Interview BT Frankie

Belfast artist BT Frankie blends punk, grunge, and trad sounds with sharp wit and local flavour. In this interview, he shares the stories, chaos, and craic behind his solo debut Man Up.

1. You’ve described Man Up as a deeply personal and uniquely Belfast record. What was the turning point that made you decide to pursue this solo project?
I think I just wanted to do something different. I started to feel like the punk music scene had lost its soul a bit, and I feel like that’s modern music in general regardless of genre. I think that’s changing though as the influence of record companies becomes less dominant in independent music. I wanted to do something raw and fun and new. And the reason it became a solo project is that it’s not the easiest thing to get other musicians to invest in! If you can imagine the conversation.
Hey! I’ve got this great idea for a song! Get yer balls together! Man Up!
That’s not something people jump at the chance to get into so it really had to be a solo effort.

2. Your music blends punk, grunge, and traditional Irish influences with marching band rhythms. How did this distinctive fusion come about?
Well the punk and grunge is just the kind of thing that I like to listen to. I like a lot of the classic punk and grunge so bands like The Clash, The Sex Pistols, The Outcasts, Soundgarden, and of course Nirvana. I think if you stripped away all the trad elements of the Frankie music it would be very bare and dirty grunge/punk but to atypical rhythms for that sort of music. I think the general style and the silliness comes from listening to folk music like the Dubliners from a very young age. My Uncle was and still is a big fan of them. Obviously Frankie is sillier than the Dubliners but I’m thinking of songs like Seven Drunken Nights or Finnegans Wake. The trad stuff is what you hear a lot in and around pubs in Belfast and beyond, and the marching band influence comes from the orange order marching season which is a summer thing that peaks in July.
I decided to use a flute rather than a whistle to try to get more of that marching band sound into the music and there’s two Bodhrans that I tune down by wetting the skins to try to get that thumping far away drum sound. You can hear that all over Belfast in July. I did try to include a Lambeg drum but it just didn’t sit well in the mix. I think just all of the local music I’ve heard throughout my life has helped to plant the seeds of BT Frankie. Getty from The Outcasts actually lived up my street when I was a child. I still love them and I think they also had a bit of fun to their music that has probably influenced the Frankie vibe. Songs like Self Conscious Over You and The Cops Are Coming spring to mind. I think that punk heritage is important for Belfast and for a while it seemed like it had been forgotten but it’s back with a vengeance now.

3. The stories behind your songs are based on real-life experiences. Can you walk us through the writing process for a track like Night of the Leg or Why She Walking Me?
Night of the leg is based on a night out in a town called Holywood. It was quite late in the evening and everyone had had quite a lot to drink. We were all dancing and this guy nearly fell over. It’s in the song. He hopped past us at speed trying to stay upright! And then my wife started copying it. Hopping round in a circle with her leg swinging. And then other people started doing it, or something like it! It was all very silly but that’s where the idea for the song came from. The writing process is pretty similar for all the Frankie songs. I drink a few cans of beer and sit with my old 12 string guitar and just experiment with the idea. If something comes to me I record a guide track with the vocals and the 12 string guitar right away. And from there I usually layer the guitar, bass, and drums. Once I have that I generally drink some more beer and then I play what I have on a loop and start adding in the words as they come to me. Once I’ve got the vocals recorded I’ll spend a bit of time on the arrangement but most of the songs are fairly simple so that’s just adding a bit of variation with the instrumentation most of the time.

4. Recording in a home studio has its own set of challenges and advantages. What were some of the quirks or memorable moments from the recording sessions?
The biggest challenge for me is getting dog free recordings. We have four shih tzus and when I start to sing or play any instrument they all want to join in. Sometimes they bark at each other and sometimes they all howl as if they’re trying to sing along! They get tired of it eventually, most of the time, but I would say if you listened very closely to the vocals you might just hear something canine in there.

I think the most memorable thing about recording the Man Up EP was doing the vocals for Night of the Leg. They were recorded with a hand held mic. An SM58. And I had drunk a lot more than I normally would have while recording. It wasn’t meant to be the final version but that original recording on the day it was written just sounded better than any attempt to rerecord later on. I was actually doing the leg during some of it! That was a one off though normally I set up an SM7B on a stand!

5. You mentioned that spontaneity and even a few beers played a role in capturing the energy of the EP. How do you balance raw creativity with the technical aspects of recording?
Well that vocal for Night of the Leg was really rough. I think in that instance it was very much biased toward the raw creativity end of the spectrum! Probably because I had got quite drunk. My recording sessions are usually a Friday or Saturday night when my wife is out visiting friends so it’s really just about me having fun in my own world. The challenge with Night of the Leg was cleaning up that vocal. I had to automate a high pass eq to remove a lot of the plosives from when I had the mic far too close and then do a lot of volume automation to balance it because the mic distance was extremely variable. I hit myself a few times with the mic too, so I had to cut those out. I always do three takes of the vocals. Mainly because I’m writing the words as I go and some takes they’re different or I forget them completely so there was a few bits where I had to switch between takes to get all the right words. I was punching in and out a lot too because it was coming to me very quickly and there’s so many verses. I wouldn’t have been able to capture it the way it is if I had sung it over and over to learn the words for one continuous take. I try not to go back and rerecord. I find I get supercharged when I feel something is coming together, and I’ve found that for this sort of music that initial inspiration gives it something that I haven’t been able to capture when I’ve rerecorded it. That’s mainly just the vocals. I do spend a lot of time trying to get good recordings of the banjo, flute, and fiddle because these just sound bad if they aren’t done well.

