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 Channel 4's Totally Frank documents the life of a fictional
band as they try and hit the big time. Fiction is about to become reality as
the four-piece are about to release their debut album Devil's Got Your Gold. UK Music spoke to the girls to find out more...
Hi, how are you?
Hayley Angel Wardel (Neve)-
Drummer: Good thanks! We just each got a copy of our album! We've just seen it this very minute.
So you feel like
proper pop stars then?!
Yeah we do. It's very exciting, with pictures and
everything, it's all very professional!
Of course in the show
you're acting being in a band...
It was a bit mad when we did the TV show. I acted - and that was my
job before this as well as being in bands and stuff, but this was my paying
job, so when we did the TV show I thought that was going to be the pinnacle,
like ‘Oh my god, just to be one of the leads in the show'.And the storylines as well, not even just guest appearing, and then it being ‘be the
girlfriend and give the man the funny lines', we actually got stuff ourselves
and they gave us then funny lines. Then
when we finished the show, when that finished, when went into the music side
and recorded the album. That has been equally amazing, just something
different. We did Wembley Arena, we did
all the big arenas with Girls Aloud and that was just incredible.
How do you separate
being an actress and being in a real band?
Helena Dowling (Flo)-
Keyboardist: In the show is all
fictional that was the acting part that we did to maintain Totally Frank the
series. Being in the band is just amazing
at the moment because all the stuff that we did on the show has kinda been and
gone and now it really feels like we're getting to grips with being a musician
and performing. You just can't beat that feeling that you get when you're on
stage, it's just incredible. We just played Party In The Park this weekend and
70,000 there, it was amazing.
How true to life is
the show though?
I think the show highlights a lot of issues that bands will
go through, like trying to get A & R people to support them and we bring
that kind of issue top the table. Not having any money and wanting to be
together to rehearse all those hardships bands go through to get a music
contract. Luckily for us we didn't have that because when we signed the
contract we did get a music contract with it as well. We haven't had to experience that kind of
thing, but I think the show does give a fair representation of what it's like.
Wha have been the perks of
the job so far?
Lauren Blake (Tasha)
- lead singer: That would have to be performing because I love getting up
on stage and performing. And the freebies that you get, and some of the lovely
things we get invited to!
What was it like
touring with Girls Aloud?
Girls Aloud were just amazing, and it being our first time
gigging everyone seeing us. We were getting to do arenas not like dingy little
clubs with like two people, so that was amazing and playing Wembley Arena as
well, because everyone has played there.
Are you glad to have
skipped that stage where you're playing these small, tiny clubs?
Definitely because I was in a band beforehand and I've done
gigs where I've actually been booed and swore at, but at the end of the day
you've just got to carry on, you can't give up. Also, one of our pre gigs, we
did one at the Compton in Notting Hill and that was really, really hard because
our stage act was quite energetic and our songs are upbeat and some of the
other acts that were playing there that night were mellower and they had just a
harmonica and a guitar whilst we're a full band and stuff. The room was small and small and so was the
stage so you couldn't really do your whole thing because it was only quite
small. It was amazing but it was a bit intimidating and nerve wracking as well.
So Bryony apparently
you're the ‘serious' musician and you write your own songs?
Bryony Afferson
(Charlie) - guitarist: I do, yeah. I started getting into songwriting when
I was 12 really not that anything's that good back then! I really got into it when I was at Uni, on
the guitar and the piano. I've been writing my stuff for years, but I'm still
developing everything.
How was recording the
album?
It was in between the first and the second series that we
really got stuck into it. We were all involved in the songwriting as well, but
it was fantastic for me personally because Brian Higgins is such a phenomenal
pop writer - he's got such a legacy behind him.
So being involved with him and to find out what it's like to work in that
sort of situation was mind blowing.
What's the future for
Frank? Will you continue to do the show along side being in a band?
I don't know. We're all hoping we get another TV series out
of it because we'd all be acting and everything. But it depends on how the
music goes and to be honest we're flinging ourselves music and trying hard to
get this off the ground and then whatever comes from that is brilliant.
Finally, can you
share some showbiz gossip with us?
We went to a Channel 4 party where they were all celebrating
themselves basically, so there were loads of comedians there like Justin and
Alan Carr off the Friday Night Project and of course there free booze so
everyone was just off their faces dancing and falling all over each other! I
don't have any specific gossip, but it's definitely another world out there....
Their single I'm Not
Shy is out on the 31 July followed by the album Devil's Got Your Gold a week
after.
Words: Helen Duong
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