A conversation with Frankie Cosmos
on going viral, the creative process, and being a woman in the music industry
Hello again loyal readers! This past spring, Frankie Cosmos— aka Greta Kline— came to perform at my university and I was lucky enough get to pick her brain for a bit (whilst trying not to fan-girl). We discussed the evolution of her music, her experience touring in a post-Covid environment, navigating being a woman in the music industry, and more! Please enjoy this transcription of our gab session :)))
As an artist who was already touring when you had a song blow up, how have you seen that change the demographic of your fanbase and your audiences on tour?
FC: What’s weird is that fool blew up while we were on pause from touring, because it was more of a pandemic time. The pause from the tour extended past a lot of other bands from covid. This year it’s very clear that a lot of people are there just to hear “Fool” and I’ve never had a song like that before, where it’s like, everyone’s waiting for you to play that one. But I think I also just experience music and shows in general differently now. People aren’t just going to a show to hang out– you have to really like the band. I actually feel like our audience is a lot more interested in seeing the show in a post-covid touring environment… You have to really wanna go to a show– I go to a lot less shows now. I think a lot of people do. It’s definitely weird, and it’s kinda changed my motivation to tour because now I have this other income source without having to tour, so now touring can just kind of be another thing.
I’m sure you’re recording a ton and have a lot of music in the vault, so I’m wondering how you decide what to finish and put out versus what you leave on the cutting room floor.
FC: Right now I have a notes app with like my 75 most recent memos and I’ve been organizing it, trying to get it down to like 40. Then I’ll send those to my band mates to see what speaks to them and they’ll be like, this is a cool one let’s work on this. I was kinda hesitant about it and not pressing send, and the other day we had a practice for another thing and then that thing got canceled so we didn’t have anything to practice, so on the way to practice i just texted them like 4 of those songs randomly and we ended up finishing two songs during the day, so sometimes stuff just kinda happens, like, yeah we’ll do that one today. It’s exciting. From my own process of cutting down material it’s like, if something’s stuck in my head six months after I wrote it I’m like oh maybe that one’s good.
What do you look for in a producer and how would you characterize the sound of your music?
FC: Producer is a really tough word for me. I think when I say producer people are often confused by what I mean because we always arrange everything as a band before we even go in to record, so the producer is, at most, contributing something maybe about like the tone of the guitar or the amp, but they’re not writing any parts. I think a lot of the time when a woman says “producer” someone will think, oh so that guy probably wrote the song. There’s a lot of times when that gets misconstrued. I usually give all my bandmates production credit as well, and the producer is more like an engineer or a co-engineer with us. So i think i’m always looking for someone that’s willing to let me be in charge and listen to us, so sometimes we’ll be picky, like, I don’t like that snare sound and the producer will be like let’s mic it with this mic, and we’re like, we like it this way, and hopefully you get a person who can really figure out how to do that. A really good mixer or engineer is someone who can hear you say a random adjective that doesn’t exist in the sound world, and they can apply it to the music. I make demos of every single song i write and I’ve been doing that since I was a kid, I’ve definitely gotten better at doing that stuff, but sometimes i think that if i were more confident, or a certain kind of person i’d just be like, yeah this is a record, and hand it in. No shade to like Alex G, or someone like that, but I’m like, that guy’s calling it a record and I’m calling it a demo, and I have to go pay someone to record it because I'm a shy girl or whatever. At the same time, when I record vocals at home I'm like there’s no way I can queue this to make it sound like what I want.
What time of day and in what setting are you most creative?
FC: Late at night, right at midnight I wake up and I’m like let’s go. So many ideas.
Do you prefer touring or being in the studio recording?
FC: I love being in the studio but in the course of my life I've spent so little time in the studio because you're paying by the day when you're there so we just make records really fast. My dream for the next record is to set up a studio at home so we don’t have to pay for a studio. Making a record is so fun, it’s like playing a game, a long game. I think studio. It’s more precious and fleeting.
What was your favorite album of 2023?
FC: I want to say Katie Von Shleicher, “A Little Touch of Schleicher in the Night”, she’s my bandmate-- she made a great record.
How do you feel like being raised in NYC influenced your music and style?
FC: I feel like the big thing that i realized is I sing really quietly because I grew up in an apartment. I grew up singing in my room doing whisper vocals and so now I have a quiet voice because I was always afraid my neighbors could hear me.