The Franklys: An interview with Nicole Pinto and Zoe Biggs

The Franklys are a four-piece rock ‘n’ roll band based in London, who hail from home, the US and Sweden. Melodic, fiesty and an “assault on the senses”, these girls are an assertive bunch grabbing rock by the hair and dragging it firmly into the 21^st century.

How did you guys start the band?

Zoe and Nicole: We all met two years ago at a party here in London and discussed being in a band and jamming. When we finally got together we just jammed and instantly it clicked with us. We weren’t trying to do something crazy or had an idea of what we wanted to sound like – it just felt right.

With that said, who are some of your influences and in your opinion what would you say you sound like?

N: Well, all four of us love all different types of music – that is what makes our sound unique. I love Led Zeppelin/John Bonham for the drumming, 90s rock like Stone Temple Pilots, Smashing Pumpkins, progressive rock, Queens of the Stone Age and all that stuff.
Z: I was big into punk so I love bands like blink-182, Joan Jett, The Runaways and Toys Temples. Jen and Fanny (the other members) like bands such as the Beach Boys, Fleetwood Mac, Arctic Monkeys and Jack White.

It seems like you have a diverse collection of influences. It must certainly cause a lot of creative difference. Does that affect the music writing process or do you guys write collectively?

Z and N: Because we all have different tastes and influences, it certainly does make it a bit chaotic at times, but we all use our ideas and sort of meet in the middle. We all write the music together as a band, whether one of us comes in with a riff or something and we jam it out and see where it goes, to even someone coming in with a concept, we all work together to create something that becomes much bigger than we anticipated. We are usually left satisfied!

That’s incredible, something most bands don’t focus on trying to do: creating their own voice. With that said, then, what’s the future of The Franklys sound-wise?

N: We want to explore the more progressive side of our music now, and write more conceptual and complex songs. Zoe and I (being the rhythm section) don’t necessarily focus on specific time signatures – rather, we just think chaotically. We want to add that element to our music for the future. 

Joe Hoffman

Puppet is released digitally on 7^th April 2014. For further information and future events visit The Franklys’ website here.

Read our review of The Franklys’ live show here.