Tell me about your new co. Would Work Entertainment...
Would Work was a romantic idea of building a house and a studio in the mountains in the spirit of Bearsville -- sort of a summer camp for rock bands -- a place where people can make records free from distractions and recharge their batteries at the same time. We're located about an hour and a half from Hollywood in Lake Arrowhead. It's really been fun. We've had bands from Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado, along with many of the LA bands that are stoked to leave the city for a while. We do artwork, photography, electronic press kits, and duplication, in addition to making records. Sort of a one stop shop. We have two Pro Tools rooms, so I can track guitars while Lori's vocal comping on the other rig. We really just wanted to improve our life together, and we happened to improve our client's experience as well. You can check us out at www.wouldworkentertainment.com .

Will you be doing any touring soon in support of your new CD?
We don't have plans to tour, but we're not opposed to it. If there is an audience that wants to hear us, we want to be heard.

Where can people buy your new cd?
The cd is available at our website, www.melodine.net .

http://www.melodine.net/
melodine's page at atenzia records
appreciation-era interview on indiemonkey.com
music clips from Out Of Your Hands:
- Heaven's Coming to California
- She's the Man
- Prime O' Life Housewife
would work entertainment - evan and lori frankfort's production co.
lori's website - loridenae.com
evan's discography