Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Frankie Rose's surprising flirtation with musical theater

I have been enjoying Herein Wild, the third solo album from ex-Dum Dum Girl Frankie Rose, which, like last year's Interstellar leaves the punk edges pretty much behind and ventures into swirling, shoe-gazey atmospherics, more like Mazzy Star than L7. It's out September 24 on Fat Possum.



It's a sleek, polished kind of rock record, but still it kind of surprised me that Miss Frankie Rose grew up in musical theater geekdom. Says Billboard:

With stints with bands like the Vivian Girls and Dum Dum Girls, Rose possesses a predominantly punk/indie fanbase, though the roots of her stagecraft lie in a very different place – musical theatre. The singer/songwriter attended Los Angeles’ Orange County High School of the Arts, where she played the lead role in “Annie” no less than four times, and her classmates included “Glee’s” Matthew Morrison and actress Taryn Manning.

“I kind of got kicked out of the arts program I was in,” Rose remembers. “I just didn't like it. I thought it was corny. As I got older, I didn't want to do musical theater.” Soon after, she found that punk rock was what truly empowered her as a performer. “It all changed. I was like, ooh, I can play the drums! I can play guitar! If there had been a rock camp for girls, or a rock camp at all, I probably would have begged my mother to put me in.”

Strange world, isn't it?

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