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We’re happy to extend a big Vents Magazine welcome to two artists who are making a huge impact on the music scene, Matte Namer and Frankie Rex of the rockin’ band The FMs! How are you both doing today?
Feeling good. Really excited to talk about our new release. – Frankie
It feels like both for us personally and for the world at large we are perched on a ledge of precipitous change. I’m excited and almost disoriented. -Matte
Congratulations on the upcoming April 30 double-single release of your songs Bad Girl and Song X! For the uninitiated who may be late to the party, can you describe your music?
I’d like to think of it as music that would be played at an underground dance party in a dystopian society. It has different elements of pop, glam rock, industrial and new wave. A fusion of the styles of music we both like to listen to. -Frankie
Gender outlaws strumming chords to tear down our AI culture hating warlords of the future? -Matte
Song X and Bad Girl both have very personal meanings for The FMs[1] [2] …Can you talk with us about your hopes in helping stamp out the stigma and wrongheadedness in society’s gender experience, in part, with this release?
Matte wrote the lyrics to “Bad Girl” and I wrote the lyrics to “Song X.” Each song has an independent meaning to both of us but is bridged by a common theme of dismantling the status quo of gender roles and identity. Unfortunately the stigma will still be there from close-minded individuals. Yet we want it to be known that there are people out there who don’t fit into this black and white narrative. We are those people. We have been here for ages. Only recently it’s become more of a mainstream topic. If we can help someone feel comfortable or seen by hearing these songs, then that’s all that matters. -Frankie
The FMs have been described as “glam-pop.” What does glam-pop mean to both of you?
When I think of glam rock, I think of Bowie, Iggy Pop, and Bryan Ferry — different artists who are not scared to get loud with their make-up, fashion and attitude. It has an edge, a bite that some might not always understand. -Frankie
I also sometimes feel the term “Glam” is used less in a musical sense though and sometimes as a bucket to throw any gender non-conforming music into. So I have mixed feelings about the term. David Bowie is the artist that most immediately comes to mind when folks think of glam. But, while I definitely consider David Bowie as both a musical and cultural hero of mine, I don’t feel our sound has much in common with Bowie’s “Glam rock” era. I deeply resonate with Bowie’s Berlin era, the Scary Monsters and Let’s Dance albums; Blackstar is also one of his finest works. Terms are a very delicate thing as they carry myriads of meanings for different people. As a music journalist I’m sure you run up against this issue on a daily basis. -Matte
You’re both native New Yorker’s. Can you speak to how those roots inform the music that you create?
The city itself is a piece of art. It inspires you and drives you. It’s a love/hate relationship. My experiences have impacted both my lyrical content and my way of playing guitar. We both lived through major events that happened in our beloved city. I grew up in Queens. So I understand the hustle. To continue to pursue a dream that at times makes you feel that you’re in an arms race. I think both of our passion translates into our music. -Frankie
The city is an ever changing beast and the environment we grew up in and the stories we cultivated are frozen in time for us to draw inspiration from. Worrying about getting arrested for smoking a blunt while riding my bike across the Manhattan bridge to band rehearsal as a 16-year-old, watching the sunset with my bass on my back blasting a newly released Type O Negative song I downloaded off Limewire for instance. Kissing my first boy on the steps of the Dakota where John Lennon was shot. The decades of my experiences in NYC; going to thousands of parties; meeting a hundred thousand people, almost somberly feel like an Atlantis at this moment in time. -Matte
Your music reminds me in the very best of ways of a lot of the music scene of the mid-to late 1960s; artists really had something substantive to say and expressed themselves so eloquently in that regard. Does that era resound for you when you’re thinking about or putting together new music?
I can definitely see that comparison. We are in an age of rebirth, realizing that we can and will do better. That certain views or commentary was passed down from antiquated ideology that has been the majority for too long. We are slowly waking up. We have a statement that won’t be silenced. -Frankie
The music video for Song X really hit home, especially because I don’t live too far from the Grant Wood American Gothic house here in Iowa. What was it like for both of you to shoot this remarkable visual piñata?
