Ahead of 617 Day, a day in which WERS celebrates local talent and businesses, Web Service Coordinator, Fenton Wright, is sitting down with the artists performing to talk to them about what music and Boston means to them. Today we introduce you to Boston rock n roll band, Stop Calling Me Frank.
Terry: Yeah, we’re very excited and also very flattered and honored that WERS invited us to play for 617 Day. So we think it’s a big deal.
Fenton: I want to ask about kind of the inspiration for the band because I was listening to a lot of music, and it’s very saxophone heavy in a lot of parts. In a lot of rock bands you don’t usually get it. You might get in like certain albums where they have a decision to make. It’s very intentional. That’s across a lot of your music. So I wanted to kind of ask like where the inspiration for that came from?
Terry: Well that’s me, I play the saxophone! The band started out, you know, guys were 19 or 20 years old. It’s just a three piece punk rock band. And then, David saw them and said, “Oh, I’m joining this band.” So he became the bass player. And I met David independently of that. He and his friend are looking for a sax player for another project they were doing. And then many months after that, David said, “Why don’t you come down to a Stop Calling Me Frank practice?” And I said, okay. I thought, cool, I’ll just go down and jam with these guys.
I had never met them before, so I walked in and I started playing with them and they said, “Learn all these songs you’re playing in a couple of weeks.” So, that was fast. I was in the band. I said, “I gotta find a place for a saxophone in all these songs,” and only one song. Lenny said, “Okay, there’s no sax on this song.” That’s the only one.
And so that sort of became, by default, a way for our music to sound unique and separate from other, typical young guys playing punk rock music. There’s a saxophone in it. And ever since, anytime there’s new material written, I just think about what a horn line sounds like in this song.
Fenton: On the evolution there of not only your guys’s music, but also just like the Boston scene in general. How have you kind of seen it change over time? It still has a lot of that, like punk rock roots in it. It’s shifted more to like being a little bit more modern indie as opposed to like those classic DIY, like punk rock roots.
Terry: Yeah, well, we’ve been very fortunate since we got back together about ten years ago. Now we’re no longer, you know, young like the way you are now. If you can see yourself in the future and, you know, we’re all family men and we’ve been around, but we’re all still friends. And we also like to play music and some of the old songs. Yeah, they’re still fun to play. There’s a couple we just can’t play anymore because it’s just, you know, lyrically they’re just too immature.
So we made the decision, you know, let’s do it seriously this time from records. Let’s go to the recording studio and make some records. So that’s why we had the opportunity to try to push ourselves a little bit in terms of the sound, in terms of, songwriting, writing about slightly different things now.
We can play a fast two minute, three chord song, and that’s not a problem. Although we can’t play as fast as we used to! But what else? You know, what else can we write about?
And going to your other part of the question, back then, in the old days, man, there were so many places to play. There was so much live music because that was the thing. People went out to hear it. It was a lot cheaper to live in Boston, then you could find places to, you know, to squat and to crash, and little clubs popped up all over the place. So it was a very exciting time.
Fenton: You kind of touched on it maybe just a little bit when you mentioned sound, how would you kind of want to categorize your music if you want to?
Terry: It’s rock n roll! It’s fast, uptempo, fun, rock n roll. We don’t have any overt agenda. If you like it, dance to it. If you don’t like it, make fun of it. We don’t care.
Fenton: And, you know, I feel like that’s probably something that you’re seeing, maybe a little bit more of a return to in music nowadays. People I feel like for a while really cared about the public reception, to their music. But I feel like in the spaces I’m in, at least it’s kind of dialed it back a little bit, where it is kind of more of a, I guess for lack of a lack of sounding overtly artsy, it is just like creative expression.
Terry: I hope so. It’s not precious. This is what part of popular culture right now is to get a video that’s going to go viral. So you have to have some sort of visual appeal. Look, this band does not have any visual appeal. We’re just a bunch of old guys and we’re but we’re having fun. You got to see us live. Just see us jumping around on the stage, slamming into each other, stuff like that. That freak thing of the viral video is probably not going to happen. There are so many people who are trying to cultivate their “brand” and make themselves famous. We’re just trying to write some good songs.
And me personally, as a songwriter, I’m very determined to write a good song.I want my rhymes to be true rhymes. Not just near rhymes. I want the meter. I want things to scan right. That’s the challenge I set for myself.
Fenton: How would you kind of say Boston itself has shaped I mean, not only you guys, but just yourself in general? I know for a lot of people that is hardfast in our identities.
Terry: I mean, the band started, three Hyde Park friends. So that’s, you know, real down in Boston. I consider Boston my home base, even though I don’t live in Boston, but I was born in Boston if that counts for anything. But everything, I mean, my musical life, all my other careers have all pretty much been Boston centric, Boston based. I go to Boston for a lot of other different jobs.
You know, you go around other places in the country, in the world. People ask you where you’re from. You’re from Boston. And like I alluded to earlier, the scene where we came from, the rock n roll scene of the 80s, the underground punk rock, DIY era, it was just so exciting and vibrant. A lot of people were coming to Boston to make rock n roll music back then, and a lot of us are still around, still making the music. There are just fewer places to play, and it costs a lot more to get in.
Fenton: Did you have any, like, specific inspirations for your guys’s music? Anyone that you maybe look to?
Terry: Probably the usual suspects, the Ramones, the Fleshtones. A lot of the Boston bands that are on the scene back then. Bands like the Outlets or the Neats or Jerry’s Kids, Bands that Lenny and Eddie and Billy would either sneak into the clubs or go to the all ages shows to catch. If they can do it we can do it. Play. Pick up the guitar and make something up. That sort of thing.
For me, my background is a little bit different. A lot of the music that inspired me was much more varied. I’m inspired by bands with horns, you know, bands from the Memphis sound.
Fenton: I’m from Memphis!
Terry: Oh, no kidding. Really?
Fenton: Yeah. I’m here right now.
Terry: Wow! I’d love to go to Memphis because that’s the stuff that really got me all the stuff that came out of Stax. Those good, hooky songs with a nice, sweet horn and that’s the stuff I’m always trying to emulate.
Fenton: You’re the second person I’ve interviewed that’s mentioned Tennessee. I’m surprised a lot of people have mentioned Tennessee.
Terry: We’re musicians, man, we know about Tennessee things.
Fenton: Is there anything in particular you guys are looking forward to, or are you just looking forward to getting up there and being able to play music?
Terry: Look, I love playing music. I’m a performer, I love it. I’ll take any opportunity to get up and do something. We’ve played outdoors before. I love it. I’ll play outdoors, I’ll play indoors. I’ll play in a room that has a ceiling only five feet up there. I’ll crouch the whole time, I don’t care, it’s a big room. Six people in it? I don’t care, I’ll keep playing, I’ll give a good show.
Fenton: Is there anything that you want our listeners or readers to know I’m just going into the day, or just in general about you guys that I haven’t already asked or mentioned?
Terry: Just come up and say hello. We’re not trying to be snobby or hide or anything. We might be just shy. Just say hello. If you liked it, say hello. If you didn’t like it, say you didn’t like it, I don’t care.
Fenton: Thank you so much for this interview.
Terry: Thank you. Fenton, I appreciate it.
