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FRANKENBOK
An Interview with Bassist Tim Miedecke
by Joe Matera
Words like "fresh" or "original" or "exciting" are inevitably bandied about when a new band comes on the scene. Most of the time, such words are
inapplicable. In the case of Melbourne five-piece Frankenbok, however, they can be applied with a clear conscience. There's nothing quite like Frankenbok - seriously catchy, not to mention brutal-as-hell, riffs,
nitro-glycerine-fuelled live shows, a vocalist who rivals Mike Patton (Faith No More) in the versatility stakes, and, above all, a fun and edgy sense of humour that distinguishes them from virtually every heavy band
on the scene. Now, with the release of "The Loopholes & Great Excuses EP", Frankenbok are set to assert their authority on a national scale as one of the country's most innovative heavy bands.
MAXIMUM INK: What's the band's background?
TIM MIEDECKE: It all started when Aaron (Butler, guitarist) was overseas in 1995-96 and he wrote some songs with his drum machine and everything. When he
came back to Australia in early '97, he played it to Adam "Hutch" Glynn (vocalist) and myself and Hutch said "man, we should do this, lets do some of these songs!". Hutch was keen to write words and
everything and we said "what about a drummer, we'll never find someone to play this!", but we said "hell, lets use a drum machine till we find somebody". And that's how it all began. I came
onboard playing bass, then a few months later we got Scottie (Lang) on guitar also. So we got together and recorded the album "Greetings And Salutations" at Back Beach studio's and about half way through
that we met Mick Morley, our drummer who had come to some of our shows and expressed interest in joining. So we said "cool man, here's our CD take it and learn it!". Ironically, he lived across the road
from Aaron in Cranbourne for many years! And Aaron went all across the globe to find the perfect drummer and perfect band, and this guy was living across the street the whole time!, but that's another story. Anyway,
Mick turned up to practice a couple of months later and he blew us away. He had spent the whole time learning everything! So then we started to play live, and everything started coming together live as opposed to
playing with a drum machine. This time you had a full live band and everything came togehter better and people reacted to it better. Then we got "Greetings And Salutations" out and then hooked up with the
Dark Carnival people over the course of last year and got it all happeneing in November and went into to record a bunch of new songs we'd written and here we are today, and the rest is history. It's all gotten
bigger and better.
MI: You guy's got spotted by Jon Satterly (managing director of Dark Carnival and Roadrunner Records) at Melbourne's Punter's Club?
TM: Yeah he saw us with Dreadnaught about a year ago and he gave Aaron a business card and Aaron was like "I spoke to Jon from Dark Carnival man,
and he's given us his card and everything". So the next few months we investigated this whole Dark Carnival business and talked to Dreadnaught and everything and I'm sure Jon was checking us out at a few shows
and things and eventually it was like, "lets talk turkey, lets get serious". We thought this is a golden opportunity and we've got to seize upon it and we believe we are a good band, but to have
someone else say "we want to put some faith and money into you", its like, we're flattered and we are so touched. If anything it makes us work harder because we know these people are putting alot of faith in us
and so we're not going to just sit around in the lounge room having bongs! Everyday there is something to do and if any one in the Frankenbok camp is not doing their job properly, they'll get their arses kicked for
it, cause our livelihood depends on it and it also means alot to us.
MI: What was the recording process like for your new "The Loopholes And Great Excuses EP"?
TM: We went into the studio and said to D.W (Norton, Engineer) "how we're going to do this?", and he said "lets do it live since you guys play live, so
thats the best way". So he set us all up, you know guitars, drums and bass and we just started playing and we just ripped through it. We expected to spend a few days, but by the second day we had all the basic
tracks laid so it put us ahead of schedule. Then Hutch came in to do the singing and he did it all in a day. So thats when we thought "hey we got more time lets do this 'Don't Call me Baby' thing along with "The
Virtue Of Angels", which wasn't originally going to be on it, and which D.W said "that's a stand out track!", because he heard the demos and suggested we should do that one too. We did more than we expected and from
then on it was like band camp. We spent a better part of a week down there and it was a lot of fun and it was all about the music.
MI: Do you think the time Aaron spent in Florida, amongst the death metal scene, played a major influence on Frankenbok?
TM: Definitely! He was befriended by a lot of people like Monstrosity, Cannibal Corpse and what not and we met the Morbid Angel guys, and that
illustrated to him how professional you've got to be and how you can't settle for less. Because in Melbourne, its a rat race of bands, great bands and great musicians trying to make it and get some where. So its
very competitive, not that its a bad thing, it sort of pushes each band to new levels of intensity and professionalism, but by the same token you can't just go out there with a slap dash band and expect to have
people loving it. You really got to put in the extra work and that was something he brought home from Florida, that we could go all the way, not do it half -assed, because nobody will care. There's so many other
options for the punter if you want to go and see a band. Any given night there's so many different bands and you got to have something special to drag people to your shows. Who wants to spend their $10 at a gig and
walk away from a gig going "that was shit". They want to get something for their money.
MI: So you mentioned earlier about your version of Madison Avenue's "Don't Call Me Baby"?
TM: That song was recorded at the same studios where we were and it was being mixed while we were there recording and the engineer was telling us about
Madison Avenue and how this song was going to be the best thing since sliced bread and how it was a great dance song and everything. So we were like "yeah, yeah whatever, meanwhile lets do some Frankenbok". But when
it came out it was on the tv, it was on the radio, it was everywhere so we thought, would'nt it be funny if we did that song. We said to D.W "we should do that man". And he replied "oh yeah, you play it and we'll
record it and we'll hear it on the radio man….and it'll be huge!". Besides that, when people come to a Frankenbok show, maybe they heard its something special, that they're going to get something different,
especially if your not into metal and you've heard the "Don't Call Me Baby" track and your not into it musically because you favour bands like say U2, well you can still get something out of our version of that
song. They're going to turn up to our shows, and let alone, we're not necessarily going to play Madison Avenue or Shania Twain, we're going to play all the Frankenbok songs, so they're going to be exposed to that
and I think they'll walk away going "heavymetal's not so bad, I thought it was all satanism and blood and guts, shit its actually pretty good intelligent stuff". Next you know they're buying Sepultura or Pungent
Stench or whatever. It'll open up a whole new world. That's the thing about "Don't Call Me Baby", it will hopefully open a few doors to us that we would'nt usually be invited into, because the nature of our music is
very heavy and it is the real alternative metal. There's a whole world of other music especially local stuff which I think is on par with any international music which people just don't know exists. They need to be
educated about it.
MI: What's the rest of the year have instore for you guys?
TM: Plenty of stuff. Gigs,gigs and more gigs with some interstate stuff, a upcoming tour with Dreadnaught in July and hopefully by the end of the year
we'll be able to go back into the studio because we have a whole bunch of new songs and even go back to the Frankenbok back catalog, stuff that was demoed way back when, thats still good and which we can rework.
MI: Any final words you would like to add?
TM: Thanks for your support and everyone's support. We're flattered that people take such an interest, you know, want to put in a good word for us or
come to our shows, cause we think thats dynamite!. We don't take it all for granted. We appreciate every second. We wake up with smiles on our faces because of it.
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