Rocky Horror Picture Show lives deep in the subconscious of any baby queers such as ourselves. I was thinking about how we came up with this idea and was like okay, that must have played a part because of that scene at the beginning where they also spoof it. I’m so proud of that image; it encapsulates our aura so perfectly. We really owe it to the genius of the photographer Matt Mahurin who truly created an arresting image and has done so for so many of our musical heroes in the past. The original American Gothic is such a subtle yet insidious reminder of the power the patriarchy has held over western civilization for millennia. When you really think about it, all we had to do was mess around with the gender roles in the image just a little bit to create something deeply and emotionally impactful. The fact we were able to do so so easily is a reminder that we have such a long way to go towards ridding our culture of toxic masculinity.
When Matt Mahurin suggested to use American Gothic as the motif for that shot, I was really excited. I tried to emulate that feeling of unrest that is seen in both the farmer and his daughter. We all can relate to that portrait: feeling downtrodden by a system that needs change. -Matte
What do you hope fans walk away with after listening to a song like Bad Girl?
“Bad Girl” is about the futility of adhering to a universal gold standard of “femininity” and us all having a fun little party once we can accept this fact and be free of this impossible pursuit. The song is meant to include cis women, trans women, and non-binary people. When I think of what could go wrong with how people perceive this song, I think of Bruce Springsteen and “Born In The USA.” That song was completely sarcastic and melancholic when you peel back just one layer, but of course the irony was totally lost on conservative America and they co-opted the song for their own jingoism. I’m clearly hoping something like that doesn’t happen here and people don’t think it’s some kind of sexual song Justin Timberlake might sing. -Matte
What is the secret origin of The FMs? How did the two of you get together?
Frankie’s best friend from middle school was my first-ever girlfriend. We also played in each other’s first band together. We have this long musical and personal connection to one another and have this bond over sharing some of the more formative years of our lives together. -Matte
How has the worldwide pandemic altered how The FMs tour? Has it been a big adjustment?
Oh yes! It’s been an incredible adjustment as it has been for us all. We’ve taken the time to focus on recording, making music videos and just reflecting on who we are and where we are going. We’re hoping to maybe do some secret forest shows this summer 😉 -Matte
Musically, who inspires you to be your best?
Wow so many!! These days we’ve been really into Mitski, Myth & Roid, St. Vincent, Trentemoller, Angel Olsen, Sharon Van Etten, The Killers, Tempers, The Black Angels, The Faint, IAMX, Warpaint, Perfume Genius, Charlotte Gainsbourg, Bendik, Ine Hoem, and then also collaborators like Miss Cherry Delight. -Matte
The rock world when at its most incendiary and heartfelt is rebellious by nature; is it your musical philosophy to always push the envelope and expand people’s perceptions?
This is a pretty heady question, but I think the best way I can answer it, is that I am just as happy to have someone bitterly hate our music as I am to have them love it. At least when they hate it, it’s also amusing. Is it possible for people to hate music that doesn’t have something interesting about it? I’m not sure. In a sense the whole purpose of art is to add to the conversation. If you’re not ruffling some feathers you’re probably not saying anything worth saying. -Matte
Can you drop us any hints as to when you will be dropping a full-length album?
This is a great question. We have mountains of recorded and unreleased music and sort of are following our management’s lead as to when and how we should release things. I can say that we will be releasing at least one more double single before releasing an album and that hopefully we will release a new album by the end of 2021. We really love the album format and believe albums are works of art, so are definitely really excited to do so. At least our fans can rest assured that if we died in a gardening accident tomorrow there would be plenty to release posthumously. -Matte
Final – SILLY! – Question: You’re both stranded on a deserted island: What’s the one album you have with you to while away the time while awaiting rescue, and why that specific album?
The Fragile by Nine Inch Nails is my favorite album of all time and funny enough, that person that was my first girlfriend and introduced Frankie and I actually turned me on to it originally. But that album is sort of holy to me, I only listen to it on special occasions and being on a beachy island doesn’t quite feel like the right vibe for me, so perhaps I’d choose Sublime’s 40 oz to Freedom. It’s really quite a diverse album and I think would keep me in high spirits while awaiting being rescued. -Matte
Help me stamp out people who fuck up our branding indeed!