 

6. Belfast has a rich musical history but also distinct cultural divides. How do you see Man Up fitting into or challenging the Northern Irish music scene?

I’m not sure it’ll fit in anywhere to be honest! It’s very niche! The trad influence and the marching band influence were things I really wanted to have so that the whole of Belfast was represented to some degree. Each of those styles are representative of each side of the community and I liked the idea that I could combine it all into one cohesive sound. It’s very difficult to avoid getting caught up in politics when you do something that is part of anyone’s tradition but I hope that the balance is good enough that the music doesn’t come across as being entirely from one side or the other.
I hope people can appreciate that it’s a celebration of Belfast as a whole and enjoy it on that level more than anything without thinking too much about the politics that come with the long-standing cultural divide. I really don’t want to get involved in that!

7. You’ve joked that people still think you’re mad when you play them your songs. How do you embrace that reaction, and do you see it as part of your artistic identity?
I think it’s good to see people laugh if nothing else! I mean the songs are generally quite silly and that’s pretty much me most of the time so I feel like the music is very much an expression of my own sense of humour and general demeanour. I’ve played in rock bands and punk bands and even done a bit of funk and while I enjoyed all that it was very much American influenced music and when you do that as a non American you’re acting to some degree. You’re doing an accent and often singing about things that aren’t really your own life experience so really you’re playing a part. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with that but what I’m doing now feels somehow more genuine because I’m singing in my own accent, in a style that’s very much based in local culture and singing about things that actually happened. Wildly exaggerated of course but all the songs are based on real events. So it really is my identity that’s being expressed in the music and I’m very proud of that.

8. Live performances are something you're looking to get back into. What’s your vision for a BT Frankie live show?
I feel like a live Frankie show should be in the right spirit. Raw and loud and a little drunk. I would really like to have two Bodhran players with clip on mics that can roam the stage and maybe perform that Keith Flint (RIP) sort of roll. And I feel at least some of the band should be capable of doing the leg while performing. I mean Angus Young can do all kinds of leg! I think the minimum number of band members is eight so playing in pubs probably isn’t an option. I guess the only option is to get enough popularity behind the music to be able to play a small venue in Belfast like the Limelight or Mandella Hall. I would love to do that. I’d love to see an old school grunge crowd stage diving and crowd surfing! I feel like that’s the right vibe for a BT Frankie show.

9. You mentioned Flegs Akimbo as your ‘Stairway to Heaven’ moment. What makes this upcoming song so special to you?
I remember the night I wrote that song so well. It came together so quickly. And really it just came out of nowhere. It’s probably not the grungiest or punkiest song on the upcoming album, it’s got a little bit more of a folky sound but it’s also quite heavy in parts, and it tells a slightly mythical story so I think that’s why I say stairway to heaven. I’m not suggesting its in the same league as Stairway as a song of course! It’s MY stairway to heaven.

10. Your lyrics capture the humor and eccentricity of Belfast. What’s a favourite local saying or moment that has found its way into your music?
Belfast speak is laden with colloquialisms. You can find a pretty comprehensive list of them and what they mean online. I think my favourite one that I would say quite frequently is the “craic was 90” which means that a great time was had by all. It is actually in the title of a Dubliners song “The Craic Was Ninety in the Isle of Man”. Another one I like that my friend Fionnuala says a lot is “minus the craic”, which means no fun at all. In one of the songs there’s a variation of the craic was ninety. But that song is pencilled in for the second album.
I think my dream for BT Frankie would be that Flegs Akimbo becomes a colloquialism for getting so drunk you don’t have a clear memory of what happened. Someone asks, “How’d you get on last night?” and you shake your head and reply “Flegs Akimbo mate. Flegs Akimbo.” That’s the dream!

11. If you could collaborate with any artist—past or present—who do you think would best complement the BT Frankie sound?
To be honest what I’d really like is to do some sort of collaboration with one of the local trad bands. Maybe something acoustic with just the Bodhrans for drums. So it would be more of the trad vibe but still good and raw. Like Belfast’s answer to the Buena Vista Social Club! Yeah I’d love to try that!

12. Looking ahead, what’s next for BT Frankie? Any plans for a full-length album, music videos, or upcoming gigs?
I’m hoping to get the first full album out this summer. It probably won’t happen until July but I’d like to get it out sooner if I can. It’s titled Flegs Akimbo, of course. There will be a single before that called Everything’s wee in Belfast. I hope to have that out by the end of May. And as I’ve said I have a lot of Frankie material so I’ll be working away at albums two and three over the winter. As far as live shows go, I’m hoping to build some momentum with the album release and I’m talking to a few players about jamming the Frankie tunes to see how we get on. Hopefully we’ll be able to build something that’s fun to watch and listen to!

BT Frankie