New York, NY (Top40 Charts/ Green Light Go) A combination of wanderlust and frenetic energy, The Anatomy of Frank are on the path to record an album on all seven continents on earth. Yes, this includes the uninhabitable Antarctica, where a rock album has never before been recorded. Lead singer Kyle Woolard says, "Albums like
Black Paris 86 by Arms and Sleepers, among others, have been almost solely responsible for me going completely stir-crazy and buying an expensive plane ticket. I dream of places when I hear the music, and stories begin to form in my head."
Their debut album, Pangaea, which combines atmospheric post-rock builds with catchy hooks (to arrive at the genre "post-pop"), was recorded in their hometown of Charlottesville, Virginia with producer Lance Brenner. It has already landed them tours across Iceland, Britain, mainland Europe, and North America, including most of the 50 states. Pangaea introduces a prelude to their continent saga: after all, it was the ancient supercontinent that predated all of the continents breaking apart. It represents separation, starting off sweetly and dealing with love, and ending with brooding, sprawling epics about distance. "I have been very inspired by wanderlust, particularly for places like Antarctica, Iceland, northern Canada, and other places like Sri Lanka and India."
When Woolard was in high school, he holed himself away for several weeks and wrote songs about Sri Lanka. A strange memoir book called "Running in the Family" by Michael Ondaatje inspired him to do so, and he became obsessed with everything about the tiny island country. Just as he had planned his trip, however, genocide and war broke out, and his travels did not take him farther south than India. "I still get pangs in my heart when Sri Lanka is mentioned, because it feels like a missing piece of my childhood."
In Woolard's second year at The University of Virginia, the dorm he lived in shut down for Christmas break. There was no heat, and everyone was gone because all of the students went home and weren't allowed to stay in the dorm. He hid out and stayed for two weeks to experience what it was like to be very cold and very alone. In those two weeks, he wrote the entirety of the Antarctica album. "I kept the lights out for most of the time too, to see what it felt like to live in darkness."
Although a full album is written, Antarctica presents a unique obstacle to the recording process. It is a continent that has no permanent inhabitants, is accessible only through scientific research, and is incredibly dangerous and inhospitable to human life. However, Woolard majored in astrophysics, and combined with his connections in that field and his affection for accomplishing the unlikely, the door could be unlocked. "I'm not sure how it will happen," says Woolard, "but I will make it happen."
Once the band, which includes Erik Larsen (guitars/vocals), Jimmy Bullis (keyboards/vocals), Jonas Creason (bass), and Chris Garay (drums) began touring, the North
America album began to come together. In fact, they currently have three albums' worth of material for it, and now must size it down to a manageable figure. Each continent has inspired a different mood for the band: North
America has spawned a sprawling collection of songs, full of lengthy epics and nuanced post-rock.
Europe and South
America have their own stories, too. "It is in no way going to be a reflection of the music of the place," says Woolard. "We're not going to make salsa music for South America, or tribal drum music for Africa. That would feel fake. It's merely a reflection of the feeling the place instills in us, whether it's from dreaming about it, knowing the story of someone living there, or actually going there ourselves."
Each band member provides their own unique relationship with the world: Garay retreated to Brazil for a month to study percussion, Larsen spent time in Russia during high school, Bullis is part
Latino and visits family in South
America and Europe, and Creason grew up on the opposite side of the continent. The quintet shows its respect for fans all over the world by surprising them with strange concerts: they have performed in a defunct grain elevator in northern British Columbia, a house show in the woods of Alaska, a tiny art gallery in the Arctic fjords of Iceland, and on the roof of a skyscraper in Minneapolis.
This is how the band absorbs inspiration for their music. This is how they plan to meet the world, one continent at a time. Each album will have its own personality-though no one knows yet what that personality will be-and they intend to not question why that is, but to just run with it.
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Praise for The Anatomy of Frank
"A remarkable feat of musicianship." - Jacob Wolf - Nailgun Media (Virginia)
"Captivating...engaging yet slightly bizarre." - Pete's
Music Blog (Australia)
"Dramatic dynamic shifts cram countless different feelings into each track... The intense level of care and intention necessary in making an album like Pangaea is apparent." - Muhamad
Khalid - The Declaration (Virginia)
"These guys are a must see. Dynamic, sincere, entertaining, captivating, and upbeat. I'll just come out and say it, they were my favorite." -
Simon Anderson - Dance or Die; Listen or Lose
"The Anatomy of Frank blend the complexity of post-rock with the immediate likability of pop-rock to create music that will get stuck in your head without ever driving you crazy." - Pretty Much Amazing
